LO
Administrative assistant — skills, knowledge and links
Where this job sits in the official classifications, what those classifications say it demands, and what it connects to. Every block names its source: our own judgements, the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET, or the U.S. Department of Education.
How it connects#
O*NET also lists (no page here yet): Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants · Office Clerks, General · Administrative Services Managers · Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants · Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants · Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping · Correspondence Clerks
In the official classification#
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
Fit with this page: same job
Job Zone 1–2: very little to some preparation
See it on O*NET OnLine ↗What O*NET rates highest#
From O*NET 43-6014.00 (Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive). Ordered by O*NET's importance rating; the words are O*NET's own scale anchors.
Transferable skills
- Service OrientationVery important
- Time ManagementVery important
- CoordinationImportant
- Social PerceptivenessImportant
- Judgment and Decision MakingImportant
- Complex Problem SolvingImportant
- Management of Personnel ResourcesImportant
- NegotiationSomewhat important
Knowledge
- AdministrativeExtremely important
- English LanguageVery important
- Computers and ElectronicsVery important
- Customer and Personal ServiceVery important
- Administration and ManagementImportant
- MathematicsImportant
Work activities
- Working with ComputersVery important
- Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or SubordinatesVery important
- Getting InformationVery important
- Performing Administrative ActivitiesVery important
- Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing WorkVery important
- Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal RelationshipsVery important
Abilities
- Oral ComprehensionVery important
- Written ComprehensionVery important
- Oral ExpressionVery important
- Written ExpressionVery important
- Near VisionVery important
- Speech RecognitionVery important
Essential skills
- Active ListeningVery important
- SpeakingVery important
- Reading ComprehensionVery important
- WritingVery important
- MonitoringImportant
Our task judgements#
O*NET says what this job demands. It does not say what automation is doing to it — that is what this site's 5 task judgements are for: 3 backed by a verified event, 2 platform inference. VOLO judgement
Sources and rules#
- Four kinds of source, and each block says which: this site's own judgements, O*NET, the U.S. Department of Education's CIP–SOC crosswalk, or something computed mechanically from those. Nothing on this page is a rating we made up.
- O*NET's importance ratings are used only to order and shorten the lists. They are never combined with this site's impact index or evidence counts.
- The fit between our page and an O*NET occupation is our judgement and is stated per code: same job, broader, part of it, or only the closest there is.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026 release, U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, CC BY 4.0. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The translations of O*NET descriptors on this page are ours, not O*NET's.