How To Become A Clerical Secretary: What It Is and Career Path

What is a clerical secretary and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a clerical secretary. For example, did you know that they make an average of $13.68 an hour? That's $28,450 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -8% and produce -286,900 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreClerical SecretaryUS Average

Salary

2.2

Avg. Salary $28,450

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.0

Growth rate -8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.73%

Asian 3.84%

Black or African American 9.37%

Hispanic or Latino 16.40%

Unknown 3.88%

White 65.78%

Gender

female 92.59%

male 7.41%

Age - 52

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 52

Stress level

6.0

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.4

Complexity level is basic

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.6

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a clerical secretary

Explore clerical secretary education requirements

Most common clerical secretary degrees

High School Diploma

29.3 %

Bachelor's

27.9 %

Associate

26.9 %

Start to develop specific clerical secretary skills

Skills	Percentages
Appointment Scheduling	16.58%
Data Entry	16.21%
Customer Service	8.30%
Telephone Calls	7.78%
Word Processing	6.22%

Complete relevant clerical secretary training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New clerical secretaries learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a clerical secretary based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real clerical secretary resumes.

Research clerical secretary duties and responsibilities

Manage all daily and monthly accounting; job costs, customer payments and payroll.
Lead DoD team that assist Pakistan in gaining military capabilities to conduct counter-terrorism operations against the Taliban.
Publish numerous pamphlets and booklets for cadet recruitment including slide shows (PowerPoint) for classroom briefings.
Respond to requests relating to payroll processing/preparation.

Prepare your clerical secretary resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your clerical secretary resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a clerical secretary resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable clerical secretary resume templates

Build a professional clerical secretary resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your clerical secretary resume.