Learn General Office Skills for a Rewarding Career

Office work is a rewarding job with great responsibility. There is always high demand for administrative and office workers. Office work is a sector in itself and includes many different roles, which may vary slightly from office to office, with common underlying clerical or administrative duties.

Clerical or office assistants have a numerous variety of tasks to perform as well as provide support to staff members and other employees. Though no formal education is required to work as an administrative assistant, working in an office can require some very specific skills to complete delegated tasks competently.

The responsibilities of an administrative or clerical assistant are not just restricted to typing, filing, or answering phones. Although it is difficult to list all the duties of an administrative assistant, some of the general responsibilities include answering phones, which can range anywhere from answering customer questions, dealing with corporate headquarters, or having to calm infuriated customers. Administrative assistants can also be responsible for scheduling appointments, both with external clients as well as internally.

Clerical assistants require great communication skills in order to communicate with people working in varied office environments, including upper level management, and other general office workers. Good communication is also required for organizing, writing, and sending correspondence, be it writing a newsletter or letters to clients. Successful assistants have excellent listening skills and are adept at teamwork.

Another important responsibility of an administrative assistant is preparing and writing documents, ranging anywhere from tracking the attendance of employees to creating a detailed report on the company's annual results by using varying amounts of financial information. Knowledge of popular software such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and other presentation software is increasingly becoming a useful skill to acquire.

Administration and clerical assistants need to have great organizational skills, required for the smooth running of an enterprise or office. From organizing your computer desktop, filing, ordering the correct office supplies, to managing customers, an administrative or clerical assistant should remain organized at all times.