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Admin Careers Outlook 2009
By John Rossheim, Monster Senior Contributing Writer
With all that administrative professionals do these days, most companies simply can’t keep running without them. The question for 2009 is: With so many economic trains running out of steam, how many admins will employers still need?
As always, demand for administrative professionals is hard to predict, since so many admins work in temporary, contract or other contingent arrangements. Management may adopt a wide range of staffing strategies for contingent admins, from embracing them instead of full-time hires in a time of historically high uncertainty, to letting all temps go to maintain staff morale and organizational integrity.
“I don’t think 2009 is different from any other year, but employers are going to be cautious about who they hire,” says Archie Toth, senior vice president of franchise operations for Snelling Staffing Services.
Toth also believes that middle managers may attempt to bring on admins while they can, before their companies batten down. “There may be some hiring freezes, so some managers will try to get hiring done in the first quarter.”
One thing is for certain: Admins cannot assume their careers are safe. They must act to maximize their visible value to current and prospective employers.
“It’s a full-time job getting a job, and in 2009, it’ll be a full-time job keeping a job,” says Susan Fenner, Monster Admin/Support Advisor and manager of education and professional development at the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP). “Yes, that’s a lot of pressure, but you’re up to it if you have motivation and initiative.”
Specialist vs. Generalist Skills
In 2009, more than ever, administrative professionals must work to make themselves jacks of all trades and masters of several. “Specialist skills will help get you in the door, and generalist skills will help when things change, enabling you to pitch in with anything that comes up,” says Fenner.
This means, for example, that subject-matter specialists should learn to apply their expertise on new technology platforms, such as micro-blogging sites Yammer and Twitter. And admins who excel at Excel in the context of project management would do well to learn how to apply the spreadsheet program to tasks such as complex data entry.
Toth sounds a similar theme. “Employers will try to do more with less and use people on staff to multitask,” he says. “Companies have gotten smaller, so you may work in accounting and HR and several different environments.”
It’s also more important than ever to project your skills toward your employer’s current and future needs. “You need to sell the skills you have, not the title you used to have,” says Fenner.
Fenner notes that today, many jobs for admins have titles other than administrative assistant, such as presentation specialist. So it’s important to broaden your search of job titles to include the full range of specialist administrative positions for which you are qualified.
Companies Will Employ Staffing Strategies to Suit the Times
Administrative professionals should recognize their work arrangements will be subject to their employers’ sometimes chaotically changing needs. “Companies will be looking for temporary help if they have a specific project, such as writing or proofreading a substantial report or reorganizing a filing scheme,” says Fenner.
Admins who work on a contingent basis may find themselves in demand when the deep recession of the late 2000s begins to ease. “If companies are unsure of when business will pick up, they will use temporary workers to give them more flexibility, to turn a fixed cost into a variable cost,” says Toth.
To be sure, 2009 will be no time to petition for a big raise. “There will be very small increases, or pay will be static as companies look at their expenses,” says Toth. “There are so many candidates on the market.”
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