Listening skills isn't "secretary stuff." (Typing fast is secretary stuff. Other office work is "office management" stuff.) It's more sales-pitch/customer service stuff. And, don't worry so much. They teach that on the first day. They really don't expect people to have the skills for their particular business. They just want to know if you have enough common sense to pull it off.
Four examples:
I worked in the maintenance department of an apartment management company. A resident calls and says, "I have no heat." My job wasn't to panic and think their heater was broken. My job was to make sure they didn't do something dumb, before sending out a maintenance guy. I had to, (oh so politely), ask them if they accidentally tripped over the plug for the heater unit; i.e. "Is it plugged in?" Next was "Did you have any guest over who might have, unknowingly, turned down the heater?" They had to check for those two don't-need-a-maintenance-guy possibilities, and, if it was neither of those, I'd send one of the guys. Common sense. Not hard.
Another example was, as a bookkeeper, I sometimes had to call sales reps if their commission check wasn't cashed in the last six months. Did they ever receive it? Do they remember putting it in the bank? Common sense, before assuming the money I think is sitting in our account is really sitting in their account.
On a Helpline, I had to make sure the person really wanted THIS county office. I mean, lots of them called and didn't live in that county, so I had to make sure which county they were in, or me giving phone numbers that didn't help them just irritated them.
Have you ever had to do that for any company you've ever worked with? Have you ever done customer service or phone sales? If so, make sure that company knows it, because that tells them you have common sense and can learn. You'd be surprised how many don't have that skill. Having it puts you at the top of the herd, but you have to make sure you tell them that kind of experience. Any kind of phone experience where you had to help a customer/client by asking for more info works.
Yeah, 95 others. That's really not that many. I had to keep applications from anyone who handed them in to us. BUT the ones worth the bosses looking at were given to the bosses quickly. I worked for that company for nine years. I must have filed a thousand apps. Only two or three were ever seen by bosses. Learn the company, think of what you've done before -- for work or as a volunteer, since both count equally -- and make sure they know what skills you have that benefit them.
BTW, one other thing I did for a living -- wrote resumes that got people hired. I had to learn from the customers what they did for work and as a volunteer that clued the type of businesses they were applying for, that this was a good candidate, so I do know what gets people hired, doing the same thing.
Lord, it's easy to forget you're in charge of all aspects of our lives. Work in Kilden's mind to loosen up all she could use for you to get him this job. And, if this isn't the right job, make really big signs so she sees you telling her, "Over here instead." Amen.
