Where a secretary can go next
5 destinations recorded, ranked by how much of the target role a secretary already meets. The closer to the top of Table 1, the less there is to learn.
Secretaries perform a variety of administrative tasks to help keep an organisation run smoothly. They answer telephone calls, draft and send e-mails, maintain diaries, arrange appointments, take messages, file documents, organise and service meetings, and manage databases.
Also known as administrative assistant, office receptionist, personal assistant, corporate secretary, office administrative assistant, executive secretary, assistant, office worker, head secretary, front office secretary, secretarial assistant, typist.
Clerical support workers 43 skills on file 5 career moves 1 above 60% overlap Closest: administrative assistant, 69%
- 70% and above · short step
- 50 to 70% · real move
- Below 50% · substantial retraining
Table 2 · A bigger jump
Possible, but expect real retraining rather than a sideways step.
Table 3 · What the job itself asks for
A secretary needs 22 required skills and areas of knowledge. These 10 are the ones fewest other jobs share, so they say the most about the work.
- monitor staff absences information skills
- communicate schedules to the people concerned communication, collaboration and creativity
- organise facilities for office personnel management skills
- manage personnel agenda management skills
- draft corporate emails communication, collaboration and creativity
- file documents information skills
- fill out forms information skills
- disseminate internal communications communication, collaboration and creativity
- disseminate messages to people management skills
- handle mail management skills
Table 4 · Jobs that lead here
The reverse view: occupations whose skills already cover much of what a secretary does. The figure is how much of this job each one brings.
- administrative assistant 71% covered · difficulty 34.4
- office clerk 64% covered · difficulty 41.2
- foreign language correspondence clerk 41% covered · difficulty 61.6
- receptionist 38% covered · difficulty 64.2
- executive assistant 31% covered · difficulty 70.3
- management assistant 30% covered · difficulty 71.5
- typist 26% covered · difficulty 74.1
- parliamentary assistant 25% covered · difficulty 75
- billing clerk 22% covered · difficulty 77.5
- supply chain assistant 16% covered · difficulty 82
Look up another occupation
Secretary is filed under Clerical support workers, ISCO major group 4. The full index lists all ten groups.
How these figures were compiled
Overlap is how much of the target role is already part of a secretary’s work. It is directional: the figure for the reverse move differs. Every entry above opens the full comparison for that move: what carries over, what is missing, and where to start. The full method.