Document Production - how to get started

[Fazerina]

Hi all,

A while back I posted on here asking about Compliance and how to get into it. I got some very good replies and that got me started planning ahead.

However, I recently came across working in document production as another area, that I find interesting and I was hoping to get some thoughts on how to get into this.. One big reason I'm interested in this area are the working hours: I've seen many vacancies being advertised as evening roles and that would give me a chance to work fulltime whilst still spending a lot of time with DS, which is very important for me.

I have a law degree with a high 2:1 and some solid administrative work experience. I've seen that many of the vacancies state that you should have a good knowledge of the Microsoft Office programmes. Therefore, I've been thinking to do the Microsoft Office Specialist course from home through ICS. I was just hoping to find out whether anyone on here works in document production and could give me tips on how to get into it and whether there are any other courses I should do?

Many thanks in advance!

Anyone?

I work for a law firm so we have a document production team who type & format documents... is that what you mean? If so, the majority of them are legal secretaries who, after having children, wanted more child-friendly hours. A couple were IT specialists.

I would expect you to have excellent IT skills & know all of the tricks that there are to Word. You'd also have to have good attention to detail. I would imagine that it can be very stressful as you will often have tight timetables. I think it could get quite repetative too as you are literally typing up someone's had written comments or their dictation (or at least you are if you do my documents!).
Some of the DPU operators I know work from home which would obviously save you the commute.

Hi there and many thanks for your reply; I had thought nobody had any thoughts on this so only saw your post now.

Yes, that is what I mean: typing up and preparing documents and presentations etc. I am aware of the repetative nature of the job and quite honestly this isn't something I'm looking to do as a long term career. But for my present situation as well as maybe a few years ahead (I plan to home school DS at least in the beginning) it seems ideal, as there seem to be evening roles available and salaries are reasonably good.

I've decided to do the ICS course I mentioned and I was hoping having a law degree would help, even though I don't strictly have experience in that area or of being a legal secretary.

You will also need to make sure your touch typing is up to speed, all the adverts I've seen ask for a min of 70wpm.

Hi there and thanks for the tip on touch typing. Yes, that was an extra course I had also thought to do maybe through Pitman training, as ICS don't seem to have it..

Actually I looked into doing the legal secretary diploma via Pitman training (they were quite expensive) or ILEX. However, I'm leaning towards not doing it, as I feel it would be a waste of money, as I already have a law degree. At the moment I'm thinking that the sensible and most cost-effective thing to do is to do the microsoft office qualification and a touch typing course and then start applying for evening jobs in document production and perhaps as a legal secretary, although I doubt I would get anywhere applying for legal secretary roles without the experience..

I am an ex legal secretary. Been out for a couple of years having babies. Best way to get back in? Also how can I learn the forms again?

Hi there, just wondering - did you ever get into document production?