Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's probably your age/image. They most likely want someone young and fresh. I say this since your resume gets through and you get interviewed.

Why is this acceptable? You would never say "It's because of your race" or "they likely want someone white." Why is ageism socially acceptable and racism is abhorrent? Last I checked, both were illegal.

Anonymous wrote:It's probably your age/image. They most likely want someone young and fresh. I say this since your resume gets through and you get interviewed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worked as an admin a few years ago right after college.

An implicit part of the job was always being tech savvy. For example, I could talk about creating email merges to streamline customer communications. I used constant contact for event planning, etc. I also talked about existing relationships with vendors/caterers/venues for event planning. None of these things are hard, but if you've been out of the workforce for a long time, it's just a matter of lack of exposure.

If someone else is throwing out ideas of how to streamline the company's processes in an interview, youre going to look a lot less attractive by simply being smart and enthusiastic. They probably view you as needing training whereas someone else can step in and go from day one. If the only computer skills you have is Microsoft office, that's pretty much nothing.

Here's the thing though. Even though I could easily get hired for these jobs, I absolutely hated them, and I would quit the minute something better came along. These jobs are notorious for high turnover. Since this is something that you're actually interested in doing, that is a major asset and I don't think you're effectively communicating this.

You absolutely need to address your PhD and tell a compelling story about how you got from there to here. Not sure how, but definitely practice your pitch with friends/family and ask for honest feedback.

OP here. Thank you for this helpful post. I was asked about a mail merge, and I told them honestly that I'd never done one. They looked askance at me after that. I don't understand why that's a big deal, though. How long can it take to learn? And how and what do I need to learn to get up to speed.? All I know is MS Office, that's it. I've used lots of different computer program in the past. So many are obsolete now, but they weren't difficult to learn. I've never used constant contact, but how do I learn that? I'm not clear how I'm supposed to learn this stuff. Do I take classes? Don't most people acquire these comptuer skills on the job? And I have no existing relationship with vendors/caterers/venues. But I'm eager and trainable. I'm not trying to be condescending at all, but honestly, how long can it take to learn these things? Am I being arrogant in assuming I could be up to speed in a week?

In the past I've been praised for getting work done very well and quickly. I don't waste time. I'm not sure how to communicate this to an employer though. They'd have to see me in action. I'm good at simplifying complex tasks. In one of the interviews, an employer described a task she'd asked an existing employee to do, but that employee wasn't able to manage it. It was a task I could do in my sleep. I told her I'd be able to handle it easily. I wasn't sure if that was the correct answer, though. Perhaps I ought to have kept my mouth shut?

Hi OP,
I'm the PP. I don't think taking classes would be very beneficial to you. It also sends the wrong message - that you needed a class to be able to use computers... As I said, none of these things are particularly difficult, they just require some practice. Here's some concrete advice; This year, for your holiday cards, do a mail merge for the envelopes! (I no longer work as an admin and I still do this because it saves so much time!) From a skills standpoint, it's the same thing if you're preparing 50 or 500. Plus, it's a story that will go over really well at the next interview.

Also, send out a personalized email Thanksgiving or Christmas letter this year using an email merge. Just google how to do email and mail merges. If it's easy for you, I think it would make for a great story at your next interview. Plus, this will convince people that you're comfortable with technology, even if you're not familiar with every single program that they use. Look, they already know you're smart, this shows them that you're able to apply yourself in ways that are relevant to the job.

Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worked as an admin a few years ago right after college.

An implicit part of the job was always being tech savvy. For example, I could talk about creating email merges to streamline customer communications. I used constant contact for event planning, etc. I also talked about existing relationships with vendors/caterers/venues for event planning. None of these things are hard, but if you've been out of the workforce for a long time, it's just a matter of lack of exposure.

If someone else is throwing out ideas of how to streamline the company's processes in an interview, youre going to look a lot less attractive by simply being smart and enthusiastic. They probably view you as needing training whereas someone else can step in and go from day one. If the only computer skills you have is Microsoft office, that's pretty much nothing.

Here's the thing though. Even though I could easily get hired for these jobs, I absolutely hated them, and I would quit the minute something better came along. These jobs are notorious for high turnover. Since this is something that you're actually interested in doing, that is a major asset and I don't think you're effectively communicating this.

You absolutely need to address your PhD and tell a compelling story about how you got from there to here. Not sure how, but definitely practice your pitch with friends/family and ask for honest feedback.

