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

What is a service secretary and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Anne McConnell Ph.D.

A service secretary is in charge of performing both administrative and clerical duties in a firm. This includes maintaining databases and filing systems, coordinating meetings, and preparing documents. Service secretaries are employed in the business, law, and education industries. They greet visitors and answer inquiries. Asides from that, they manage communication, including sending emails, screening and redirecting phone calls and taking messages. Also, they receive deliveries, sort and distribute incoming mail.

Although candidates are required to have a high school diploma, some employers prefer an associate's degree in a related field. You are required to have at least two years of relevant experience. The core skills for this role include interpersonal, attention to detail, organization, and communication skills. You must be familiar with general office procedures. Additionally, you must be proficient in Microsoft Office. Service secretaries are paid an average salary of $37,738 per annum or $18.14 per hour. This varies from $31,000 to $44,000.

What general advice would you give to a service secretary?

Anne McConnell Ph.D.

Professor, West Virginia State University

I would say it's important to be very attentive to the way you communicate with your employers, managers, and co-workers. Even sending an e-mail can be an opportunity to demonstrate your professionalism and communication skills. Some people think that no one knows how to write anymore, or how to communicate in a professional way. I don't think that's true. But we don't always think about how our writing can be a tool to communicate our competence and seriousness. If you know how to write and communicate professionally-which college grads do-then make sure to demonstrate that in the workplace.

ScoreService SecretaryUS Average

Salary

2.4

Avg. Salary $30,948

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 9.31%

Hispanic or Latino 16.29%

Unknown 3.87%

White 65.96%

Gender

female 92.96%

male 7.04%

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 service secretary

Explore service secretary education requirements

Most common service secretary degrees

Bachelor's

30.0 %

Associate

27.9 %

High School Diploma

26.5 %

Start to develop specific service secretary skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	13.97%
Customer Service	13.58%
Data Entry	8.87%
Payroll	6.88%
Telephone Calls	6.58%

Complete relevant service secretary training and internships

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

Research service secretary duties and responsibilities

Lead DoD team that assist Pakistan in gaining military capabilities to conduct counter-terrorism operations against the Taliban.
Assist payroll administrator with completing bi-weekly payroll.
Compose and edit PowerPoint presentations for physicians.
Develop several PowerPoint presentations utilize for training purposes.

Prepare your service secretary resume

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

Build a professional service 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 service secretary resume.