There’s no one path to becoming an admin, BUT there are certain hard and soft skills that can show your next employer that you mean business. I intend to cover the basics that if you follow will help you jumpstart your efforts into becoming an administrative support professional. This week’s post is about the top 4 ways to show you how to become an administrative professional. Let’s dive in.
Online Courses to Become an Administrative Professional
There are a surprising number of online courses about how to become an administrative professional. If you’re an absolute beginner, this is a perfect place for you to start. Many of these courses touch on a lot of the various key skills potential administrative support professionals should know.
I, personally, haven’t taken these classes myself, (Let me know if you’d like me to and give my opinion about them.), but judging from the titles and brief descriptions, they can’t go too wrong.
I found full courses and pathways on how to be an administrative support professional on LinkedIn and Udemy. I’m sure there are more out there, but these are the two main sites I frequent.
Microsoft Office
You’ve GOT to know of Microsoft Office by now. I mean, seriously, most of us should know these programs already, but if you don’t, that’s a big a pretty sizeable gap to fill, but fortunately, it’s easy to learn. Let me review.
- Excel – This tool is essential for so many reasons, and it’s also a favorite of mine. Excel can help you plan projects/events, keep track of budget(s), organize and compute large amounts of data, and provide visualizations for data.
I know this might sound difficult, if you’re unfamiliar with Excel, but it’s easier than you may think. All it takes is some familiarity with the program and practice. - Word – This program is perhaps the most common, and also essential.
- PowerPoint – Not used as much anymore, but I’ve definitely needed it in crucial moment to save myself, others, and events.
- Access – The unsung hero of Office. To be honest, most people don’t really use it (or even know what it is).
Access allows you to create your own databases. If you need to keep track of large amounts of information, store all the data over time, and run regular reports from that data, Access has you covered.
It’s easy to use, and pretty damn user friendly. I currently use Access to help me manage multiple budgets, program management, and event tracking.
I even created one for a coin collection too. Did I need to? Nope, but I wanted to.
Understand What Admin Work Is
You know what irks me? Okay, a lot. But this is definitely up there for me. It bothers me when people apply for jobs that ask for administrative experience and they immediately think, “Yep! Got that, I mean, who doesn’t?”
Well, you, if you don’t actually have it.
It irks me when people equate “working in an office” with administrative work. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING!
In fact, that simply shows me you’re one of “those people.” The people who don’t respect the administrative support profession (until I call you out). Then you’re all, “No, I don’t mean you! Of course I respect admins!”
Administrative work can look very different depending on your work environment and industry. The range of both hard and soft skills required to do the job IS IN AND OF ITSELF. There is a difference between hiring an admin and hiring a person to learn how to become an admin so they can be your admin.
As an admin, you are a jack/jill of all trades and master of being the jack/jill of all trades, and, on top of that, you deal with the constant awareness that people typically look down on you for it.
To clarify though, admin work includes, but is not limited to:
- Expense Reports
- Filing
- Time Management
- Tech Troubleshooter
- Proofreader
- Customer Service Rep
- Event Planner
- Accountant
- Meeting maker
- Meeting note taker
- Budget enforcer
- Gift buyer
- Phone operator
- Document compiler
- Janitor
- Mediator
- Vendor Point of Contact
All while putting up with attitudes, condescension, and passive aggressive behavior if you’re unlucky to boot.
Customer service
Customer service is such a big part of being an admin. It’s not just the company’s clients that are your customers, it’s your colleagues. Being able to juggle that dynamic is super important to the success of being an admin.
Even if you don’t have the other aforementioned skills just yet, the experience of working in customer service industries can really help future employers to understand that you are aware of a lot of the unspoken aspects of dealing with people.
Why?
Some people are assholes, even part-time assholes, and having had the experience in dealing with people in those types of environments is important information for future employers.
On the other hand, if you AREN’T good at customer service, then that’s definitely not a good thing. If you know and can acknowledge that customer service isn’t one of your top skills, I strongly advise you to learn how to improve this skill because it is a key pillar of administrative support (aka make sure you’re not the asshole. KGreatThanks.).
Wrap up
Like I said at the beginning, there’s no clear path to becoming an admin, but I wanted to highlight a few main resources, tools, and tips that could help you get your first (or another) opportunity.
The world is wide, and administrative professionals are crucial to many industries. If there’s a particular industry/purpose you have an interest in, figure out what else you might need to add to my list to get there. You are awesome! Keep up the good work!
Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash
