1. Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, NC • Private
In-State Tuition
$3,926
Enrollment
9,835
An administrative support specialist performs various administrative and clerical tasks in an office. Essentially, their job function is to complete these tasks so that others don't have to, which helps employees focus on their job and increase the overall productivity of the company.
The work duties of an administrative support specialist vary depending on their employer, but in general, they perform tasks like scheduling meetings, maintaining the inventory of office supplies, receiving mail at the front desk, creating presentation materials, and organizing documents. They may also do data entry tasks, monitor the operating budget of the office, and draft memos as needed.
For some employers, the minimum requirement for this position is a high school diploma. But more employers now require their administrative support specialists to have a bachelor's degree in business or other related fields. Besides educational attainment, employers also want their candidates to have at least six months of related work experience.
On average, administrative support specialists make $35,000 a year or roughly $17 an hour. More experienced and skilled administrative support specialists can even earn up to $46,000 annually or more.
There are certain skills that many administrative support specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed interpersonal skills, organizational skills and writing skills.
If you're interested in becoming an administrative support specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 48.4% of administrative support specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 6.8% of administrative support specialists have master's degrees. Even though most administrative support specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of executive assistant you might progress to a role such as office manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title business manager.
What Am I Worth?
The role of an administrative support specialist includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general administrative support specialist responsibilities:
There are several types of administrative support specialist, including:
Administrative coordinators help the company to handle the general administration of the company. You will handle the basic administrative duties like answering incoming calls, interacting with the clients, and giving solutions when needed to their issues.
You will also be responsible for maintaining and making the office organized. Similarly, you will welcome visitors and direct them to the appropriate department. You will provide administrative support to the management. As a result, you will monitor and coordinate the accounting activities which you will prepare internal reports for management.
Good knowledge of finance and accounting to help you prepare internal reports for management is required. An administrative coordinator must have good interpersonal skills to be able to relate with clients and good communication skills. Similarly, you must be able to compose and edit written materials. You will make an average of $19.77 an hour or $41,129 yearly.
Administrative support workers, sometimes called administrative support specialists, take care of clerical tasks in an office that helps their employer serve the public. Most administrative support workers work for government offices, although they can also work for private companies. They handle tasks that help organize the office such as storing files and inputting data into the payroll system. Administrative support workers need to be strong communicators because they handle internal communications, for example by scheduling meetings, and communicate with the public via phone and email. Administrative support workers are often highly knowledgeable about procedures in the office they work for so they can help customers and coworkers with their questions.
There are a few different ways to become an administrative support worker. About half have a bachelor's degree in business or administration. However, many do this job with only a high school diploma.
Administrative support workers usually need a few years of administrative experience, for example as assistants. Only then can they apply for an administrative support position, which usually pays around $33,023 a year.
An administrative clerk performs tasks such as data entry, typing, organizing documents, answering emails and phones, and typically any basic clerical task you can imagine needs to be done in an office.
Following the lead of an office manager, administrative clerks make the most of their computer skills, their ability to multitask, and their independent spirit. They know how to manage their time and organize the world around them. They know how to communicate efficiently, and they probably dabble a little in bookkeeping as well.
As corporate culture is flourishing, administrative clerks are being assigned responsibilities regarding the cultural and social engagement of employees as well, such as planning off-site activities or making the office a cozier place with snacks and other niceties.