OP here. Thank you for this helpful post. I was asked about a mail merge, and I told them honestly that I'd never done one. They looked askance at me after that. I don't understand why that's a big deal, though. How long can it take to learn? And how and what do I need to learn to get up to speed.? All I know is MS Office, that's it. I've used lots of different computer program in the past. So many are obsolete now, but they weren't difficult to learn. I've never used constant contact, but how do I learn that? I'm not clear how I'm supposed to learn this stuff. Do I take classes? Don't most people acquire these comptuer skills on the job? And I have no existing relationship with vendors/caterers/venues. But I'm eager and trainable. I'm not trying to be condescending at all, but honestly, how long can it take to learn these things? Am I being arrogant in assuming I could be up to speed in a week?

In the past I've been praised for getting work done very well and quickly. I don't waste time. I'm not sure how to communicate this to an employer though. They'd have to see me in action. I'm good at simplifying complex tasks. In one of the interviews, an employer described a task she'd asked an existing employee to do, but that employee wasn't able to manage it. It was a task I could do in my sleep. I told her I'd be able to handle it easily. I wasn't sure if that was the correct answer, though. Perhaps I ought to have kept my mouth shut?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take a few classes to get up to speed on the tech skills you need - you can even find them online. Knowing these skills before the interview, will go a long way in helping you secure the job.

I beg of you, please spell out what skills you are referring to? Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:Take a few classes to get up to speed on the tech skills you need - you can even find them online. Knowing these skills before the interview, will go a long way in helping you secure the job.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worked as an admin a few years ago right after college.

An implicit part of the job was always being tech savvy. For example, I could talk about creating email merges to streamline customer communications. I used constant contact for event planning, etc. I also talked about existing relationships with vendors/caterers/venues for event planning. None of these things are hard, but if you've been out of the workforce for a long time, it's just a matter of lack of exposure.

If someone else is throwing out ideas of how to streamline the company's processes in an interview, youre going to look a lot less attractive by simply being smart and enthusiastic. They probably view you as needing training whereas someone else can step in and go from day one. If the only computer skills you have is Microsoft office, that's pretty much nothing.

Here's the thing though. Even though I could easily get hired for these jobs, I absolutely hated them, and I would quit the minute something better came along. These jobs are notorious for high turnover. Since this is something that you're actually interested in doing, that is a major asset and I don't think you're effectively communicating this.

You absolutely need to address your PhD and tell a compelling story about how you got from there to here. Not sure how, but definitely practice your pitch with friends/family and ask for honest feedback.

OP here. Thank you for this helpful post. I was asked about a mail merge, and I told them honestly that I'd never done one. They looked askance at me after that. I don't understand why that's a big deal, though. How long can it take to learn? And how and what do I need to learn to get up to speed.? All I know is MS Office, that's it. I've used lots of different computer program in the past. So many are obsolete now, but they weren't difficult to learn. I've never used constant contact, but how do I learn that? I'm not clear how I'm supposed to learn this stuff. Do I take classes? Don't most people acquire these comptuer skills on the job? And I have no existing relationship with vendors/caterers/venues. But I'm eager and trainable. I'm not trying to be condescending at all, but honestly, how long can it take to learn these things? Am I being arrogant in assuming I could be up to speed in a week?

In the past I've been praised for getting work done very well and quickly. I don't waste time. I'm not sure how to communicate this to an employer though. They'd have to see me in action. I'm good at simplifying complex tasks. In one of the interviews, an employer described a task she'd asked an existing employee to do, but that employee wasn't able to manage it. It was a task I could do in my sleep. I told her I'd be able to handle it easily. I wasn't sure if that was the correct answer, though. Perhaps I ought to have kept my mouth shut?

Yes, you need to take some computer classes. Take up to the intermediate classes for MS Office.

For an admin position, where there are hundreds of applicants, getting an admin up to speed on basic duties like mail merges isn't realistic. Why would the employer spend the time waiting for you to get up to speed when other applicants can already do the core job? Fortunately most of these functions can easily be learned in a couple of classes that you can take in the next two weeks or so.

Excuse my ignorance, but where? What classes in particular? Thanks!

Try Learning Tree or even NOVA's non-credit department. There are also lots of other vendors that may be more convienient to you by doing a quick google search.

Anonymous wrote:OP- Admin assistant is not a job with no skills. As you have seen on this thread, actually it's a lot of skills and you seem to think an employer should train you to do them. Why? There are hundreds of applicants who already know how to do this.