We covered an administrative assistant position in Atlanta before, and this time we’re breaking down a “receptionist / administrative assistant” job description!
Don’t you love it when they combine the roles in the title for you? How kind and thoughtful.
As we’ve mentioned before, it’s not unusual that administrative support roles include a mix of support responsibilities.
Every company is unique, and as a result, so are the roles of the admins. In some organizations, admins may have a huge workload with a lot of responsibilities. In other organizations, admins could have a more limited task list with plenty of time to do their work.
No matter what you do on a day-to-day basis, it’s important to know that there will always be something unique about your position.
Alright, let’s jump right in!
Receptionist / Administrative Assistant Description: Initial Observations
I feel I just read a general description about what a receptionist is. Which is nice because it’s always good to know the basics, but that’s all I got.
Maybe it is that simple, but… we’ll see.
The Breakdown
Administrative Support
- Supporting other departments of our dealership
- Other miscellaneous tasks assigned by the General Manager
Secretarial/Receptionist
- Greeting our customer as they come in
- Answering incoming phone calls
- General clerical duties
Advanced
None
General Opinion of this Receptionist / Administrative Assistant Job Description
The job description seems so basic that the pay almost makes sense, but I’ll get to that later.
I don’t believe the title is wrong. Based on those very brief requirements, it sounds as if the company needs both a receptionist and an administrative assistant.
However, considering the fact that they volunteered the description of their dealership as “busy,” I would already assume that $10-$12 already isn’t enough money.
At this point in time $10-$12 jobs simply shouldn’t be an option for a “busy” anything. It should be for slow, “I need someone there” jobs.
And don’t think I missed where they put “Able to multi-task” and “Able to say focused and on task” next to each other! They want the person to be focused on multiple tasks and work on simultaneously. For $10-$12. Haha. Riiiight.
The off days are Sunday and Monday, which definitely has its pros and cons. I used to work a job where I got Mondays and Tuesdays off and it. was. SWEET! (Think about all the restaurants offering sweet deals on the slowest days of the week, and those cheap days are your Saturday and Sunday!)
Also, let’s not forget non-normal weekends means you can run errands and make appointments much easier when you’re off during everyone else’s normal business hours. That’s also sweet!
Experience and Education
According to this job description, you don’t need any experience or educational level to do this job. Their “ideal receptionist / administrative assistant” simply needs to have the right personality and work ethic.
According to this job description, this reception/administrative assistant doesn’t need to know how to work Excel, Microsoft Word, email, or a computer.
But, I’d be surprised if that was actually the case.
To be perfectly honest, I wish more administrative jobs didn’t require a degree. Most of the time, degrees and certifications are POINTLESS and act more like a barrier to entry rather than relevant insight into the ability to do a job well.
But specifically for this job, with their $10-$12 an hour pay rate, they better not be asking for a degree or experience.
The Pay
It’s not minimum wage, but it’s not really enough to live off of if you have regular bills or don’t have supplemental income. This job is located in Indiana, and the minimum wage for Indiana is a whopping $7.25/hr.
Which means working 40 hours a week at, let’s be optimistic, $12 is $480. That means a month you’re earning $1,920 a month before taxes. After taxes, you’re looking at about $1,344 a month.
BUT A job is a job though, so I’m not knocking it. I’ve definitely worked jobs like these before. It might not be as easy for you to make ends meet if you have dependents, pay rent/mortgage, or have more expenses on your plate.
I would recommend this job for students living in dorms without paying monthly rent or for retirees who have supplemental income. And you better live close to this place, too!
The benefits sound fine from the outset, but I would definitely need more details to determine if it’s worth it.
Questions I Would Ask in the Interview
- Will I work on a computer?
- If so, what some computer-related tasks you will require?
- Please give me examples of:
- “general clerical duties”
- support other departments
- other miscellaneous tasks assigned by the General Manager
- How do you handle annual performance evaluations?
- Are there annual pay increases?
- Are their bonuses I am eligible to qualify for?
- Upon what factors are evaluations based?
WORTH IT GRADE:
If you’re a dorm living student or have supplemental income:
3 / 5 post-it notes
If you’re neither of those:
1 / 5 post-it notes
Photo by Daniel Herron on Unsplash
