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

What is a departmental secretary and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a departmental secretary. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.03 an hour? That's $31,261 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -8% and produce -286,900 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreDepartmental SecretaryUS Average

Salary

2.4

Avg. Salary $31,261

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.0

Growth rate -8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.74%

Asian 3.99%

Black or African American 10.30%

Hispanic or Latino 14.93%

Unknown 3.91%

White 66.13%

Gender

female 90.56%

male 9.44%

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 departmental secretary

Explore departmental secretary education requirements

Most common departmental secretary degrees

Bachelor's

44.7 %

Associate

24.2 %

High School Diploma

12.6 %

Start to develop specific departmental secretary skills

Skills	Percentages
Purchase Orders	17.99%
Dictation	11.30%
Epic	8.90%
Payroll	8.76%
Travel Arrangements	8.72%

Complete relevant departmental secretary training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New departmental 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 departmental secretary based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real departmental secretary resumes.

Research departmental secretary duties and responsibilities

Manage financial bookkeeping efficiently for the company using QuickBooks.
Complete and monitor payroll in the API system for multiple employees.
Prepare and submit employment, payroll and tuition forms to comptroller for faculty, staff and students.
Coordinate between student, local and national political movements by issuing departmental briefings for the political science and economics departments.

Prepare your departmental secretary resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your departmental 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 departmental 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 departmental secretary resume templates

Build a professional departmental 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 departmental secretary resume.