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Business & entrepreneurship · Organizing & Managing

Receptionist: what the job actually is

Being the first person a visitor or caller meets, and the person who keeps the front of an office running.

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Receptionist: quick facts

Receptionist salary in Ontario: the median pay is $20.50 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024). Its three-year outlook in Ontario is moderate. The job usually needs a high school diploma, or several weeks of on-the-job training.

Median pay in Ontario
$20.50 an hour
Pay range (low to high)
$17.95 to $28.00 an hour
Job outlook, 2025-2027
Moderate
People working in it in Ontario
57,500
Usually needs
Usually a high school diploma, or several weeks of on-the-job training

Source: Job Bank wages (updated 19 November 2025) and job prospects (updated 10 December 2025), NOC 14101. Pay varies by region and experience.

The work

What this job actually is

  • Greeting people who walk in, answering and directing the phone, booking appointments, taking messages and signing for deliveries. You are the front of the organisation, and often its first impression.
  • The setting changes the job. A reception desk at a dental office, a law firm, a school, a factory and a hotel all work differently, and the same title can mean very different days.
  • Job Bank says this occupation is not regulated in Canada, so there is no licence to get. It says completion of secondary school is usually required and that on-the-job training may be provided.
  • Receptionists often do office work in the gaps between people: filing, data entry, mail, ordering supplies and updating calendars. Some jobs combine reception with other duties, so check what a posting really asks for.
  • Job Bank's Ontario outlook for receptionists says employment decline will lead to the loss of some positions, while some positions will open up from retirements. Read the rating on this page.

A Tuesday

What a normal day looks like

Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.

  1. 8:00 — Unlock, turn on the lights, switch the phones on, check the voicemail and the schedule for the day.
  2. 8:30 — First visitors. You greet them, check the name against the list and tell the person they are here to see.
  3. 9:15 — Phone rings five times in ten minutes. One is for someone who is out, one is a wrong number, one is upset and wants a manager.
  4. 10:30 — A courier needs a signature and a visitor needs a parking pass. Both at the same time.
  5. 11:30 — Book next week's meeting room, and find out that two people booked it for the same hour.
  6. 12:15 — Lunch is eaten at the desk, because nobody else is covering it.
  7. 13:30 — Quiet stretch. Sort the mail, restock the printer, update the contact list and answer emails.
  8. 15:00 — A client arrives early and nobody they are meeting is ready. You make small talk until someone appears.
  9. 16:30 — Tidy the desk, forward the phones, write a note for tomorrow about the things that did not get done.

Honestly

Who loves this, and who should not do it

The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.

You may like this if
  • You are comfortable talking to strangers and can be pleasant when you are busy or tired.
  • You like being the person who knows where everything is and who is meant to be where.
  • You can switch quickly between a phone call, a visitor and a small task, and not lose your place.
  • You like a job that starts with a high school diploma and teaches you the rest in the workplace.
You may hate this if
  • You do not like being interrupted. At a front desk, almost everything you are doing can be interrupted by a person or a phone.
  • You dislike dealing with upset or rude people. You are the first person they reach, and often the only one they can reach.
  • You want a job with a clear career ladder. Job Bank says employment decline will lead to the loss of some positions, and the next step up is often an administrative role, which has its own competition.
  • You do not want to sit. Much of the work is at a desk, on a headset, in the same place for the whole shift.

The route in

How you actually get there in Ontario

  1. Finish high school

    Job Bank says completion of secondary school is usually required. English and communications courses help, and so does any course where you use a computer to do ordinary office work.

  2. Get a first customer-facing job

    A job in a shop, a restaurant or a clinic teaches the main skill of reception, which is being calm and clear with the public. In Ontario you must be at least 14 to work in an office or store, according to the Ontario government's minimum age page, and employers cannot employ a child under 16 during school hours.

  3. Consider an office administration programme

    Ontario colleges run office administration and related programmes. Search ontariocolleges.ca for the length, entry requirements and co-op options of each, because they differ between colleges. Job Bank says on-the-job training may be provided, so a programme is a way to start ahead, not a requirement.

