What Does an Administrative Assistant Do?
‘Administrative Assistant’ is a position that is employed in almost every workplace, yet semantically it can seem rather vague. Effectively, the title means ‘someone who helps with running a business’. While this is indeed true, unless you actually are an administrative assistant, the daily rundown of what the job title entails may not be very clear. What exactly does an administrative assistant do?
Administrative professionals wear a number of different hats every day, and are rarely doing the same thing over and over. The title is sometimes interchanged with ‘secretary’ or ‘receptionist’, although the first is considered somewhat outdated, while the second is considered inaccurate. The functions of an administrative assistant has changed over the past several years and continues to change over time, largely due to advancements in technology.
If you are someone who enjoys varied, challenging work, then this could be a career path to consider. Almost every industry requires administrative professionals to keep operations in order. A large concentration of these types of workers exist in schools, hospitals and legal offices. Entry-level administrative roles don’t often require much direct experience (if any), and are a great launch pad for a number of other opportunities. Honing your skills as an assistant could open doors to a variety of other positions somewhere down the road, so it’s worth looking into!
What are the main duties of an administrative assistant?
The job of an administrative assistant is an umbrella term for someone who performs various jobs and duties around an office setting. While it doesn’t sound like a wildly complicated role, these employees are absolutely crucial to keeping a workplace running smoothly. There is no exhaustive, universal list of duties or responsibilities of an administrative assistant that can be neatly summarized, but we have outlined the ones that are common among most roles. In an average day, an administrative assistant will perform a variety of tasks, such as:
- Planning and scheduling meetings with and for coworkers
- Handling phone calls, emails, and other forms of communication for the workplace
- Ordering and maintaining office supplies
- Creating and reviewing office documents
- Taking minutes during meetings
Of course, the specific needs of a workplace, and the responsibilities that administrative assistants will have to undertake, will vary from one place to another. Other duties may include basic bookkeeping, cleaning, upkeeping databases and so on, depending on the industry in question.
What skills should an administrative assistant have?
There are a certain group of skills or traits that someone should have to ensure their success as an administrative assistant. Fundamentally, administrative assistants are responsible for a lot of different people and a lot of different things. The nature of the role is rooted in staying on top of several varied tasks and juggling priorities that can change at the drop of a hat, so having the ability to multi-task should be at the top of every aspiring admin professional’s checklist. Being highly organized and having killer time-management skills are also extremely important.
Because administrative professionals often act as the first point of contact that the company has with external parties, a high level of personability and enthusiasm goes hand-in-hand with the role. They also must be able to remain calm under pressure and be great at creative problem-solving on the fly. All of these traits wrapped into one will make for a great administrative assistant.
Why should I become an administrative assistant?
Working in this type of role does not limit you to being an assistant forever. In fact, they open the door to a number of different opportunities, and the skills you learn in these positions can be thoughtfully applied to countless other jobs. Doing everything gives you the chance to explore everything! There is usually huge potential for upward mobility after gaining additional experience, both internally and externally. In time, a natural progression for someone in this type of role is to go from assistant to manager – a promotion which for many provides a wealth of workplace satisfaction.
Working as an administrative assistant also gives insight into working in an office setting if you are not quite sure what career path you want to take. One expert describes the position as ‘an excellent choice for generalists’; it allows you to try a variety of things without really narrowing in on one job function. It is not unusual for someone to take their administrative experience, focus on one of the facets that they most enjoyed and pursue it as their full-time career.
Are you looking for a great administrative assistant role? Dunhill regularly recruits for these types of positions, such as this one in Charleston, or this one in Chicago! Click here to discover a role that is perfect for you.
