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Define your profession

hool secretaries were who I was exposed to. I had the privilege to interact with them a few times and noticed how efficient they were and what great listening skills they had,” De Klerk said.

The profession excited her, because she enjoys talking and meeting new people from different cultures and backgrounds.

As a secretary, she gets to meet all kinds of people from all walks of life.

She loves organising events, scheduling appointments and being the first line of contact for clients coming to the office.

De Klerk says this is just a few of many reasons that led to her becoming a secretary.

She has 15 years of experience in the industry. After completing her high schooling at David Bezuidenhout in Windhoek, she furthered her studies at Damelin, specialising in secretarial and computer work.

De Klerk is currently a secretary at Deloitte & Touche.

“I report to three partners and my duties and responsibilities are to manage the diaries of the partners, make travel arrangements, take minutes, type and file documents, arrange internal and external meetings and various other duties,” she says.

“It has been an amazing 15 years of being a secretary. I learned so much from the different people and different industries where I was working, and I’m still learning. That is one of the great things of being a secretary; you never stop learning. I have learned how to be more patient, kind, how to use my own initiative, how to stay calm in stressful situations and how to appreciate the little things in life. I have met so many people and some of them became friends,” De Klerk added.

A highlight of her life is that she is thankful for having learnt the true meaning of not judging a book by its cover.

Among the challenges she encounters is regarding travel request information that is not provided correctly or on time, and often there are not enough hours in a day to deal with this issue effectively.

This is important, as you will deal with clients who are sometimes impatient, frustrated and upset and you need to be able to calm them down, in order to get your work done.

De Klerk said you also need to be able to listen quite well, as you will receive many instructions and this often requires you to multitask.

“Professional conduct at all times is key and very important. You are a custodian of the company brand, as you are often the first encounter that people have with the company, and therefore you should be able to display your company’s values, vision and mission, while engaging with people,” De Klerk said, while adding that she is a master of Microsoft Word.

“I would say that’s my professional super-power.”

She said further that she loves the fact that she can work with different kinds of professionals every day and that she can be the go-to person when needed, which is the cherry on top.