[HPFGU-OTChatter] A question?

[Sherry Gomes]

nope.  They are quite different.  in fact, the term secretary is rarely used
now and has been replaced by the term administrative assistant.  A
receptionist is the person who answers a company's phones, greets
visitors/customers.  They may do things like handle office mail, schedule
meetings, order lunches, handle ordering of supplies that are for the entire
office, keep the lobby area looking nice.  They may do a little computer
work, but their primary focus is to be the public impression for the
company.

A secretary usually works for a group of people inside the company.  
For instance, I was the administrative assistant at a nonprofit blindness
agency, ad I worked for the director of public relations and fund raising.
My duties did involve phones and visitors, but only as it related to our
department.  I had much more involved duties than the receptionist.  Highly
advanced computer skills, such as entering donor gifts into online
databases, running reports in that data base, handling correspondence
between my boss and donors or board members, arranging tours, mail merges,
reconciling expenses for department members who went on trips for business,
developing special events, assisting with our newsletter ... oh too many
things to list here without getting boring.  So, my job duties were
dependent on the needs of the department I worked in.  A secretary usually
works for a person or group of people, focusing on the needs of that person
and the group.  

I don't know if that made any sense.  i've done both positions.  Sometimes,
you might be a combined receptionist/administrative assistant.  That means
you do the public impression stuff, but you also do a lot of work for others
in the company, usually computer related and perhaps accounting.

Sherry


-----Original Message-----
From: Ivy [mailto:desiivy at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2005 11:19 PM
To: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [HPFGU-OTChatter] A question?




OK this is probably a very stupid question but, I am wondering if 
there is a difference between a secretary and a receptionist? I 
honestly don't know, since I have never been one or needed one.  I 
was reading a fanfic and the author referred to each job as a 
different job.I just assumed they were the same thing. Are they?
 Thanks, ~Ivy~






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