My weekday starts at 6.30 in the morning when my alarm-clock rings. I am not an early bird, so it takes me a couple of minutes before I get out of my bed, especially in winter. I leave home early, at 8.00 to avoid the rush-hour traffic as I start my work at 9 o’clock.

I work in an office as a secretary for a big building corporation. It’s a Russian well-established company. I found this job 4 years ago through an employment agency.

The office is in the centre of the city. I usually get there by bus. I spend most of the time working at the computer. My usual duties are typing documents, preparing them for our managing director, answering phone calls and arranging business appointments. I am also responsible for giving new correspondence and fresh newspapers to the managing director, sending faxes or e-mails. Sometimes I translate letters from English into Russian. I am in charge of greeting visitors and offering them tea or coffee too. It is also my duty to arrange travel and hotel accommodation for the boss’s convenient business trips.

We have lunch at 1 o’clock and I usually go to a café which is situated in the next building. If I am not too busy I can have one or two short coffee-breaks during the day. I work full-time from Monday to Friday, so I am in my office until 5 p.m. At the end of every day I get new tasks and take notes for the next day from the managing director and ask him some possible questions.

I can’t say that my job is very interesting, sometimes it’s monotonous or stressful but I like meeting a lot of new people there, learning new ideas and communicating. I think that to apply for my job one needs good communication skills, the ability to work in a team under pressure and handle difficult situations without any assistance. I understand that my job is not prestigious and I have to climb the career ladder, that is why I am the third-year student at the university now and I am going to graduate from it in two years and become an accountant.