Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service

• Summary

• Details

Work Activities

• Monitor emergency and code alarms, make emergency announcements, or route emergency calls to the appropriate location.
• Record messages, suggesting rewording for clarity or conciseness.
• Page individuals to inform them of telephone calls, using paging or interoffice communication equipment.
• Place telephone calls or arrange conference calls as instructed.
• Relay or route written or verbal messages.
• Perform various data entry or word processing tasks, such as updating phone directories, typing or proofreading documents, or creating schedules.
• Perform various cash handling tasks, such as collecting payments, making bank deposits, or managing petty cash.
• Perform various data entry or word processing tasks, such as updating phone directories, typing or proofreading documents, or creating schedules.
• Contact security staff members when necessary, using radio-telephones.
• Complete forms for sales orders.
• Answer incoming calls, greeting callers, providing information, transferring calls or taking messages as necessary.
• Process incoming or outgoing mail, packages, or deliveries.
• Perform administrative tasks, such as accepting orders, scheduling appointments or meeting rooms, or sending and receiving faxes.
• Perform administrative tasks, such as accepting orders, scheduling appointments or meeting rooms, or sending and receiving faxes.
• Operate communication systems, such as telephone, switchboard, intercom, two-way radio, or public address.
• Perform various cash handling tasks, such as collecting payments, making bank deposits, or managing petty cash.
• Stamp messages with time and date and file them appropriately.
• Greet visitors, log them in and out of the facility, assign them security badges, and contact employee escorts.
• Keep records of calls placed and charges incurred.
• Monitor alarm systems to ensure that secure conditions are maintained.
• Place orders, such as for equipment, supplies, or catering for meetings.
• Monitor emergency and code alarms, make emergency announcements, or route emergency calls to the appropriate location.
• Greet visitors, log them in and out of the facility, assign them security badges, and contact employee escorts.
• Answer simple questions about clients' businesses, using reference files.

Skills

• Reading Comprehension
  • Reading work-related information.
• Service Orientation
  • Looking for ways to help people.
• Equipment Selection
  • Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
• Management of Financial Resources
  • Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
• Negotiation
  • Bringing people together to solve differences.
• Monitoring
  • Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
• Complex Problem Solving
  • Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
• Troubleshooting
  • Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
• Active Learning
  • Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
• Learning Strategies
  • Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
• Judgment and Decision Making
  • Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
• Time Management
  • Managing your time and the time of other people.
• Speaking
  • Talking to others.
• Social Perceptiveness
  • Understanding people's reactions.
• Operation and Control
  • Using equipment or systems.
• Management of Personnel Resources
  • Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
• Systems Evaluation
  • Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
• Management of Material Resources
  • Managing equipment and materials.
• Operations Monitoring
  • Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
• Technology Design
  • Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
• Instructing
  • Teaching people how to do something.
• Coordination
  • Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
• Installation
  • Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
• Mathematics
  • Using math to solve problems.
• Repairing
  • Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
• Programming
  • Writing computer programs.
• Active Listening
  • Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
• Writing
  • Writing things for co-workers or customers.
• Science
  • Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
• Systems Analysis
  • Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
• Quality Control Analysis
  • Testing how well a product or service works.
• Persuasion
  • Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
• Critical Thinking
  • Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
• Operations Analysis
  • Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
• Equipment Maintenance
  • Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.

