Administrative Assistant II
California State Personnel Board Specification
Definition
Under general direction, to assist an administrator by performing varied administrative duties of a high degree of responsibility; and to do other related work.
Distinguishing Characteristics
Employees in this class are normally responsible for relieving a director, deputy director, or head of a large operating unit, of administrative detail. They serve to increase the capacity of the administrator to carry out the duties and responsibilities of his/her position and are to be considered as an augmentation of the administrator rather than a separate entity in the organization of the agency.
Employees in this class are delegated a high degree of responsibility for making recommendations to the administrator involving broad areas of policy formulation or complex administrative action and often are responsible for effecting such recommendations.
Employees in the class of Administrative Assistant I are responsible for obtaining facts on which an administrator may base his/her decisions and for making recommendations that are concerned chiefly with specific cases.
Administrative Assistants are distinguished from the Secretary classes in that although the Secretary classes occasionally perform some of the less responsible Administrative Assistant tasks, the primary emphasis of the Secretary classes is the performance of such clerical tasks as screening phone calls and visitors, scheduling appointments, and taking and transcribing minutes of meetings.
Typical Tasks
Assists and advises a chief administrator and relieves him/her of administrative detail; consults with and interprets matters of policy to the operating divisions; studies and reviews the activities of the departmental programs to determine conformance with administrative policy and develops criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of departmental programs; assists department and division heads on administrative problems and procedure; makes special studies and investigations and prepares administrative reports; assists in the installation of new programs and procedures; cooperates with other agencies, groups, and individuals in connection with the coordination of departmental activities; studies proposed legislation and advises the administrator regarding its possible effect on departmental programs; confers with other staff members in regard to the need for legislation and reports such need to the administrator; represents the department at conferences, meetings, and legislative hearings; may supervise and review the work of the staff of the administrator's immediate office; prepares articles for publication; addresses interested groups; dictates correspondence and prepares reports.
Minimum Qualifications
Either I
One year of experience in the California state service performing staff work in a class equivalent in level to Administrative Assistant I.
Or II
Eighteen months of experience in the California state service performing the duties of an Executive Secretary II.
Or III
Experience: Three years of progressively responsible experience in one or a combination of the following:
1. Relieving an administrator of assigned administrative detail and preparing reports and/or recommendations for administrative action. (Experience in California state service must be in a class equivalent in level of responsibility to Office Services Supervisor I.)
2. Professional or technical experience in a field usually requiring an education of collegiate grade and involving duties and responsibilities which develop a wide knowledge of the field of management, at least two years of which shall have involved the independent development of administrative recommendations.
(Possession of a Master's Degree in Public, Personnel, or Business Administration or related field may be substituted for one year of the required experience.) and
Education: Equivalent to graduation from college. (Additional qualifying experience may be substituted for four years of the required education on a year-for-year basis. Any work experience gained in State service may be used to meet the education requirement on a year-for-year basis.)
(In appraising experience, more weight will be given to the breadth of experience and the evidence of the candidate's ability to accept and fulfill increasing responsibility than to the length of his/her experience.)
Knowledge and Abilities
Knowledge of: Principles, problems, and methods of public and business administration, including organization and personnel and fiscal management; office management principles, methods, and procedures; administrative survey techniques and skill in their application; statistical and research methods.
Ability to: Think clearly and quickly and analyze and solve problems of organization and management; work independently in identifying the need for and developing proposed changes to operating practices, programs, and policies; supervise the staff of an administrative office; establish and maintain cooperative working relationships; speak and write effectively.
Special Personal Characteristics
Demonstrated capacity for assuming increasing responsibility, originality, open-mindedness, and tact.