Mouse over a state to see the number of active administrative support specialist jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where administrative support specialists earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
---|---|---|---|
1 | California | 7,107 | $47,952 |
2 | Texas | 3,170 | $40,587 |
3 | New York | 2,750 | $40,073 |
4 | Florida | 2,598 | $36,196 |
5 | Michigan | 1,920 | $36,873 |
6 | Washington | 1,898 | $46,848 |
7 | Pennsylvania | 1,871 | $37,312 |
8 | Massachusetts | 1,818 | $44,241 |
9 | Illinois | 1,732 | $37,514 |
10 | Virginia | 1,707 | $38,735 |
11 | Ohio | 1,449 | $35,312 |
12 | Missouri | 1,346 | $34,519 |
13 | Georgia | 1,334 | $35,853 |
14 | North Carolina | 1,300 | $34,021 |
15 | Maryland | 1,215 | $38,449 |
16 | New Jersey | 1,119 | $43,675 |
17 | Arizona | 1,051 | $37,878 |
18 | South Carolina | 1,051 | $34,633 |
19 | Minnesota | 1,037 | $40,164 |
20 | Wisconsin | 948 | $37,328 |
21 | Colorado | 947 | $38,239 |
22 | Tennessee | 868 | $36,032 |
23 | Indiana | 856 | $37,663 |
24 | Oregon | 806 | $43,104 |
25 | Alabama | 764 | $37,414 |
26 | Kansas | 735 | $37,305 |
27 | Oklahoma | 653 | $28,628 |
28 | Louisiana | 632 | $35,900 |
29 | Iowa | 618 | $34,110 |
30 | Arkansas | 599 | $31,756 |
31 | Utah | 571 | $39,678 |
32 | Connecticut | 505 | $51,296 |
33 | Nevada | 480 | $37,296 |
34 | Kentucky | 454 | $30,002 |
35 | New Mexico | 446 | $39,762 |
36 | Mississippi | 434 | $35,742 |
37 | Nebraska | 349 | $36,681 |
38 | Idaho | 316 | $31,357 |
39 | Maine | 265 | $35,923 |
40 | New Hampshire | 264 | $38,066 |
41 | South Dakota | 251 | $35,980 |
42 | Montana | 242 | $30,409 |
43 | West Virginia | 186 | $32,799 |
44 | Hawaii | 181 | $44,765 |
45 | Alaska | 180 | $44,965 |
46 | Rhode Island | 173 | $45,883 |
47 | Delaware | 163 | $31,528 |
48 | North Dakota | 119 | $42,236 |
49 | Wyoming | 107 | $40,464 |
50 | Vermont | 93 | $38,114 |
Cullowhee, NC • Private
In-State Tuition
$3,926
Enrollment
9,835
Stanford, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,354
Enrollment
7,083
Muncie, IN • Private
In-State Tuition
$9,896
Enrollment
15,529
Philadelphia, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764
Bowling Green, OH • Private
In-State Tuition
$11,105
Enrollment
13,729
Allentown, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$39,216
Enrollment
1,303
Baltimore, MD • Private
In-State Tuition
$7,900
Enrollment
6,404
Evanston, IL • Private
In-State Tuition
$54,568
Enrollment
8,451
Adrian, MI • Private
In-State Tuition
$27,124
Enrollment
2,035
Akron, OH • Private
In-State Tuition
$11,463
Enrollment
13,676
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 15.5% of administrative support specialists listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as interpersonal skills and organizational skills are important as well.
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Administrative Support Specialist templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Administrative Support Specialist resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
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Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an administrative support specialist. The best states for people in this position are Connecticut, California, Washington, and Rhode Island. Administrative support specialists make the most in Connecticut with an average salary of $51,296. Whereas in California and Washington, they would average $47,952 and $46,848, respectively. While administrative support specialists would only make an average of $45,883 in Rhode Island, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. District of Columbia
$51,893
Avg. Salary
2. Washington
$46,848
Avg. Salary
3. California
$47,952
Avg. Salary
Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | IBM | $68,834 | $33.09 | 11 |
2 | Dana-Farber Cancer Institute | $46,906 | $22.55 | 73 |
3 | Harley-Davidson | $45,009 | $21.64 | 12 |
4 | Intel | $44,123 | $21.21 | 13 |
5 | Lockheed Martin | $42,774 | $20.56 | 85 |
6 | University of Hawaii Foundation | $39,964 | $19.21 | 12 |
7 | University of North Carolina | $39,217 | $18.85 | 22 |
8 | USAF Police Alumni Association | $39,105 | $18.80 | 9 |
9 | United States Marine Corps | $39,006 | $18.75 | 12 |
10 | US Air Conditioning Distributors | $38,686 | $18.60 | 27 |