Administrative Services Manager Career Assessment
Contracts, records, mail, supplies, and the systems that keep an office running
Welcome
An administrative services manager runs the support side of an organization. The contracts, the records, the office supplies, the mail, the copiers, the front desk, the vendor agreements, and the rules for how paperwork moves. When the office runs smoothly, it is usually because someone in this job made it run smoothly.
This is quiet, detail-heavy work that almost nobody notices until it stops. North Dakota has only about 270 of these jobs and roughly 20 openings a year, so this page is honest about that too.
This takes about 15 minutes.
What is a Administrative Services Manager?
An administrative services manager supervises the people and the systems that support everyone else. You manage the administrative staff, you write and track the contracts with the companies that supply and service the office, you decide how records are stored and how long they are kept, and you handle the purchasing. In government, health care, and law offices, the records part is heavy and legally serious — there are rules about what has to be kept, for how long, and who may see it. You also usually own the office budget, and you are the person who notices that the copier lease renews in ninety days.
The Reality: This is a promotion job, and the road is almost always through the administrative work itself. Office manager, executive assistant, records supervisor, purchasing clerk — those are the jobs people hold before this one. Nobody hires a stranger to take over their records and their contracts. The honest catch is the size of the field: O*NET shows about 20 openings a year in all of North Dakota. That is not zero, but it is thin. Many people who want this work end up in a general and operations manager job that includes the same duties under a different title, and there are about 1,050 of those openings a year.
Your Responsibilities:
- Supervise administrative, clerical, and front-desk staff
- Write, review, and keep track of contracts with suppliers and service companies
- Set up and enforce the rules for how records are filed, stored, and destroyed
- Handle purchasing and keep the office within its budget
- Manage the office equipment, the leases, and the service agreements
- Keep the organization following the record-keeping rules that apply to it
- Plan office moves, remodels, and new equipment rollouts
- Write the procedures other people follow, then keep them current
You are the reason nothing falls through the cracks.
A Day in the Life
7:45 AM — Open the office. Check that the front desk is covered and the mail run is set.
8:30 AM — Meet the copier vendor about a service contract that is up for renewal.
9:30 AM — Review purchase requests. Send two back because they skipped a step.
10:30 AM — Work through a records question: how long must these files be kept, and who says so?
12:00 PM — Lunch, mostly.
12:45 PM — Coach an administrative assistant through a conflict with a department head.
2:00 PM — Build next year’s office budget line by line.
4:00 PM — Write the new procedure for scanning and destroying paper files, then send it out.
Steady, detailed, and full of things that only get noticed when they go wrong.
Training in North Dakota
Promotion from administrative work, usually with a business degree somewhere along the way. There is no license for this. Employers want someone who already knows how their paperwork moves, which is why they promote from inside. A business degree makes you competitive for the job at a larger employer, and a records or administrative credential shows you take the technical side seriously.
Training Pathways:
- Promotion from administrative work (4 to 8 years): Administrative assistant, then office manager or executive assistant, then administrative services manager. Take on the contracts, the purchasing, and the records retention schedule as soon as anyone will let you, because those three things are the job.
- Two-year business degree while you work (2 years): An AAS in business management or business technology from a ND two-year college adds the budget, contract, and supervision pieces. It is the cheapest real credential and the credits transfer.
- Four-year business degree (4 years, or a finish-up degree): A bachelor’s in management or business administration is what larger employers and state government usually want. Several ND schools offer it online so you can keep your current job.