Abilities

• Dynamic Strength
  • Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
• Trunk Strength
  • Using your lower back and stomach.
• Speed of Limb Movement
  • Quickly moving your arms and legs.
• Number Facility
  • Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
• Selective Attention
  • Paying attention to something without being distracted.
• Stamina
  • Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
• Visualization
  • Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
• Memorization
  • Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
• Inductive Reasoning
  • Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
• Sound Localization
  • Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
• Speech Recognition
  • Recognizing spoken words.
• Static Strength
  • Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
• Deductive Reasoning
  • Using rules to solve problems.
• Peripheral Vision
  • Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
• Finger Dexterity
  • Putting together small parts with your fingers.
• Response Orientation
  • Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
• Spatial Orientation
  • Knowing where things are around you.
• Depth Perception
  • Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
• Night Vision
  • Seeing at night or under low light.
• Near Vision
  • Seeing details up close.
• Written Comprehension
  • Reading and understanding what is written.
• Speech Clarity
  • Speaking clearly.
• Flexibility of Closure
  • Seeing hidden patterns.
• Extent Flexibility
  • Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
• Control Precision
  • Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
• Rate Control
  • Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
• Explosive Strength
  • Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
• Reaction Time
  • Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
• Wrist-Finger Speed
  • Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
• Oral Comprehension
  • Listening and understanding what people say.
• Problem Sensitivity
  • Noticing when problems happen.
• Gross Body Coordination
  • Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
• Oral Expression
  • Communicating by speaking.
• Manual Dexterity
  • Holding or moving items with your hands.
• Information Ordering
  • Ordering or arranging things.
• Time Sharing
  • Doing two or more things at the same time.
• Auditory Attention
  • Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
• Arm-Hand Steadiness
  • Keeping your arm or hand steady.
• Glare Sensitivity
  • Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
• Far Vision
  • Seeing details that are far away.
• Dynamic Flexibility
  • Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
• Speed of Closure
  • Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
• Perceptual Speed
  • Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
• Category Flexibility
  • Grouping things in different ways.
• Originality
  • Creating new and original ideas.
• Gross Body Equilibrium
  • Keeping your balance or staying upright.
• Hearing Sensitivity
  • Telling the difference between sounds.
• Written Expression
  • Communicating by writing.
• Multilimb Coordination
  • Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
• Fluency of Ideas
  • Coming up with lots of ideas.
• Mathematical Reasoning
  • Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
• Visual Color Discrimination
  • Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.

Knowledge

• Communications and Media
  • Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
• History and Archeology
  • Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
• Sociology and Anthropology
  • Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
• Sales and Marketing
  • Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
• Chemistry
  • Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
• Food Production
  • Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
• Education and Training
  • Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
• Computers and Electronics
  • Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
• Administrative
  • Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
• Mechanical
  • Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
• Psychology
  • Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
• Personnel and Human Resources
  • Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
• Physics
  • Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
• Biology
  • Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
• Philosophy and Theology
  • Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
• Law and Government
  • Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
• Telecommunications
  • Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
• Public Safety and Security
  • Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
• Building and Construction
  • Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
• Economics and Accounting
  • Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
• Design
  • Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
• Geography
  • Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
• Foreign Language
  • Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
• Customer and Personal Service
  • Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Administration and Management
  • Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• English Language
  • Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Therapy and Counseling
  • Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
• Mathematics
  • Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
• Engineering and Technology
  • Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
• Production and Processing
  • Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
• Medicine and Dentistry
  • Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
• Fine Arts
  • Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
• Transportation
  • Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.

Education

Education

High school diploma or equivalent

Work Experience

No work experience

Training

Less than 1 month on-the-job training

Education and Training Opportunities

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Education and Training Opportunities

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Pay

Washington Annual Salary

46470/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

22.34/hr

Washington Employment Trends

Currently Employed

680

Yearly Projected Openings

50

Personality

Conventional: People interested in this work like activities that include data, detail, and regular routines. They do well at jobs that need:

• Dependability
• Self Control
• Stress Tolerance
• Attention to Detail
• Concern for Others
• Cooperation

Tools

• Alarm systems
• Inkjet printers
• Intercom systems
• Laser fax machine
• Paging controllers
• Personal computers
• Phone headsets
• Photocopiers
• Premise branch exchange PBX systems
• Public address systems
• Special purpose telephones
• Two way radios
• Video monitors

Technology

• Data base user interface and query software
• Electronic mail software
• Enterprise resource planning ERP software
• Facilities management software
• Office suite software
• Operating system software
• Presentation software
• Spreadsheet software
• Word processing software