General Clerk
What the work is
Performs a range of clerical and administrative tasks.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Records, prepares, classifies and files information
- Sorts, opens and sends mail
- Copies, sends and files documents
- Prepares routine correspondence and reports
- Maintains office supplies and equipment
- Answers and transfers telephone calls, or takes messages
- Schedules appointments
- Provides information to customers about services
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in the office of a regional freight company that moves goods by road across three states. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A pile of paperwork becomes an organised system by lunchtime
- You find the missing delivery docket and the driver can finally go
- A colleague says they never need to ask where things are any more
Hard days
- A stack of forms that all arrive with the same deadline
- A job nobody else wants to do because it is boring but it has to be right
- Interruptions when you have finally got into a rhythm
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 561131, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.