Secretary

There is a diverse array of work experiences attainable within the administrative support field, ranging between internship, entry-level, associate, junior, mid-senior, and senior level pay bands with positions in nearly every industry, especially among white-collar careers.

[11] The duties may vary according to the nature and size of the company or organization, and might include managing budgets, bookkeeping, attending telephone calls, handling visitors, maintaining websites, travel arrangements, event planning, and preparing expense reports.

From the Renaissance until the late 19th century, men involved in the daily correspondence and the activities of the powerful had assumed the title of secretary.

Just "secretary" remained in use either as an abbreviation when clear in the context or for relatively modest positions such as administrative assistant of the officer(s) in charge, either individually or as member of a secretariat.

As such less influential posts became more feminine and common with the multiplication of bureaucracies in the public and private sectors, new words were also coined to describe them, such as personal assistant.

In the 1840s and 1850s commercial schools were emerging to train male and female students the skills needed to work in a clerical position.

[19] In 1870, Sir Isaac Pitman founded a school where students could qualify as shorthand writers to "professional and commercial men".

The organization developed the first standardized test for office workers called the Certified Professional Secretaries Examination (CPS).

[23][24] Until recent years, the profession of secretary in the original sense was often subject, in the collective imagination, to stereotypes and pejorative connotations.

Indeed, secretarial work was easily associated with low-value, thankless, and badly paid tasks, such as serving coffee to superiors, making photocopies or filing menial documents.

In addition, the profession was once exercised almost exclusively by women and considered a pink-collar job in previous decades, but in the 21st century many employers began re-classifying many entry-level positions, including white-collar jobs historically held by men in decades past, as secretary, administrative assistant, or program assistant roles.

As the duties of a modern secretary often still include the handling of confidential information, the literal meaning of their title still holds true.