Do You Want To Get Ahead In Administration?
Behind every business success you can trace the work of strong and proficient administrators. They deal with interesting and often challenging workloads, and are expected to be multi-skilled.
You might be looking at clerical work for the first time. You may want some refresher training having been out of the industry for a while. Or are you progressing well in your career and want to add extra skills to your CV? You'll discover a full range of retraining courses when you start to surf around the internet.
First And Foremost - Enrol On A Microsoft Training Course...
Clerical work can start with the office junior, and build up to the professional administrator. Excellent keyboard skills and knowledge of various user programs will be vital. Therefore you'll need to show you can use various packages such as Word and Excel, and handle emails professionally.
Do you need to fine-tune these skills? You're not alone - but there's lots of training choices for basic to intermediary computer user skills. Investigate what the different training companies can offer you.
Have a look for example at how two or three that are featured here might vary on price, delivery of teaching and certifications offered. By entering Ctrl D you can Bookmark pages that you'd like to easily find again.
In addition to good PC knowledge, anyone entering an office environment will need to develop other administrative competencies. Short courses are available at beginner level in a variety of subjects that are useful to the junior administrator.
Further Advancement
To keep up to date with the latest thinking, consider further up-grading your skills on a regular basis. Any training you do that adds value to the department you're working in will be seen as a plus. Learning how to prioritise and compartmentalise your work will pay dividends, especially when your time is divided between a number of managers. Your ability to write well will also be tested more as you move up the career ladder. A short course teaching you how to present your work more concisely will be well worth the investment.
Practice Makes Perfect...
People in high office require highly talented and skilled Personal Assistants to manage many of their affairs. If this type of work appeals to you, you must be prepared to offer more than most.
To become indispensible you have to have something that most others don't have. Add extra skill-sets alongside the standard clerical options, and study hard to get distinctions. If you can deal smoothly and efficiently with a broad range of tasks your salary and value to a company will reflect that.
"A person who aims at nothing is sure to hit it." - Anon.
Additional Progress
On-going advanced studies should be considered a pre-requisite for the ambitious administrator. Look at some of the course categories below to get a feel for where you may need to improve:
Stress-Busting Scenarios
Study proven systems for handling on-going pressure and working to tight deadlines. Gain more knowledge on how to resolve problems that repeatedly occur, and thus save hours of un-productive time.
Productivity Plus
Find out how to compartmentalise your time. Learn organisational procedures and follow-through processes. Furnish yourself with tools for prioritising and delegating work, and for assessing when not to accept certain assignments.
Handling Difficult People
Get involved in practical, hands-on exercises for managing difficult customers and work colleagues. Discover how to get outstanding rapport and co-operation between staff members and clients. Master the win-win situation.
Great Communication Skills
Learn specific methods to radically improve your presentation techniques to small groups and large audiences. Understand how to tune-in to what other people really want from you. Project yourself professionally and confidently. Adopt a better style of written communication.
In addition, you could become a specialist in one particular field. You'll find a wealth of commercial courses and certifications are on offer, such as: Law, Finance, Systems, HR etc.
Those Who Procrastinate Achieve Nothing
Perfect careers don't find you - you have to seek them out for yourself! Whatever your ambition level, if you're well organised, can take instruction and be left to deal with it, and have a confident and pro-active work ethic, you'll sit very comfortably in an administrative role. Relish the learning process, look to add value everywhere and most of all enjoy the journey!
