If you're tired of waiting tables there are many career options that would be open to you with just a few months of study from a correspondence college. One of these careers is office administration. If you've ever wondered how people secure jobs for themselves working in offices, this article is for you. It describes the roles assigned to office administrators and the training you should undergo if you want to become one yourself.

There are many different types of jobs that take place in an office setting, and not all of them fall under the heading of office administration. Engineers, for example, mostly do their work on computers in an office setting, and communications roles are filled by people with public relations training and experience. To become management or work in accounting in an office, you will also need a relevant university degree. But that doesn't mean everyone who works in an office is a university grad.

To become an office administrator, your training need only come from a community or correspondence college or career training institute. The job of an office administrator is to keep the office running smoothly. That means doing up invoices, paying bills, scheduling work assignments for employees, keeping the books, hiring personnel, and inventorying and ordering supplies. The specific tasks you would have to perform depend on the size of the office and its purpose. Let's pretend for a moment that you got an office job working for a business that specializes in oily wastewater as an example. Your duties would include answering the phone and speaking to potential clients, making appointments for a technician to inspect the property.

With a diploma in office administration, there are a variety of work settings you might find yourself in. You might be hired to take over the day to day administration of a series of fitness clubs, to work in the human resources department of a large company, or you might even put your skills to work running your own small business. To be successful in this career field, you need to have a solid head for business and numbers as well as an ability to work well with people and a willingness to take your orders from upper management.

If you think office administration may be for you, you can register online to take the relevant course without even leaving your current job. By studying nights and weekends or at your own pace, you can get your diploma in a few months to a year. Almost any college offers this program, including Douglas College, Seneca College, Sheridan College, Compu Campus, and CDI. Costs and time commitment required will vary, so explore all your options before committing to a program. In order to be accepted, you will need your high school diploma or GED.