For job seekers looking to land an administrative position, featuring the right clerical skills on their resume is a critical step. In today’s article, we list the most important abilities any administrative employee needs to master.
The Most Important Clerical Skills To Add to Your Resume
While there are different types of administrative jobs, they all require a common core of clerical skills that are essential to succeed in this field.
1. Communication (Verbal and Written)
Administrative jobs hinge on good communication. Whether it’s drafting a report, answering the phone, or conveying a message, effective communication is fundamental. Luckily, improving your communication skills is easy. Here are some tips to help you do just that:
- Pay attention to body language
- Ask follow-up questions
- Rephrase the other person’s response to make sure you understood correctly
- Practice active listening
- Avoid unnecessarily complex words
2. Organization
When you work in an office, you are not only expected to be highly organized but to help others stay organized as well. Having good organization skills helps prevent errors, avoids misunderstandings with clients, and, in general, goes a long way towards keeping an office running smoothly.
3. Time Management
Getting things done within a given time frame may sound easy, but it’s a skill lots of people struggle to master. Time management is particularly important when you hold an administrative position because you’ll often find yourself juggling several deadlines at once. The key to effective time management is being able to identify the tasks that need to be done first, and those that can wait.
4. Typing
Typing is a classic clerical skill that never goes out of fashion. Typing speed is usually measured in Words per Minute (WPM). To measure your WPM, just divide the number of characters you can type without errors in a minute and divide it by five (the average length of a word). If you want to make things even easier, there are some websites that do this automatically for you. To find one, just Google “WPM typing test.”
5. Excel
As you probably know, Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet software program. This means that Excel helps you capture, store, and manage data arranged in rows and columns. If you work in an office or are looking for an administrative position, chances are good that you will be required to work with Excel at some point. This can be an extremely useful skill, so find the time to take an Excel tutorial — rest assured that it will be worth it.
6. Data Entry
While they are similar, typing and data entry are different skills. While typing refers to the number of words you can type without errors in 60 seconds, data entry refers to the process of entering information in a company’s databases. This information can be words, numbers, or other types of values. Accurate data entry is a valuable clerical skill, and one you are be required to display often when you work in an office.
7. Collaboration
Just like any other position, succeeding in an administrative or clerical job means being a good team player. Even if you excel at all the other skills listed here, you won’t reach your full potential if you don’t know how to work with others. Some of the personal traits (called soft skills) that foster collaboration include:
- Communication (see point number 1)
- Adaptability
- Creativity
- Empathy
- Problem-solving
To learn more about clerical and administrative jobs, check out our previous post, “30 Administrative Interview Questions.”
Looking for an Administrative Job? Driven Talent Can Help!
Whether you are an employer looking for the ideal candidate to fill a position or a job seeker trying to take the next step in your career, Driven Talent is here to make things easier.
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