I was employed as an Administrative Officer working for both the Probation and Psychology department. I ensured that all paperwork met deadlines as instructed by the Auditor’s guidelines. I was also responsible for the course referral procedure in that I dealt with prisoners’ requests to be included on a course. I also attended reviews for prisoners having completed the ‘Enhanced Thinking Skills’ or ‘Cognitive Skills Booster’ courses. This role involved working towards national targets with one mutual goal – to reduce reoffending. A large proportion of my job was implementing and using databases, arranging and attending regular meetings in order to encourage communication across departments.

Here I shadowed the Marketing Manager for 2 weeks’ work experience. I was involved in the organising of various Exhibitions Worldwide and was also responsible for dealing with promotional material requests. I ordered samples and researched suppliers in attempting to find stationary that would suit the HID image and logo. In addition I had the opportunity to be involved in the decision making process in the designing of the “HID Stand” to be used during Exhibitions.

My main responsibility was Switchboard Operator but the position incorporated a range of duties such as ordering couriers, receiving and organising faxes, ordering stationery on Pumas, meeting and greeting Consultants, their support and their clients, mail shots, receiving and sorting post, and other aspects of general office administration. However, second to the switchboard, audio and copy typing took up the biggest proportion of my day. To do this I used the Window’s packages, Word v6.0 and Excel v5.0 and PowerPoint v4.0. The highlight of my job was organising conferences which involved booking rooms/venues, prepping the location, arranging refreshments, and post-event, ensuring the area was ready for the next conference.

My responsibilities included manning reception, administration, diary management, booking rooms and organising meetings between staff and the partners. The aspect I enjoyed most was promoting the company through various marketing and advertising tools such as designing promotional material that would attract customers to try various treatments and liaising with the media in an attempt to gain as much coverage as the budget would stretch.

As a consumer interviewer I conducted both residential and commercial surveys with the public for various clients, mostly IT companies and magazines. This role included meeting targets which I took great pleasure in regularly exceeding. One of the skills I gained through this role was an excellent telephone manner.