Where to Train in North Dakota:
- ND State College of Science (Wahpeton and Fargo) — Business Management AAS, Business Technology Management option: a third year for people who already hold a two-year degree, covering business law, human resource management, information management, financial analysis, and strategic management, some of it online (catalog.ndscs.edu/business-management/associate-in-applied-science/business-management-business-technology-management)
- ND State College of Science — Business Management AAS, Administration and Finance option, and a stand-alone Management certificate (catalog.ndscs.edu/business-management)
- Bismarck State College (Bismarck) — Management AAS and Management certificate, online or on campus, stacking into the Bachelor of Applied Science in Organizational Management and Leadership (catalog.bismarckstate.edu/catalog/degrees/career-technical-education/management)
- University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) — Management B.B.A. and Public Affairs and Public Administration programs, useful if you want the government side of this work (business.und.edu/academics)
- North Dakota State University (Fargo) — Business Administration B.S. and Management B.S., available online (ndsu.edu/business/academic-programs/undergraduate)
- University of Mary (Bismarck) — B.S. in Business Administration on campus and an online B.S. in Business Management (umary.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/business-administration)
- Valley City State University (Valley City) — Business Administration B.S., online or face to face (catalog.vcsu.edu/undergraduate-catalog/departments/business)
- Dickinson State University (Dickinson) — business degrees and an MBA, fully online (dickinsonstate.edu/academics/fields-of-study/sobe)
- United Tribes Technical College (Bismarck) — Business Administration (uttc.edu/academics)
Before You Start: A high school diploma or GED. Several years of real administrative work. Strong writing, because you will be writing procedures other people have to follow. Comfort with spreadsheets and with whatever records system your employer uses.
Tip: Start with financial aid, scholarships, and any help an employer offers — that is where the money starts. After that, ask a career counselor or Job Service North Dakota whether WIOA or other programs can help with what is left over, like training, tools, work boots, or exam fees. What can be paid for depends on the program and on your own situation, so ask before you sign up rather than after. Registered apprenticeships let you earn a paycheck while you learn — see jobsnd.com/job-seeker/apprenticeships for ND programs.
Certification & Licensing
No license. The CAP is the credential that fits this work best. Nothing is required by law. The Certified Administrative Professional (CAP), from the International Association of Administrative Professionals, is the one credential built for exactly this career, and it is unusual in a good way: it lets work experience stand in for a degree.
Credentials Worth Looking At:
- CAP (Certified Administrative Professional), IAAP — IAAP lists three ways to qualify: three years of relevant administrative experience; or two years plus a high school diploma or GED; or one year plus an associate degree or higher. Experience must be paid and earned in the last ten years. The exam is about 200 to 225 multiple-choice questions in three hours at a proctored testing center (iaap-hq.org)
- CAP cost — IAAP publishes $295 for members and $395 for non-members, with IAAP membership at $200 a year. There is also a $100 processing fee if you apply and do not meet the requirements, so check your eligibility before you pay (iaap-hq.org)
- CMP (Certified Meeting Professional), Events Industry Council — relevant only if your job is mostly planning meetings and events. The Events Industry Council site blocks automated reading, so the current requirements and fees could not be confirmed here. Ask the Events Industry Council directly before you count on it
- A two-year or four-year business degree — the thing most often listed in ND job ads for this title, especially in state government and health care
- Records or information management training — if your employer is in government, health care, or law, knowing the retention rules cold is worth more than any general business course
The Exams: The CAP exam is roughly 200 to 225 multiple-choice questions covering six subject areas, taken on a computer at a proctored testing center, with three hours to finish (iaap-hq.org).
Cost: CAP exam $295 for IAAP members, $395 for non-members; IAAP membership $200 a year. Nothing else here is required, so a degree is the real expense if you choose one, and a ND two-year college is the cheap version of it.
Keeping It Current: IAAP requires recertification to keep the CAP current, so check its published recertification cycle and fees before you start. A degree does not expire.
