It is the department secretary's responsibility to handle the administrative tasks for the activities of an organization to run smoothly. A secretary answers phone calls, takes messages, and arranges appointments. You are responsible for the preparation and collation of reports, management of databases, and maintenance of diaries. During meetings, the secretary presents agendas and takes down minutes. Your duty includes making orders for new office supplies and to welcome business clients. Plus, you also have to document financial information and maintain the filing system. In addition, a secretary helps executives with project tasks, supervise new employees and implement administrative procedures.
A high school diploma is the least academic requirement for this role. Some companies prefer applicants with proven work experience in a similar role. As a secretary, you must be familiar with the office environment and tools such as Microsoft Office. You must also be able to multitask, meet up with deadlines, and possess organizational skills. The average salary of a department secretary yearly is $33,547.
How to Become a Department Secretary
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a department secretary. For example, did you know that they make an average of $16.73 an hour? That's $34,803 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -7% and produce -276,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Department Secretary Do
There are certain skills that many department secretaries 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.
How To Become a Department Secretary
If you're interested in becoming a department secretary, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 38.7% of department secretaries have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 4.6% of department secretaries have master's degrees. Even though some department secretaries have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a department secretary. When we researched the most common majors for a department secretary, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on department secretary resumes include high school diploma degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a department secretary. In fact, many department secretary jobs require experience in a role such as administrative assistant. Meanwhile, many department secretaries also have previous career experience in roles such as secretary or customer service representative.
Department Secretary Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a department secretary can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as executive assistant, progress to a title such as office manager and then eventually end up with the title business manager.
Average Salary for a Department Secretary
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Department Secretarys
1. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
2. Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, NC • Private
3. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
4. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
5. Ball State University
Muncie, IN • Private
6. California State University - Bakersfield
Bakersfield, CA • Private
7. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
8. Baruch College of the City University of New York
New York, NY • Private
9. Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH • Private
10. Cedar Crest College
Allentown, PA • Private
Top Skills For a Department Secretary
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, 9.9% of department secretaries listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as interpersonal skills and organizational skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Department Secretary Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Department Secretary templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Department Secretary resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Department Secretary Demographics
Department Secretary Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among department secretaries, 93.0% of them are women, while 7.0% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among department secretaries is White, which makes up 70.2% of all department secretaries.
- The most common foreign language among department secretaries is Spanish at 64.5%.
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Best States For a Department Secretary
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a department secretary. The best states for people in this position are California, Oregon, Vermont, and Massachusetts. Department secretaries make the most in California with an average salary of $44,131. Whereas in Oregon and Vermont, they would average $43,996 and $43,429, respectively. While department secretaries would only make an average of $43,391 in Massachusetts, 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. Massachusetts
$43,391
Avg. Salary
2. Oregon
$43,996
Avg. Salary
3. Florida
$39,510
Avg. Salary
How Do Department Secretary Rate Their Jobs?
Top Department Secretary Employers
Most Common Employers For Department Secretary
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lockheed Martin | $52,717 | $25.34 | 11 |
| 2 | Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare | $44,184 | $21.24 | 11 |
| 3 | Sutter Health | $44,059 | $21.18 | 17 |
| 4 | Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan | $39,776 | $19.12 | 12 |
| 5 | Norton Healthcare | $39,614 | $19.05 | 12 |
| 6 | Valley Baptist Health System | $38,801 | $18.65 | 11 |
| 7 | St Joseph's Hospital | $38,639 | $18.58 | 21 |
| 8 | St. Luke's Hospital | $38,594 | $18.55 | 13 |
| 9 | Carilion Clinic | $38,062 | $18.30 | 26 |
| 10 | Huntsville Hospital | $37,698 | $18.12 | 27 |