  4. Apply, and ask what the desk really includes

    Ask whether the job is reception only or reception plus administration, which software you will use and whether you would cover other staff's work. A busy medical or legal front desk is a different job from a quiet one.

Where this comes from: Job Bank — Receptionists (NOC 14101), requirements · Ontario — Minimum age for work · ontariocolleges.ca — program search

The money

Receptionist salary in Ontario

Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.

$17.95
Low (hourly)
$20.50
Median (hourly)
$28.00
High (hourly)

Ontario, NOC 14101. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.

Source: Job Bank — Receptionist wages in Ontario

Where it is heading

The outlook for the next three years

Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.

Ontario, 2025-2027

Moderate3 out of 5 stars

  • Employment decline will lead to the loss of some positions.
  • A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements.
  • There are a moderate number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.

What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.

57,500
people work in this job in Ontario
92%
are women (48% across all jobs)
5%
are self-employed (15% across all jobs)

Source: Job Bank — Receptionists job prospects in Ontario (NOC 14101). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.

Before you leave school

Things you can do now

  • Take business, English and computer courses, and any co-op placement in an office, clinic or school front office.
  • Volunteer at a front desk: a school office, a library, a community centre, or an event registration table.
  • Practise phone manners. Many students have never answered a work phone, and employers notice.
  • Look at the college programme listings on ontariocolleges.ca and note which Grade 12 courses they ask for.

Test it

Do this before you decide anything

Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.

Spend an hour running a front desk for real

About 60 minutes
  1. Pick a place where you are allowed to be and where people come and go, such as a school office, a community centre or a library desk, and ask a staff member if you can watch the front desk for an hour. Do not touch anything without permission.
  2. Write a tally of every interruption: phone, visitor, question, delivery. Note which ones were easy and which one needed the receptionist to stay calm.
  3. Write down the three questions the receptionist was asked most often, and how they answered each.
  4. At the end, ask them one question: what part of this job would you not want to do again?

What it tells you. If the constant switching between people and tasks looked like something you could do well, and even enjoy, reception may suit you. If you came away tired just from watching the interruptions, or the idea of being polite to anyone, all day, made you flinch, it is better to find that out now than after you have taken the job.

Better than any article

Questions for somebody who does this job

Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.

  1. “What does a normal day at your desk look like, and what does a bad one look like?”
  2. “How did you get this job, and what did you learn on the job that no course taught you?”
  3. “What is the hardest kind of visitor or caller to deal with?”
  4. “Where do receptionists here go next, if they want to move up?”
  5. “Which software do you use every day, and how long did it take you to learn it?”

Could you own one of these?

The part other career sites never mention

Not as such, because reception is a role inside someone else's organisation. Job Bank shows a low share of self-employment for this group. Some people run a virtual reception or answering service as a business, but that is a different job, built on customers, and a business to start and market.

Business 101 is free and teaches that part

Quick answers

Questions people ask about this job

How much does a receptionist make in Ontario?

The median pay for a receptionist in Ontario is $20.50 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024, updated 19 November 2025). The range Job Bank publishes runs from $17.95 to $28.00 an hour. Pay varies by region, employer and experience.

What is the job outlook for a receptionist in Ontario?

Job Bank rates the employment outlook for this work in Ontario as moderate for 2025-2027 (updated 10 December 2025). Employment decline will lead to the loss of some positions. A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements. There are a moderate number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation. A lower rating means more competition for each opening, not that no one is hiring.

What do you need to become a receptionist in Ontario?

Job Bank says this work usually needs a high school diploma, or several weeks of on-the-job training. The usual route in Ontario, in order: Finish high school; Get a first customer-facing job; Consider an office administration programme.

How many people work as a receptionist in Ontario, and how many are women?

Job Bank counts about 57,500 people working in this job in Ontario. 92% of them are women, compared with 48% across all jobs. That describes who does the work today, not who can.

Not sure this is the right list to be reading

Start from yourself, not from the job.

Future Finder is free, takes about ten minutes, needs no account and stores nothing. It will tell you which kinds of work you lean toward, and which of these pages are worth your time.

Try Future Finder — freeAll jobs

Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.

If this appeals, look at these too

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Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.