Office Clerks, General

Perform duties too varied and diverse to be classified in any specific office clerical occupation, requiring knowledge of office systems and procedures.

Sector: Government
Preparation: Zone 2 — some preparation needed
O*NET code: 43-9061.00

What you'll actually do

The activities O*NET rates highest for this occupation, most important first. Numbers are out of 100.

Working with Computers

a major part of the work — rated 81/100 for importance.
Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates

a major part of the work — rated 76/100 for importance.
Getting Information

a major part of the work — rated 72/100 for importance.
Performing Administrative Activities

a regular part of the work — rated 68/100 for importance.
Documenting/Recording Information

a regular part of the work — rated 64/100 for importance.
Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships

a regular part of the work — rated 63/100 for importance.

Perform duties too varied and diverse to be classified in any specific office clerical occupation, requiring knowledge of office systems and procedures. Clerical duties may be assigned in accordance with the office procedures of individual establishments and may include a combination of answering telephones, bookkeeping, typing or word processing, office machine operation, and filing.

What it takes

Two numbers per line: the level the work expects, and how important it is to doing the job well. Both are O*NET ratings, already on a 0–100 scale.

Skills

Active Listening

Needed at a solid working level (50/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
Reading Comprehension

Needed at a solid working level (50/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
Speaking

Needed at a basic working level (43/100), and rated 66/100 for importance.
Writing

Needed at a basic working level (45/100), and rated 53/100 for importance.
Coordination

Needed at a basic working level (43/100), and rated 50/100 for importance.

Knowledge

Administrative

Needed at a high level (73/100), and rated 80/100 for importance.
English Language

Needed at a solid working level (47/100), and rated 70/100 for importance.
Customer and Personal Service

Needed at a solid working level (53/100), and rated 61/100 for importance.
Administration and Management

Needed at a basic working level (36/100), and rated 50/100 for importance.

Abilities

Oral Expression

Needed at a solid working level (52/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
Oral Comprehension

Needed at a solid working level (52/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
Written Comprehension

Needed at a basic working level (45/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
Written Expression

Needed at a basic working level (43/100), and rated 66/100 for importance.

How people get in

O*NET places this occupation in Zone 2 — some preparation needed. That is a statement about what employers typically require, not a rule about you.

Education

A high-school diploma is the usual starting point.

Experience

Some prior work experience helps but is rarely required.

Training

Expect a few months to a year of on-the-job training.

How the work tends to run

Each line below is read off a single O*NET activity rating for this occupation — named, so you can disagree with it.

Most of the day happens at a screen.From “Working with Computers”

How FlightWay scores your fit against this

No black box. Here is the whole method, factor by factor.

1. You answer a short quiz: Your answers build a profile across the same 161 O*NET dimensions this page is describing — skills, knowledge, abilities and work activities. Same axes, so the comparison is like-for-like.
2. We correlate the two profiles: Fit is a mean-centered cosine — a correlation between the SHAPE of your profile and the shape of Office Clerks, General. Centering matters: raw similarity between any two occupations sits at 0.70–0.85 because all work shares a common profile, so without it every career would look like a match.
3. The number you see is personality fit only: "Would I want this work" and "am I ready for this work" are different questions, and averaging them answers neither. So readiness — what your résumé, coursework and projects prove — is scored separately and shown next to fit, never blended into it.
4. Every factor is visible: You can open any match and see which dimensions pushed it up and which pulled it down. If you disagree with the number, you can see exactly where it came from.

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Occupational data on this page comes from the O*NET 30.3 Database, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). O*NET is a registered trademark of USDOL/ETA. FlightWay is not endorsed by, and USDOL/ETA is not responsible for, anything built on that data — see our terms. What is ours is the comparison, the score and the plan.