If you’re thinking of venturing into the busy world of secretarial work then you’ll need to be up on a few skills in order to improve your prospects. Secretaries need to be completely fluent in all Microsoft applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, as well as an expert in using the internet too. Of course you’ll have the usual duties to perform such as answering telephone calls, filing and distributing post, but the majority of your time will be taken up typing. Your typing speed and accuracy figures will be taken at the interview stage by a series of tests.
It will be very much in your favor if you can hone these skills as much as possible beforehand. Here’s what you need to know:
Touch Typing
It’s really easy to get on a touch typing course where you will learn which fingers correspond to which letters on the keyboard. Touch typing is the best way to type and it’s the kindest on your hands too as it uses minimal effort. You’ll type much more quickly if each finger knows which keys are assigned to it. The basics are really easy to learn and you’ll be able to find online courses as well as courses in your local area. A good touch typist doesn’t need to look at the keyboard at all – instead they can stare directly at the screen which means it’s far easier to pick up typing errors.
Audio Typing
Common in most legal firms as well as lots of other businesses, a lot of secretaries are expected to be able to audio type. This is something that takes a little getting used to. The information that you are given to type is recorded onto a Dictaphone – this used to be on a little tape but these days it’s mostly digital. You listen to what they are saying through a headset, which needs to be of a decent quality so that you can pick out what is being said. Then you use your feet to operate the play/rewind/fast forward facilities. The more modern headsets can be Bluetooth so you can work wire-free.
Copy Typing
Copy typing is where you take somebody’s handwritten notes and type them up. You would normally have the notes propped up next to the screen so your eyes can easily flit between the screen and the notes. The margin for error is higher here as your eyes cannot be continuously on the screen, so a lot of extra proofreading is required. The other problem with copy typing is that you are pretty reliant on your boss having decent handwriting – if it’s not legible you’ll spend twice as long trying to decipher it!
No matter which sort of typing you are performing, you should be aiming for at least 60 words per minute (wpm), but good quality secretaries will type at speeds of up to 80wpm. Your accuracy level must be great too – with very few spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors.
Good luck getting that job – and don’t make any spelling mistakes in your letter of application!