Are you looking for more than a job but a career? Getting the training you need to be an effective administrative assistant is an ideal way to start a new career. And the good news is that Gwinnett Colleges and Institute offers an Administrative Assistant program that can prepare you for entry-level positions in many unique industries. So, where do administrative assistants work?
Where Do Administrative Assistants Work?
While many industries rely on administrative assistants, your skillset and interest may help you direct your job search to one of the following fields.
Healthcare
As an administrative assistant in healthcare, you will spend part of your day organizing client files. You will likely be exposed to private information as an administrative assistant so it is important to study HIPAA restrictions, which will give you a deeper understanding of general professional security and patient privacy.
With each task you take on, you will have the chance to build your professional skills. If your job includes answering phones, you will learn to manage patients who are distressed, unwell, or in pain. The ability to be supportive, gentle, and direct can help you in many aspects of your career and, indeed, your life.
You will understand the certifications and licensure requirements of others in your current office. You may work with certified medical assistants, licensed practical nurses, registered nurses, and nurse practitioners. You will also get the chance to work with physician assistants and physicians. Occupational and physical therapists may also be among the professionals you support.
A detailed understanding of the breadth of these positions may be possible to learn over time. If you intend to continue your career in administration, you may be called upon to schedule additional training for any of these professionals so they can maintain their licensure. If you plan to get more schooling in the world of healthcare, these professionals can give you pointers on your educational goals.
Part of your work will be to support the office administrator. By supporting aspects of their work, such as basic bookkeeping, you can increase your skills and make yourself a more attractive employee. Each time you tackle this assignment, do your best to understand better where it fits in the overall framework of the bookkeeping process.
Education
An administrative assistant in the educational field may have the pleasure of working with administrators, teachers, students, and paraprofessionals. Part of your work will include scheduling staff meetings or parent/teacher/administrative meetings.
You can use this time to invest in your skill in greeting “customers” as you may be dealing with busy parents, overloaded teachers, and troubled students. Staying consistent with your presentation will take focus; any organization that serves young people, especially very young people, will require you to remain flexible.
When you work in education, you will take care of filing and document design. You may help teachers design parent notification documents, including documents that need to be viewed, signed off on, and returned to the teacher and school. Tracking tools, such as spreadsheets, will help you design effective documentation management, and your skills can be of great help to teachers and administrators.
Employees in education will also need to stay abreast of legal and regulatory changes. Even those who work at private colleges will still need to follow state and federal regulations. Creating a process for storing copies of grades, student correspondence, and syllabi may be part of your workload.
Professional Services
As an administrative assistant, you will support sales personnel or engineers. Accountants and financial advisors also need administrative assistants. Each professional industry serves as a draw for different personality types; if you are a quiet, reflective person, supporting a dynamic sales team in the automotive industry may be challenging. A person who loves action and change may not thrive as an assistant to a tax professional.
Never stop looking for a way to build your skills. Data entry is a simple skill, but helping car shoppers apply for an automobile loan may require you to work quickly and handle detailed information.
Stay open to input, but make sure you check in with your supervisor. Many salespeople are carefully focused on their clients; they may check in at odd times or have tasks that need to be addressed quickly. Clients can also change your work requirements; if a client is out of town when their tax return is complete, you may need to prepare a lengthy fax.
Be aware that your industry may also impact your hours. If you work for a public accountant, March and April will be busy. If you support a team of sales professionals at a car dealership, your days off may not include the weekend. Each of these features of your job will have pluses and minuses; just be aware that flexibility may be required.
Scientific Services
As an administrative assistant for a scientific services firm, you may be given the chance to learn a great deal about the regulatory world. For example, you may work for a lab that supports the petrochemical industry, and you may be tasked with direct communication, such as phone calls and memos, to the professionals in your firm.
Knowing which professional handles what documentation will take time. It will also require you to understand document content to direct it properly. For example, the head of Research and Development may need immediate access to documentary changes in product content. In contrast, the Head of Manufacturing might need all incoming information on regulatory changes in packaging.
If you plan to continue your science education, your administrative assistant position may help you see the scientific process from the ground up. The life of a scientist is one of endless curiosity; after all, the scientific method is all about asking questions and conducting experiments. Part of your job will include taking care of the database where results are tracked. As you work with the numbers and information, the compilation of data can pique your curiosity.
Technical Services
The world of technical services is far-reaching and may offer you the opportunity for tremendous growth. You may work for a firm that does testing for other industries. Your tasks will include detailed tracking of lab work dedicated to measuring fluids, weights, or even measuring tools.
This is the field for those who are detail oriented. If you can work independently, you can quickly become even more valuable to your direct supervisors and your firm. In such cases, you must learn to manage your capacities.
As an administrative assistant in technical services, you will need to learn jargon and acronyms. To avoid an embarrassing or costly mix-up, carry a notebook to consistently remember which acronym or jargon is specific to different clients.
The ability to quickly enter numbers into a spreadsheet is a skill that you can build. You’ll also need to learn the following:
- Asking for a deadline so you can manage your tasks
- Take a break when you need one so you can stay focused
- Coming up with design changes if a database can’t be easily manipulated
As you build your time management skills, you may be given more opportunities to work autonomously. This is an ideal way to increase your skills, support more people, and grow within your firm.
Final Thoughts
A quality administrative assistant will find ways to grow at almost any organization. Keep your eyes open for new ways to learn. If you’ve been assigned a database clean-up that could benefit from an updated layout, go ahead and finish the clean-up task, then offer to create a sample layout change.
Administrative Assistant Program
The Administrative Assisting diploma program trains Gwinnett College students to seek entry-level positions in the office administration or secretarial field. Graduates may work as a secretary, receptionist, executive assistant, or administrative assistant after coursework is completed. The school’s Administrative Assisting program externship will allow Gwinnett College students to apply the skills learned during the classroom training.
Contact Gwinnett Colleges & Institute today to learn more about becoming an administrative assistant