What is the differnce between a secretary, a receptionist, and an administrative assistant?

Answer 1

A receptionist is really someone to answer phones and welcome people that are visiting the office. They take messages, set up meetings and other basic tasks. It was, in the past, an entry level position. In today's environment, the receptionist is often a security guard and the first level of defense for the office.

Secretary and Administrative Assistant are often used interchangably. Originally, the difference was the skill level, the Admin Assistant being between a secretary and an Executive Assistant.

Answer 2

They're almost interchangable. I'm sure you can go on Hotjobs or any other job site and look at some listings. In my mind, secretary and administrative assistant are about the same. They might do filing, make appointments, and so on. Often times, they will also take on receptionist responsibilities, which are more answering phones, forwarding calls, and greeting visitors. It depends on the size of the company. At a larger company, the roles will be separated with the AA being at the higher end. I would imagine that you would be able to get any of the 3 as long as you're friendly and can interview well because these positions require some customer interaction.

Answer 3

Administrative Assistant or AA is the new politically correct term for Secretary. This term was devised to show the important and wide range of duties and responsibilities of a "secretary"

A receptionist is usually not, but sometime is, an AA as they usually answer all incoming calls and great visitors at the door. In a small company an AA may be an AA and a receptionist, however in most company's especially large ones these would be separate duties.

Answer 4

A receptionist is an office/administrative support position. The work is usually performed in a waiting area such as a lobby or front office of an organization or business. The title "receptionist" is attributed to the person who is specifically employed by an organization to greet any visitors, patients, or clients.

The occupation has been the traditional domain of women, but more men today are becoming involved in receptionist duties, possibly under different names of employment, such as front desk coordinator, or information clerk. During the late-1990's, some companies have begun to refer to their receptionist with the upgraded title of "Director of First Impressions."

A receptionist is usually expected to have a high school diploma or the equivalent, but a receptionist may also possess a vocational certificate/diploma in business and office administration. Although a postsecondary degree is not normally required for this position, some receptionists may hold four year university degrees in a variety of majors. A few receptionists may even hold advanced degrees.

The business duties of a receptionist may include: answering visitor inquiries about a company and its products or services, directing visitors to their destinations, sorting mail, answering incoming calls on multi-line telephones or a switchboard, setting appointments, filing, records keeping, keyboarding/data entry and performing a variety of other office tasks, such as faxing. Some receptionist may also perform bookkeeping or cashiering duties. Some, but not all, offices may expect the receptionist to serve coffee or tea to guests, and to keep the lobby area tidy.

Secretary
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For other uses, see Secretary (disambiguation).
A secretary is an administrative support position. The title refers to a person who performs routine, administrative, or personal tasks for a superior. These office employees perform duties such as typing, computer processing, and scheduling for an executive. They usually work at desks in offices.

Contents [hide]
1 Origin
2 Modern usage
3 Character of work
4 Private secretary
5 See also
6 References



[edit] Origin
Since the Renaissance until the late 19th century, men involved in the daily correspondence and the activities of the mighty had assumed the title of secretary (or in other cases, "clerk"), which contains the word "secret" to indicate the confidential, hence potentially influential, nature of such work.

With time, like many titles, it got applied to more and varied functions, leading to compound titles to specify various secretarial work better, like general secretary, financial secretary or Secretary of state. Just "secretary" remained in use either as an abbreviation when clear in the context or for relatively modest positions such as administrative assistant of the officer(s) in charge, either individually or as member of secretariat. As such less influential posts became more feminine and common with the multiplication of bureaucracies in the public and private sectors, new words were also coined to describe them, such as personal assistant.

short answer: There is not that much of a difference between the three.

Answer 5

A secretary main duties are to prepare documents, schedule meetings, answer the phone (may differ from place to place) and just basically keep her bos on his/her toes

A receptionist's job is to greet each persons coming into the organization, route all incoming calls, place calls & receive incoming mail.

An adminstrative assistant pretty much is responsible for doing some form of accounting which may include preparing payroll and assisting with preparation of cheques. They may also be able to assist with personal company files.

BTW I'm a secretary.

Answer 6

Receptionist is usually at the front desk. Secretary and AA are one in the same, they just got a fancy title, that's all.