Today’s article is a guest post from Wendy Stoneman.
In my time with my current employer, I’ve been involved in training a few of our new admins. At some point in their first year they generally ask about training. Can they get some sort of training to improve their skills in a particular software program or office process? (Unfortunately, at our office the answer is “no”.)
Rarely though, is anyone referring to total immersion in a software program when they ask that question. Usually, they’re getting bogged down with a few tasks in a particular software – they can’t fix footers in Microsoft Word or rearrange pages in an Adobe .pdf file. They know this lack of mastery costs them time and energy and they simply want to resolve it.
Even without training programs or budgets for traditional or online classes, there are still ways to learn the tips and tricks you need to become more efficient. I recently became the Adobe Queen of my office. I’m certainly no expert, but I’ve mastered what I need to solve most issues I’ve run into with any Adobe .pdf file. Here’s the plan that worked for me:
So, stop waiting for Human Resources or the Training Department to come up with the perfect class or seminar for your needs. In this new world of work, it’s up to you to take charge of your training.
Wendy Stoneman lives in Vienna, Virginia, and works at a mid-size law firm in nearby Fairfax, VA, where she is a legal secretary in the corporate law division. Wendy has worked in administrative roles for over 15 years in multiple industries all over the country.
For more information about working with Adobe pdf files, Wendy recommends these sites:
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Wendy’s right. More and more training is being dropped by offices and must be picked up by the admin if they want to succeed. Great article.
After reading this post I made an appointment with my IT gal to learn mail merge once and for all! I’m tired of fighting with it everytime I do it. Great advice.
Great article…It’s a reminder that we should all be proactive at the workplace!
Megan – Way to go! Mail Merge was one of the first things I sat down and taught myself in Word. It’s made many tasks so much easier over the years.
My reply to Wendy when she sent me this post was “Wow, I wish I’d written that!” *laughs* I’m almost entirely self-taught in my software. My basic personality is to solve puzzles, so any time I want to do something and don’t know how, I go out and find an answer somewhere.
Wendy really hit the nail on the head with this post.
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I made an appointment with my IT gal to learn mail merge once and for all! I’m tired of fighting with it everytime I do it. You give an great advise..