How do I start a career in Office Administration?

We decided to write this blog article based on the overwhelming quantity of our students suggesting this as an area of interest for their future careers.

So, what’s office administration? It’s a very generic catch-all term for a large variety of different jobs within an office environment.

It’s actually a great place for young adults to start their careers when they are unsure of which direction to go. In fact, it’s been the starting place for hundreds of thousands of bright careers over the last few decades.

The beauty of this career path is that there are so many different forks in the road. The role itself can start off quite plainly; supporting various departments to improve efficiency, using basic word processing tools and occasionally answering the phones, to name a few. It can be quite stressful depending on the business and timeframes are often tight, however people with good communication, organizational and IT skills generally can do well!

The forks come later. The basic skills learnt while working in office administration can lead to a variety of different career options, in virtually all sectors present in the UK! With a few years office administration experience, you could safely apply for junior positions within logistics, operations, marketing, customer support, sales, purchasing, accounts and more!

The trick to advancing past office administration (if that is something you desire) is to pick your employer carefully! You are much more likely to secure a move into your chosen department after a few years of solid service to your employer as they will typically recognise how quickly you developed and how efficiently you worked.

Generally speaking, larger employers with 100 or more staff have more opportunities to advance compared to smaller businesses. In contrast to that, a smaller company would probably have you helping in some the more advanced areas a lot sooner, however your job title (and pay) may not reflect this.

So, is office administration a solid career choice? Absolutely yes. You can learn a lot about how a business functions, develop a range of skills, and then use that knowledge to make more informed career choices further down the road.