Professional Secretary

Secretaries are responsible for a variety of administrative and clerical duties necessary in practical, day-to-day business operations. They may serve as an information manager for an office, schedule appointments, organize and maintain documents or files or manage projects, for instance. They often also conduct research and assimilate information.

There are certain skills you need to begin a career as a Professional Secretary.


The techniques and skills you will use in your career.

Your Professional Image: Dressing professionally; building a support network; developing skills and a career portfolio.

Written Communication: Parts of speech; common grammatical errors; punctuation; capitalization; qualities of effective correspondence; types of business correspondence; letter styles; common business letters, editing and proofreading.

Interpersonal and Communication Skills: Handling problems; relating to your supervisor; improving your reading skills; tips for reading technical or complex material. Improve Your Communication Skills.

Time and Stress Management: Setting up a time-management program; handling work overload; setting priorities and goals; effective stress- management strategies.

Administrative Office Procedures: Communicating with your supervisor and coworkers; telephone communication; handling postal and electronic mail.

Meeting and Travel Planning: Assessing your company's travel needs; developing a working relationship with a travel agent; planning a meeting.

Technologies in the Office: Updating records systems; controlling stored records; electronic records management; classification of records; videophones; personal computers.

Internet Basics: Features of the Web; navigating the Web; accessing and sending e-mail; basic research tools and search engines.

Integrated Applications: Using clip art, lines, borders, drawing tools, charting tools, and watermarks; applying effective design principles and desktop publishing techniques.

Math for Office Professionals: Percents and percentages; calculating income; gross pay versus net pay; hourly wages.

Finances: Accounting and business concepts; income; expenses; the computer and office finances; banking procedures.

Management: Recruiting, interviewing, selecting, evaluating, and terminating employees; legal and medical issues; privacy issues.