TYPES OF SECRETARY Secretary is an administrative assistant who perform several office tasks within one job in Business Office Administration. 1. Administrative Secretary /Executive Secretary 2. Legal Secretary 3. Office Secretary 4. School Secretary 5. Litigation Secretary 6. Medical Secretary 7. Real Estate Secretary 1. Administrative Secretary/ Executive Secretary A variety of clerical and administrative duties are performed by administrative secretaries to run an organization proficiently. The tasks of administrative secretaries include planning and scheduling appointments and meetings, managing projects, organizing and maintaining paper and electronics files, conducting research and distribute information by using mail services, telephone, e-mail, web sites. They serve as a communication and information managers for an office and may handle travel and guests arrangements also. Generally administrative secretaries work in hospitals, schools, government agencies, corporate settings or medical and legal offices. Their job generally involves sitting for long periods. 2. Legal Secretary A legal secretary is an individual who works in the legal profession specially for helping lawyers. They are also called as executive assistants or administrative assistants. Their tasks are to perform daily clerical functions necessary for the efficient operation of a legal office. Apart from the typical filing, dictation, typing and phone answering responsibilities, a legal secretary should possess specialized skills unique to the legal profession. Most of the legal secretaries get opportunities in law firms. However, the government, corporate legal departments, the judiciary and public interest firms also employ legal secretaries. 4. Office Secretary Office secretaries use various office equipments like photocopiers, fax machines, videoconferencing, scanners and telephone systems. In addition to these they also use computers to perform certain tasks that are previously handled by managers and professionals like manage database, compose correspondence, and create spreadsheets, reports, documents and presentations using digital graphics and desktop publishing software. Also they have to examine and maintain leased equipments, retrieve data from various sources, purchase supplies, negotiate with vendors and manage areas such as corporate libraries or stockrooms. Now, most of the office secretaries provide orientation and training for new staff, operate and troubleshoot new office technologies and conduct research on the Internet. 5. School Secretary At most of the schools, secretary plays a key role in communicating with community members and parents about what is happening at school. It’s a duty of a school secretary to provide administrative support in school. Some of the duties of the school secretary include taking care of administrative details, handling school communication, and scheduling appointments on a day to day basis. This makes the secretary an excellent source of information for parents. As a school secretary, you would come into contact with variety of people including pupils, teachers, parents, school governors, social workers, careers and education welfare officers. If the school is smaller a secretary has to perform some extra school business management duties like responsibility for finance. 6 Litigation Secretary Litigation secretary works in various office environments such as government agencies, legal firms, real estate companies, courts, and legal aid departments. As a litigation secretary you will be expected to communicate with judges, court administrators, clients, judicial workers, law firm partners and other law firm staff. The secretary of litigation must be articulate, organized and a master of time management. The duties performed by litigation secretary include answering phone calls, typing, working with briefs, filing, setting up appointments, and motions and pleadings. Also the secretary must be familiar with various aspects of the law. 7. Medical Secretary A medical secretary is a person who generally works in a medical office or hospital and is responsible for doing highly specialized secretarial responsibilities such as billing patients, scheduling appointments, handling correspondence, and compiling medical charts and reports. Also they help doctors in writing speeches, reports and articles, insurance company billings, arraigning for patients hospitalization and ordering supplies. Thus to serve as a medical secretary you just not only possess large amount of skills but you must have talent for detail work and you should be a good communicator. 8. Real Estate Secretary Real estate secretary can get opportunities to work in the real estate division of investment banks. An administrative support is provided by a real estate secretary to attorneys and other legal professionals. You have to perform certain duties when you become a real estate secretary. The duties include are processing expense reports, arranging meetings, coordinating travel itineraries, and making, drafting and editing several real estate documents such as sales documents, purchase and sale contracts, letter of intent, leases, exhibits and closings. For the real estate secretary you posses all the soft skills required for this position. The soft skills required include ability to communicate well, well organized and having an eye for detail.