Great demand for highly qualified office staff

Mr. Tran Son Tung - General Director of CTM Investment and Trading Joint Stock Company

- As a business leader, how do you evaluate the role of the VP department?

The office is a very important department in state agencies as well as enterprises in particular. The office has a comprehensive function, including consulting, logistics and support work. The main task of the office is to synthesize and process information as well as ensure the conditions of facilities and techniques to serve the leadership and management of the enterprise. The activities of the office determine whether the operation of that agency is smooth or not. Because it is a department that directly assists the operating system of the agency, the quality of the office's activities determines the effectiveness of management work and orientation of the working style of the entire agency. Therefore, improving the quality of the office department's activities is an important task of any enterprise.

- What function of the VP department in your company do you value most?

The company I am running is CTM Investment and Trading Joint Stock Company, which originated from the Construction Import-Export Company of the Ministry of Construction. The company was previously a state-owned enterprise, but was equitized in 2004, and has now been operating in the market for 10 years. Since no longer operating under the State's subsidies and plans, we have had to get used to operating under the principles of market competition, with a lot of pressure, having to be proactive in all stages, especially finding customers ourselves. This is even more complicated when our company operates in many industries, from trade, import-export to specific industries such as labor export, for example... All processes of accessing information, processing information, finding customers... are through official contacts, and first of all, the VP department. Therefore, I highly appreciate the function and capacity of processing information and synthesizing information of the VP department. The faster, more accurate and sensitive the information processing, the more opportunities and advantages the company has over its competitors. Of course, modern means of communication, the internet, etc. are now very popular and useful, but the skills and expertise of office staff and officers in charge of office are very important, even deciding the survival in timely information processing. There are problems and incidents that arise continuously every day that require very quick handling. For example, in the field of labor export, workers go to work in remote markets, even on ships, etc., and if problems are not handled promptly, it will greatly affect the rights of workers as well as the reputation of our business.

- So can you clarify your requirements for a modern office staff?

In Vietnam, for a long time we have not paid attention to training office staff or assisting office staff, a specific task of office staff in general... but we have focused on operating under a subsidized planning regime, so information processing tasks have not been taken seriously, the role of office staff at that time was mainly concerned with logistics and human resource management. In fact, in a developing modern society, the role of office staff is changing a lot. From the practical experience of businesses like ours, in addition to the task of helping company leaders manage human resources, take care of logistics..., office staff must have the skills to process information quickly, from handling legal documents to increasingly complex business situations.

Currently, due to the development of information media and the increasing volume of information, the qualifications and skills of an office worker are also very different from the past. In the past, a clerical worker only needed to stamp or type documents, but now they must have other soft skills to process information in the fastest way. They are the ones who process the initial information, classify and transfer this information in a timely manner. Before, we only transferred paper documents, but now there are emails and other technical and technological means, so if an office worker does not have the necessary level of social knowledge, expertise, and foreign languages ​​in the current conditions of international integration, information processing will have many problems. Obviously, today's office workers must be very versatile, "skilled" at work, and always conscious of improving their own capacity.

There are many job positions in the office, so each position and leader has different expectations. For a clerical person, it is necessary to be attentive and careful; for an administrative officer, it is necessary to be dynamic, active, and have the ability to cover the whole thing... In short, I expect my employees to work with a high sense of responsibility, enthusiasm, and love for the job. Professional qualifications, skills, and qualities create the capacity of the worker. Without skills, it is impossible to survive in a professional working environment. And qualities will be the factor that helps them shine and succeed.

A class of Office Administration students - University of Social Sciences and Humanities

- Can you give a forecast on the current demand for human resources in QTVP?

The demand for human resources in this industry is always needed and is increasing. Businesses today tend to need high-level office staff, that is, at a level where they can proactively process and consult information for the business, equivalent to the position of an assistant, a complete helper for the leader. After being trained thoroughly at specialized schools such as the Faculty of Archival Science and Office Management, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, students must meet foreign language requirements, have good communication skills, be able to handle arising problems, process information quickly, have a professional working style, etc. If an office staff has the above abilities, any business will need them and they are willing to pay a high salary.

In joint stock companies like ours, there is a clear pressure on efficiency as well as transparency in operations, so the role of highly qualified office staff or secretaries is very necessary. We recruit every year for member departments, newly established departments and the recruitment of office staff is highly valued. Of course, in the process of working, there is also selection and elimination. There are people who meet the job requirements and there are also people who do not meet the requirements and will have to leave.

- It is known that you are a former student of the Faculty of Archival Science and Office Management, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, and have worked in many positions in the office department before becoming the top leader of the enterprise. Can you share with students about your experiences of striving?

20 years ago, I graduated from the Department of Archival Studies of the Faculty of History, Hanoi University of Science (now the Department of Archival Studies and Office Management of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi). At that time, determining a career was quite vague, and there were not many favorable conditions for international integration, technology, and modern equipment like now. Today's students are better prepared than we were in the past. When you choose a major, you have already determined a specific job in the future. During the 4 years of university, you have many opportunities to study and accumulate more practical experience. This is very important.

After graduating, I went to work in a company, first as an office staff, then as a secretary, and then as a professional. After that, I was appointed as a department manager, then as a Deputy General Director, and now as the General Director of the Company. I think that the training in the major that I have studied, as well as the time of "rubbing" from working as an office staff and secretary has helped a lot in my own future development. During my time at university, we were equipped with general methods, especially methods of logically processing information and administrative skills that other majors rarely have the opportunity to learn, such as: document drafting skills, document management, file storage, etc. When working in specific positions in the office - the focal department that collects, processes, and reports information - I learned how to handle work in each of its processes, thereby having a comprehensive view of all activities of the business. With this advantage, along with investing in thinking and cultivating necessary skills, I have gradually accumulated a lot of knowledge and skills in business management and administration. Thanks to that, I can be promoted to higher positions and increasingly develop my capacity.

Therefore, my advice to students is that during their study time, they should try to spend time practicing skills from computer to foreign languages, communication skills to etiquette... Be proactive in working part-time to gain practical knowledge. I think that working part-time is not important because of how much they pay you, but you should consider it as an apprenticeship, going to school like that is free. Study time in school is very limited and the conditions for simulating practice in school are very limited, cannot be updated like the actual conditions in businesses as well as state administrative agencies. That is "learning goes hand in hand with practice", it has a lot of support for later graduation. If you only study hard to do homework in class, I think that after graduation, you will have difficulty integrating into the reality of work, which also means it will take more time to succeed.

- Thank you for the useful information and advice above.