Career Advice on How to Become an Executive Secretary or Administrative AssistantGeneral Career Information |
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The secretary may often be looked at as the all-purpose office grunt, but the reality of the situation is that the secretary often holds a great deal of information at her or his fingertips. The secretary does know where the bodies are buried, often quite literally. Not only does the humble secretary often know where the bodies are buried, but she knows who put them there, how, at what time, and she knows where the backup copies of the execution orders are kept.
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Career Facts: |
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Secretaries and administrative assistants help keep the wheels from flying off the preverbal cart. Its one thing for corporate executives to make big plans and sweeping decrees, and quite another to carry those order out. Secretaries and administrative assistants help carry out those marching orders. They achieve this, in part, by keeping the infrastructure of a business alive and well.
They move information around companies and between employees, make sure that office equipment is up and running, answer calls, take messages, arrange meetings with clients, send out emails, snoop on the enemies of the boss, help the boss dodge his wife, order supplies and occasionally procure prostitutes for important business clients. If only the last one was a joke, what a beautiful world it would be.
The bottom line is that the secretary and administrative assistant is counted on and relied upon to execute a wide variety of tasks. Often these employees are not truly valued by a company until they leave and everyone asks, “where is X,Y or Z?” And no one knows. |
Career Opportunities and Job Outlook-Fair: |
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Some secretaries and administrative assistants might “graduate” to become executive secretaries, where they work for top-level executives. They perform most of the tasks that they once performed as secretaries, but now there is more money involved, larger egos, more prostitutes, and they know where even more bodies are buried.
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A Day in The Life: |
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This career will vary greatly depending on the company and the work environment. The secretary at a four person auto repair shop will have a vastly different experience from the executive secretary helping a top level executive steal millions of dollars from investors (hypothetically, of course). But there are some core elements that will remain the same, namely organization. The secretary and administrative assistant are largely tapped to make sure that the “gears of the machine” run smoothly.
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Average Salary: |
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So what does a keeper of company secrets make these days anyway? The average secretary can expect to earn about $27,500. The top ten-percent can expect to see around $41,500.
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$27k - $40k |
Career Training and Qualifications: |
| Often a high-school diploma is all that is required for being the glue that holds an office together. Usually, a great deal of on the job training occurs as well. It is not uncommon for executive secretaries to hold college degrees. |
