askerian | (no subject)

anyone around here who works or has worked as a secretary and would be willing to answer, uh… like three pages of questions? i’ve got to do research on that job for the unemployment agency before they’ll consider whether they want to help me pay for the training, to prove i know what to expect etc etc, which is a bit of a pain but oh fucking well. anyway i’ve got two real-life people already but that’s not enough, i need at least two or three more. not all the questions will be relevant since it’s geared toward the french job market but most of them will be!

also if anyone has ever HIRED a secretary…?

(also any other job ideas to suggest for someone who likes computers but isn’t a wizard with them, can’t carry heavy stuff, hates the outdoors, and can’t deal with customers? -__-;;; i just generally want to work in an office, i can learn to deal with phone calls. i thought about library jobs but even to reshelve things you’ve got to have a stupid big diploma. also patrons, augh. government office worker is a possibility i’m considering pretty strongly but the thing is you don’t really decide where in the area you’ll work even if you pass the tests, and i can’t drive. :X might be time to try to change that… )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I haven't worked as a secretary, but on your other job ideas...

I worked in a mailroom for a while! :D It's... not very demanding, brainwise, but it's steady work. If you can get a slightly oddball mailroom - we did a lot of scanning, stationary/stock ordering, file arching, that kind of thing as well - it's helpful since it breaks up your routine. But even just mail sorting fits your requirements I think? Not well paid or anything, but generally easier to get into than most office jobs, and might be opportunities to move up in the organisation depending on what it does and whether you'd want to. (I worked in parking fines. Anything further up involved dealing with angry customers, which, nope.gif for me, but it was definitely possible! And in months, not years, sort of thing.)

On a similar line, the person who replaced me when I left had been doing work updating patient records previously, which is a lot more computer-based. Possibly more interesting? Not sure though.

A friend of mine used to work for Apple; she says they're super great to work for, and as long as you have the right attitude they'll train you up. Her job was on a helpline that people rang when they were trying to figure out what tech they needed to do a thing, and she said that was really fun. (She quit because health reasons, otherwise she'd still be there.) It's a lot of computers, but they train you on all the things you need to know, so you don't have to know it when applying, just need to be able to learn things. :3

Jobhunting is a pain in the ass, I hope it goes well for you! >: I don't have any real advice since I think things are probably a lot different in France compared to Australia, but! If it goes on forever and you're finding it hard: it's not you. There's so many people out of work, finding a job is really hard, and even if you're not getting interviews, it's not you. It's just that the market sucks donkey's balls, and so it's super extra hard to get anywhere, even if you're 100% perfect for the position. Which almost no one in the entire world is, what with humanity being made of humans and all.

tl: dr - hang in there, you're doing fine. *hugs* And good luck on your search!

those are some great suggestions, thank you! ^__^ *takes notes takes notes*

There is always data entry! ...Which can turn your brain to oatmeal after a while, but it's a not terribly demanding computer-based job that doesn't require much interaction with customers beyond an occasional email or call to ask for clarifications about glitches in the files/forms you're trying to enter into databases. And some jobs of that nature then also involve some minor manipulation/organization of the data being entered, so they're not quite as brain-killing.

I've done much more receptionist work than secretarial work, which you probably wouldn't like because receptionists are always dealing with people, whereas secretarial work can be people-heavy or people-light, depending on the nature of the office one works in. But when I was (briefly) a secretary at a maintenance department of a larger organization, what I did was receive, sort, and send faxes; answer phones and either route calls/take messages; create work orders, assign them to the appropriate maintenance specialists, and file them once they were completed; and some general office tidying and such-like. Basically a secretary (or administrative assistant) is there to take care of the routine business of their office so their boss can deal with the bigger issues, and also to run a little interference between their boss and people who come by and want to set up meetings.

haha yeah, i've done some data entry and ... well i managed it for one month which was what my contract was supposed to last for, but i think any longer and i would have bitten someone. DX

this is very useful, thank you. ^^

I have assisted with hiring a PA secretary. And am willing to answer three pages of question when not on a phone, like I am right now.