LO
Receptionist / front desk — 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): Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants · Office Clerks, General · Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service · Interviewers, Except Eligibility and Loan · Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants · Counter and Rental Clerks · Patient Representatives · Correspondence Clerks
In the official classification#
Receptionists and Information Clerks
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 43-4171.00 (Receptionists and Information Clerks). Ordered by O*NET's importance rating; the words are O*NET's own scale anchors.
Transferable skills
- Service OrientationVery important
- Social PerceptivenessImportant
- CoordinationImportant
- Time ManagementImportant
- Complex Problem SolvingImportant
- PersuasionImportant
- InstructingImportant
- Judgment and Decision MakingSomewhat important
Knowledge
- Customer and Personal ServiceVery important
- AdministrativeVery important
- English LanguageVery important
- Computers and ElectronicsImportant
- MathematicsImportant
- Public Safety and SecurityImportant
Work activities
- Working with ComputersExtremely important
- Getting InformationVery important
- Performing for or Working Directly with the PublicVery important
- Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or SubordinatesVery important
- Making Decisions and Solving ProblemsVery important
- Assisting and Caring for OthersVery important
Abilities
- Oral ExpressionVery important
- Oral ComprehensionVery important
- Speech RecognitionVery important
- Speech ClarityVery important
- Written ComprehensionVery important
- Written ExpressionImportant
Essential skills
- SpeakingVery important
- Active ListeningVery important
- Reading ComprehensionImportant
- Critical ThinkingImportant
- WritingImportant
Tasks O*NET proposes to add#
O*NET's analysts propose new or reworded task statements for future data collection, drawing on what surveyed workers write in, research into new technologies and professional associations. They are candidates, not yet part of the rated task list, and they say nothing about whether automation is involved. This site does not fold them into its own task judgements.
- Enter and update databases of contact information, such as names, addresses, and phone numbers.New task · 2023-08 · reported by surveyed workers · O*NET 31.0
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 4 task judgements are for: 3 backed by a verified event, 1 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.