How to Reskill Administrative Experience for Work From Home Jobs

With a work-from-home reality for the indefinite future, it can be difficult to find positions that align with workplace-specific experience. Although the workforce may be temporarily limited to remote work, job candidates who have worked in administrative roles, such as office manager or secretary, have likely developed several in-demand skills that can be reframed to fit remote job requirements across several industries.

Easily Translatable Administrative Skills

Sometimes the most successful job applicants are the ones who can determine how to connect seemingly niche experience to an unrelated position in order to make the argument for why they would excel in that role. When designing your resume and answering questions during job interviews, here are the experience and skills you should be highlighting to help secure lucrative work from home positions:

1. Organizational Skills

Administrative jobs, such as an administrative assistant or office manager, require strong organizational skills to keep track of events, messages, reminders, and other workplace tasks that help keep their company running smoothly. The ability to divide your time and energy and stay focused on multiple duties translates well into the work-from-home environment because there may be a greater need to check in with coworkers while they work remotely, adjust meeting plans due to changing availability, and resolve possible technical difficulties.

2. Time Management

Administrative team members are often tasked with multiple tasks and deadlines at once, so they must effectively manage their time to ensure deadlines are met and that priorities can be readjusted in response to change.

Learn More: Time Management Tips to Improve Your Productivity in the Workplace

Excellent time management skills are important for several telework jobs because they require the independence and discipline to stick to schedules without wasting time or getting off task.

3. Problem Solving

Workplaces will likely have unexpected situations come up, which means that employees in administrative roles should be used to determining how to best address challenges as they arise to quickly resolve any obstacles to success. For at-home positions, there could be complications related to getting a hold of someone who is working remotely or determining how to best engage customers or clients when they lose the face to face or more personal contact with a company. A job seeker that shows that they can think outside of the box and adapt quickly will stand out from those who can’t.

4. Communication

Running an organization or managing an office requires a variety of communication skills including answering phones, sending emails, and greeting clients and visitors. Effective communicators make strong job candidates for several in-demand positions because they are able to explain their positions on topics and listen well to others.

Strong job seeker candidates for work-from-home positions will be those who are proactive in communicating with their team and customers and set clear expectations when starting new professional relationships.

Lucrative Work From Home Jobs

Keeping those skills in mind, here are a few jobs to consider applying to that align well with administrative experience:

1. Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant’s required skills and daily tasks fall closely in line with what traditional administrative assistants do, except that work is done outside of an office environment, usually through video or messaging software. Similar to administrative roles, virtual assistants will need to use a combination of oral communication and writing skills to send emails and make presentations. The position is designed for working remotely while leveraging office management expertise, which means this is a lucrative opportunity for administrative workers looking for remote work.

Virtual assistant tasks include :

Managing social media campaigns and posts
Email communication
Calendar and event management
Presentation preparation
Customer service support

2. Customer Service Representatives

The customer service position is one role that is increasingly transitioning remotely. Companies frequently require at least one team member who is available to monitor phone communications and answer questions to assist customers or help process orders. Candidates who are comfortable with several communication mediums, fast information retrieval, and time management skills will excel in this role, especially when working at home.

Customer representative tasks include:

Communicating personably via phone or online channels
Identifying customer needs and determining how to resolve issues
Managing calls and emails in a timely manner

Work With Sparks Group To Find Remote Work

Translating office-specific skills into a remote work environment can be difficult. Leveraging the help of an experienced admin staffing firm, like Sparks Group, can help candidates overcome job application and interview hurdles related to reskilling your experience to fit lucrative job requirements. Sparks Group is a national staffing and recruiting firm committed to placing highly-qualified talent in administrative, IT, finance, and creative positions at partner companies.

Check out our Job Board to find your next opportunity or contact a recruiter to get started on your job application process.