Career Summary

Career Choice: Administrative Assistant

Description of Career: Administrative assistant duties revolve around managing and distributing information
within an office. This generally includes answering phones, taking memos, and maintaining files.

Skills and Requirements: In order to get into this job you will need a High School Diploma or equivalent
Technology Skills. An administrative assistant works with office software programs, including
spreadsheets, databases, word processing and graphic presentation software.
Communication Skills
Organizational Ability
Written Expression
Time Management
Technical Oversight
Management
Problem-Solving Skills

Future Job Outlook: The Job Outlook is at 3% for 2014-2024 which is slower than average. The three
percent is about 118,800 in employees.

Career-Related Education: High school graduates can take courses in word processing and office procedures
at technical schools or community colleges. Some temporary placement agencies also provide training in word
processing, spreadsheet, and database software.
Some medical and legal secretaries learn industry-specific terminology and practices by attending courses
offered at community colleges or technical schools. For executive secretary positions, employers increasingly
prefer to hire those who have taken some college courses or have a bachelors degree.

Training: Secretaries and administrative assistants typically learn their skills through short-term on-the-job
training, usually lasting a few weeks. During this time they learn about administrative procedures, including
how to prepare documents. Medical and legal secretaries training may last several months as they learn
industry-specific terminology and practices.

Work Experience in a Related Occupation: Executive secretaries can gain experience by working in
administrative positions that have less challenging responsibilities. Many secretaries and administrative
assistants advance to higher level administrative positions.

Licenses, Certifications, and Registrations: Although not required, certification can demonstrate competency
to employers. The International Association of Administrative Professionals offers the Certified Administrative
Professional (CAP) certification. Candidates must have a minimum of 2 to 4 years of administrative work
experience, depending on their level of education, and pass an examination. Legal secretaries have several
certification options. For example, those with 1 year of general office experience, or who have completed an
approved training course, can acquire the Accredited Legal Professional (ALP) certification through a testing
process administered by NALS (previously known as National Association of Legal Secretaries). NALS also
offers the Professional Legal Secretary (PLS) certification, considered to be an advanced certification for legal
support professionals.The Certified Legal Secretary Specialist (CLSS) certification is conferred by Legal
Secretaries International in areas such as intellectual property, criminal law, civil litigation, probate, and
business law. Candidates typically need to have 5 years of legal experience and pass an examination to become
certified.