Secretarial soft skills: confidence

At Pitman Training Hammersmith, candidates often know that they need to do a secretarial course to get a job as a secretary or PA. However, like every career, there are other skills required too. Often, these are termed ‘soft skills’ mainly because they concern the emotions and personal traits required to do the job. Although difficult to measure, they are crucial to the position of secretary.  

One such ‘soft skill’ which is often overlooked is confidence. Without a degree of confidence, an aspiring secretary will find it difficult to reach the pinnacle of their profession.

Therefore, how does the aspiring secretary develop the required confidence? Confidence is often based on a belief that you are competent to do the task required. Often the more the person believes that they have the relevant skills, the more confidence the person acquires.

Whilst learning the skills is a necessary part of confidence building for the aspiring secretary, often more is required to really become confident. During the secretarial course, work experience is often encouraged because the more the candidate uses the skills they have learned during the secretarial course, the more confident they will feel. This experience is invaluable for creating confidence.

All secretarial course providers need to encourage the candidate to get their CV finished and start searching for work. Work experience in their chosen field can have as much impact on their confidence levels as secretarial courses.

Some aspiring secretaries are often worried about finding a job and do not have the confidence to sit interviews. If this is the case, the candidate must confide in their  secretarial course provider about their difficulties with interviews. In response, the secretarial course provider will gladly go through role plays with the candidate so that the candidate is competent to sit an interview. It is surprising how many people have very little confidence at interviews.

Mike Connolly has written many articles on secretarial courses and the skills required to be taught as part of a secretarial course. For further details on the skills required to become a secretary look at the course outlines on the Pitman Training Hammersmith website.