Career Questions and Answers
What is the difference between a Receptionist and an Administrative Assistant?
Asked by miss me!
What are the difference in responsiblities? Financial Compensation?
Asked by miss me!
What are the difference in responsiblities? Financial Compensation?
A:
Best Answer:
Only the Title
Only the Title
A:
Receptionists are generally 'front desk' personnel and have less duties (i.e. answer the phone, do some filing, etc.). They also don't generally do work in the actual business part of a compnay. An administrative assistant generally does receptionist duties, but also does work for whatever it is the company does - usually one superior that they work for.
In many cases the titles are used interchangeably.
Answered by Miss MeMe
Answered by Miss MeMe
A:
Administrative assistants typically are assigned to assist one person (or a number of people) receptionist are front desk people. They answer the phones and do other duties but typically are not assisting one particular person.
Answered by megs1bq
Answered by megs1bq
A:
The job "Receptionist" refers to someone who receives guests and handles incoming phone calls.
The job "Administrative Assistant" is far more vague, only specifying that the person assist someone else in clerical duties (and they may assist more than one other person).
That being said, most receptionists do other clerical work (though their principle reason for existing is still the phone and the door) and there are lots of administrators who also man the front desk.
The job of receptionist at a busy company is thankless. I wouldn't wish that on anybody.
Answered by Elana
Answered by Elana
A:
An Administrative Assistant is more like a secretary while a Receptionist's main function is to answer phones and greet people who come into the place of business.
A lot of Receptionist's do secretarial work too but they get paid less than an Admin. Assistant.
Answered by WilmaF
Answered by WilmaF
A:
A receptionist answers the phones and greets people. An administrative assistant is just a PC word for a secretary. A secretary usually does more specialized work, like writing letters, handling phone calls and letters for the boss. Your computer skills have to be much better to be an administrative assistant since most of your time will be spent on a computer. Most businesses understand the difference between the two and will compensate accordingly, but some request a receptionist at minmum and make her/him do the job of an admin. asst.
Answered by Denise P
Answered by Denise P
A:
receptionists are generally greeters and answer the phone
admins have a responsibility to assist their boos and can make many decisions for him/her
receptionists make much less $$$ than admins do
Answered by murrayc
Answered by murrayc
A:
about $20,000 a year. Administrative assistance are very skilled at things like doing taxes, notary public, busines law, steno etc.
A receptionist basically answers a phone and greets people.
Most jobs are somewhere in between.
Answered by Fancy That
Answered by Fancy That
A:
A Receptionist typically will only answer phones and run errands.
An Administrative Assistant requires higher level skills which include the above but also require letter writing, knowledge in and using various Microsoft applications (ie Word, Excel, Project, etc) and other tasks that are important.
You should make more being an Administrative Assistant.
Hope this helps.
Answered by Marv S
Answered by Marv S
A:
Financial Compensation and Job duties. You will make more money (not a lot more) as an AA. But you will have more job duties. As a receptionist, your main job is to basically push papers, make copies and answer the phone. As an AA, you acquire all of those job duties, as well as working under somebody and assist them with their work tasks. An AA is more of a personal assistant. If whoever you work under needs something completed, entered into the computer, or needs to research information to finish their task, then you will be given the burden of completing those tasks.
Answered by Matty Matty Chicken Patty
Answered by Matty Matty Chicken Patty
A:
Receptionist: answers phone, and greets people..
Administrative Assistant: all of the above maybe, plus office duties... The difference in money could be minimal or a great deal depending on the company. God bless****
Answered by Glo*
Answered by Glo*
A:
There may be some overlap of tasks and responsibilities, but generally the term receptionist refers to someone whose main duties are related to office RECEPTION, such as greeting walk in customers or answering the telephone. The receptionist would need to already have experience or quick aptitude in working the telephone system to relay calls efficiently, as well as possibly taking messages or relaying calls to the proper voice mail. Other tasks might include fielding certain general questions (hours of business, driving directions, appointment setting, etc.), and other light clerical duties. Multi-tasking and excellent people skills as well as a neat professional appearance would be the main skills an employer would probably look for in a receptionist. Unless this is a very prestigious corporate environment (in which case you'd probably have to have a resume to match) reception is considered an entry-level job and most likely wouldn't require a college degree, so compensation would likely be somewhere between minimum wage and $10-12/hour (in my part of the country), maybe more in other areas, but still entry-level wages for whatever region it is.
Administrative assistant would probably involve more typing, filing, and maybe even some light accounting. This job would involve all tasks associated with the office administration for this particular company. A business degree or at least typing skill would probably be required, and I would guess the pay scale would be $2-5/hour more than the receptionist makes.
Answered by arklatexrat
Answered by arklatexrat
A:
A receptionist gets pay less than an administrative assistant. I am not really sure the exact amount. But if an admin at the company gets $12/hr then the receptionist gets paid less than that, maybe between $8-10/hr.
A receptionist sits up front to greet whoever walks through the door, answer calls and transfer them, other duties as assigned. You have to be a very cheerful and friendly person to do that. You will be smiling all day long, you might as well draw a smiley face on your face with a permanent marker.
An administrative assistant is normally a bit higher position than a receptionist. They do things such as entering data/creating PowerPoint presentation/assisting managers' expense report/arranging off-site meetings/make travel arrangements for managers/filing/faxing/etc. They also answer calls but not as much as a receptionist. But of course it depends on the size of the company. Bigger companies have a receptionist AND at least 1 administrative assistant. Smaller companies normally double the job of a receptionist and administrative assistant as one job.
I think a receptionist has a lot of potential of moving up, as long as you do your job wonderfully and the people around you like you. Try to be a receptionist at bigger company so you will have opportunity to apply to move up when a higher level position becomes available.
Answered by Caitlyn
Answered by Caitlyn
A:
Administrative Assistant is just a fancy title for a receptionist. There are no differences in responsibilities. The admin at my work sits at the front desk, answers all calls, makes appointments, etc. She does filing and some typing. She gets angry when we refer to her as the receptionist which is exactly what she is. As far as I know receptionist pays less.
Answered by MetalQueen
Answered by MetalQueen
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