Interviews made easy for the aspiring secretary?

Interview skills are one of those areas which people often worry about a great deal. Those undertaking secretary courses often ask their secretary course provider to help them with interview skills.

The aspiring secretary needs to have confidence in their abilities and, in particular, their ability to do the job for which they have applied. If a candidate has undertaken a good secretary course they should have the required skills so should feel confident that: (a) they can do the job; and (b) believe that they can do the job better than anyone else!

Secretarial candidates often ask Pitman Training Hammersmith whether it is possible to guarantee them a job: the answer is the same, no secretarial course provider can sit the interview for the candidate. Each candidate must acquire the skills necessary to sit interviews and achieve at interviews.

The starting point is confidence. This comes with experience and a sense of inner belief that they can do what is required. This is often tied into the successful completion of a secretarial course.

The next stage is preparation. The candidate needs to investigate the company. What does it do? Where does it operate? Who are its customers? What specialist areas does it work in? All this information needs to be ascertained and looked through. The aspiring secretary will need to demonstrate that they have a particular interest and ability which is particularly relevant to that organisation.

For example, take a candidate who is applying for a job in an online marketing company. The candidate will need to understand the nature of the business before the interview. What is online marketing? What is the jargon linked to online marketing? Who are the clients of the online marketing company? Are they successful? All this information will have to be found and understood.

HR professionals will always tell you that a secretary with relevant background knowledge of the area they are going to work in will always be more valuable than someone with little background knowledge about the company. The main reason is that the skills learned during their secretary courses are far more easily applied and effectively used when the person already has knowledge of the sector in which they are working.

Far too often candidates come to secretarial interviews assuming that their current skill set, such as IT and keyboard skills, is sufficient. Although it helps, far more is required. 

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.