Assignment on interview with an ADMINISTARTIVE assistant

Having a good administrative assistant leads to profound business success and this statement has solid core truth to it. As an administrative assistant having competence, qualification and enthusiasm is worth the value for hiring managers to run the whole business efficiently.

The job of an administrative assistant is mainly to act as the right hand of CEOs while assisting their day to day tasks of running a business. Their job is to manage and coordinate calendars, schedule meetings, managing office needs and subordinating between the CEO and other departments. They possess the enormous amount of information and they have all the right skills and caliber to use that information efficiently.

Following are the questions that I had asked while interviewing an administrative assistant followed by his amazing replies to my questions.

Q1) Why did you apply for the post of administrative assistant job?

I have keen interest in working with variety of departments and I really enjoying handling different tasks at a time so for that, nothing could have been better than an administrative post.

Q2) Are you comfortable in answering so many calls per day and all that noise of incoming calls?

Yes, absolutely. I know that it’s my job and I have all the relevant information so I am the one to pass forward the information I have so I don’t mind answering calls. I knew already that this is one of the tasks to handle in an administrative job. I am used to it now.

Q3) Do you consider yourself a team player? Do you work with others comfortably?

Almost every job requires you to be a team player. You can never expect to work on an island without any interruption especially not in the case of doing an administrative job when you have to interact and correspond to so many people in a day that sometimes you even forget whom you interacted to. This is a key skill to take direction, lead and collaborate for a good administrative assistant.

Q4) Do you get stressed? How do you manage stressful situations?

It would be a lie if I say that I don’t get stressed as being an administrative assistant you are already pretty much guaranteed about the stressful situations and having to tackle such situations only needs clear mindfulness. I always try to strike a balance between my stress and the ways how I can handle such tough stressful moments. I try my best to redirect my stress energy into creative energy and always prioritize the things that needs to be done first than troubling my mind over the things that will only cause more stress.

Q5) What do you think are your strongest and major areas of expertise?

I have done my graduation with business administration and then  masters with management and public administration. Moreover, I have got trainings for public speaking and administrative sessions and all those certifications during all that time. I went for an exchange program for a business administration course which has taught me a lot and I try to incorporate all my knowledge be it required in written communication or dealing with the public, I try using and incorporating the best of expertise in it.

Q6) What are the tools that you use for time management?

I don’t think so that is any such too to manage time. All you have got to have are basic and good organizational skills, that teaches you a lot about time management as well as value for time. Apart from that, using strategies and setting goals and meeting or exceeding deadlines are always going hand-in-hand. You have to multi-task a lot so you are always prepared of managing time efficiently.

Q7) How do you juggle competing tasks?

Competing tasks also require good time management skills as well as decision-making skills. It goes more about the way how you judge situations and how you prioritize tackling the situation. Be it a simple task or a competing task, you have to organize the roles for it and make a to-do list and then start working on it.

Q8) Beyond basic duties, what are the other roles you have to play as an administrative assistant?

My role, sometimes, work like an all rounder. I have to simply keep everything filed as well as organized and also scheduled as no business can work properly without having a proper schedule. At times, I feel as if I am the building block of the entire office as I have to give good access to information whenever and wherever anybody needs it to make their work function more smoothly.

Q9) What is the most difficult part of your job?

The most difficult task is when I see so many tasks piled up at my desk at one time and then I have to choose among those tasks to prioritize some first and then few later. Even I try to multi-task,  it still becomes difficult at times to manage all tasks once in a while. Although, I feel overwhelmed seeing things crossing my desk at a given time yet I have to focus and prioritize first.

Q10) What do you enjoy most about your job?

The actions of your post makes it enjoyable I guess and being an administrative assistant, I have to be at the centre of the actions, all the time that makes me aware of all the actions around me. Means, I am always aware of what’s going on in the office and that gives me a joy of assisting and making important events to happen smoothly.

Q 11) What are your job responsibilities as administrative assistant?

I usually work 35 to 40 hours during a week. My usual responsibilities to work for full time hours are dependent on the contracts and work of the company. I manage and distribute information within an office and some other responsibilities are answering phones, maintaining the files, sending and receiving the correspondence, greeting customers and clients and taking memos.