What is an Administrative Assistant?

Administrative Assistants are like Executive Secretaries. They perform a variety of functions in their role as executive support staff. In addition to basic secretarial duties, they are often responsible for ordering office supplies, scheduling work, planning meetings, taking minutes, making travel arrangements, taking dictation, transcription, and composing formal correspondence and reports. An administrative assistant career is a good fit for those interested in organizing offices, helping others, creating documents, typing, or talking on the telephone. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were about 4 million administrative assistants in 2010, making it one of the largest U.S. occupations. Administrative assistants are employed in various organizations, such as Schools, Hospitals, Government agencies, Legal offices, and Medical offices. Businesses of all sizes need good administrative assistants, especially those with strong computer skills, communication skills, and organizational abilities. Most administrative assistants work in an office, but with the popularity of telecommuting there are some opportunities to be a virtual assistant. Since this career currently has a large number of job listings, it is no surprise that it has a strong growth potential in the coming years.