In any company, every employee plays an essential role in company success. The job as a receptionist sometimes gets overlooked as unimportant, but being the first point of contact for a company is what gives an initial impression to anybody visiting, calling or enquiring. The first impression of any business starts at the receptionist’s desk.
Employees value a receptionist who takes great pride in their work and who wants to make a favourable first impression. When companies look to hire a receptionist, they look for candidates with strong interpersonal skills and an immediate positive and professional demeanour.
The typical responsibilities that a receptionist would hold include greeting customers, handling incoming calls and basic administrative duties. If you’re looking to become a receptionist and have no prior experience, it’s important that you enjoy making new acquaintances and want to pursue a career in the administrative field.
Coby Philips Recruitment has covered some tips for you to help land your first job as a receptionist:
1. Write a cover letter
Writing a strong cover letter sometimes gets overlooked by those applying for jobs. Your cover letter is your first chance to stand out and make the employer want to read your CV. You should be outlining why this particular position is a good fit for you and why you want to apply for that specific role within the company. You should include reasons like why you’re interested in the company and give any examples of how your skills might fit the position.
2. Highlight your skills
Even though you might not have experience working as a receptionist, you will still have certain skills that a receptionist would have, and now is the time to highlight those! A receptionist should have basic computer skills, so it’s important to highlight your proficiency with word processing, data entry, and internet research. If you have further technical knowledge, you should definitely be including that too. In the modern day, social media skills are a big asset to any company, so if you feel you’d be good at monitoring a company’s presence on social, make sure to pop that on your CV too.
You should make sure to do the research of the soft skills that are needed for the receptionist job you’re applying for, and highlight all of those assets that you feel you have matching the description.
3. Preparing for your interview
Making sure to be prepared for your interview and getting examples of questions you might be asked will help you to answer them more easily. You should also make sure you arrive with some questions of your own to better understand the position, who you might be working with, the company, or anything you feel you’d like to ask relating to the position or the company. It’s also important to make sure to research the dress code of the company you’ll be interviewing at. Your attire should reflect the level of professionalism a hiring manager will expect from you if you get the job, so it’s important to dress accordingly for your interview.
If you’re successful in securing your first position as a receptionist, it can serve you well for career development and moving forwards into administrative work. Coby Philips Recruitment are specialists in office support recruitment, and we can help to find the opportunities you’re looking for. Get in touch with a member of our staff today.