Salary & Job Outlook
North Dakota Administrative Services Manager Pay (May 2025):
- Starting out (bottom 10–25%): $36.86–$42.54/hour ($76,670–$88,480/year)
- Middle (median — half earn more, half earn less): $45.34/hour ($94,320/year)
- Experienced (top 25–10%): $59.42–$75.62/hour ($123,590–$157,290/year)
What that means: The middle North Dakota administrative services manager earns about $94,320 a year, against a national middle of about $114,130. That is a gap of nearly $20,000, and it is worth saying plainly: North Dakota pays this job well below the national rate at the middle and at the top. The ND 90th percentile is about $157,290 while the national 90th is about $207,720. Where ND does better is at the bottom. The ND 10th percentile of about $76,670 is above the national $67,100, which tells you something real: the low-paying version of this job barely exists here, but neither does the very high-paying version. It is a solid, steady, middle-of-the-road salary in this state. Notice also that the ND 25th percentile ($88,480) and the median ($94,320) are close together, which means most people in this job here earn within a fairly narrow band.
Jobs in North Dakota: About 270 people do this work in ND today. By 2034, that should be about 280 (about 6% growth). Expect about 20 job openings every year in ND from growth and people retiring or changing jobs. Across the U.S., the change is about 5% growth.
Outlook: Fair, and small. O*NET shows North Dakota going from about 270 administrative services managers in 2024 to about 280 in 2034, roughly 6% growth, with about 20 openings a year statewide. Twenty a year across all of North Dakota is thin. It means you will likely have to be promoted where you already work, or be ready to move to Bismarck, Fargo, or Grand Forks where the bigger employers are. If you want this kind of work but cannot wait for one of twenty openings, look at general and operations manager — about 1,050 ND openings a year, and in a smaller ND organization that title often includes every duty listed on this page. The national picture is similar in shape: about 5% growth and 23,200 openings a year nationwide.
Who Hires in ND: State and local government, health care systems and clinics, school districts and colleges, banks and insurance companies, law firms, large nonprofits, and the bigger ND employers generally. Small businesses rarely have this as a separate job — there, it is part of somebody else’s.
Work Setting: An office, indoors, regular weekday hours. Far more predictable than the other manager jobs in this series: you are not usually called in at night. Expect busy stretches at budget time, at audit time, and whenever the organization moves, remodels, or changes a system.
Physical Demands: Low. Sitting, computer work, walking the building, occasionally lifting a box of files or helping move office equipment. The demands here are on your attention and your patience, not your back. Long stretches at a screen are the real wear and tear.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, North Dakota, May 2025 (SOC 11-3012); North Dakota and U.S. long-term employment projections 2024–2034, via O*NET OnLine. Numbers are rounded.
Where This Leads
Path 1: Administrative Assistant — Learn how the paperwork actually moves.
Path 2: Office Manager — Run one office and its budget.
Path 3: Records or Purchasing Supervisor — Own one technical piece deeply.
Path 4: Administrative Services Manager — Run the support side of the organization.
Path 5: Director of Administration — Sit at the leadership table for a larger employer.
Path 6: General and Operations Manager — Move sideways into the broader job, where the openings are.
The Real Talk
What's Great:
- The most predictable hours of any manager job in this series — you are rarely called at night
- The ND bottom tenth of about $76,670 beats the national bottom, so the low end is decent here
- Experience can substitute for a degree, and the CAP credential is built that way on purpose
- You can see your own fingerprints on how the whole place runs
- Every large ND employer needs this, so the skills move between industries
- Low physical demands, indoor work, regular weekdays
What's Hard:
- Only about 20 openings a year in the entire state — the thinnest field on this list except training manager
- ND pay trails the country by about $20,000 at the middle
- Nobody notices your work unless something goes wrong
- Contract and records rules are exacting, and a mistake can be a legal problem
- In small ND organizations this is not a separate job at all
- The pay band here is narrow, so there is less room to grow in place
Be Honest: Do details genuinely satisfy you, or do they just tire you out? Can you be the person who enforces a rule that other people find annoying? Are you all right doing work that is invisible when it goes well? And can you accept that there are about 20 of these openings a year in North Dakota, which may mean waiting for a promotion where you are or being willing to move?