Receptionist Jobs in 2026
Receptionist jobs cover the full spectrum of US front-of-office work: corporate front desk receptionist jobs, dental receptionist jobs, hotel receptionist roles, veterinary receptionist positions, and part time receptionist jobs near me. This guide covers what each variant involves, what pay to expect, and how receptionist careers grow. For broader context, see our administrative careers guide.
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Receptionist work, what the role covers
Receptionist jobs cover the full spectrum of US front-of-office work. The receptionist is the visible first point of contact between a business and its visitors, clients, or patients. The role exists across healthcare (medical, dental, veterinary), hospitality (hotels), legal services, corporate offices, and small businesses. Most US metros maintain continuous receptionist hiring.
This guide covers what receptionist work involves, the major industry variants (front desk corporate, dental, hotel, veterinary, medical), and how receptionist careers grow into broader administrative work. For more on the parent topic, see our administrative careers guide.
What receptionists do day to day
A typical day for a receptionist includes greeting visitors as they arrive, answering and routing inbound phone calls, scheduling appointments, handling mail and deliveries, providing basic information about the business, and supporting administrative staff with light operational work. The pace varies by industry. A busy medical practice has continuous patient flow. A corporate front desk may have quieter stretches between visitor waves.
The work is structured around the operating hours of the business. Most receptionist roles run during business hours, though hotels, hospitals, and 24/7 operations include evening and overnight shifts with small pay differentials.
Front desk receptionist jobs and front desk receptionist jobs near me
Front desk receptionist jobs are the most common variant. The role exists at corporate offices, law firms, hotels, healthcare practices, professional services firms, and small businesses. Front desk receptionist jobs near me searches typically return openings across most of these employer categories within a 15-to-30-mile commute radius.
The work is consistent across employer categories: visitor greeting and check-in, answering and routing inbound calls, scheduling appointments, handling mail, and providing basic information. Industry context shifts the specifics (a law firm receptionist handles confidential client information; a corporate front desk handles vendor and visitor coordination).
Part time receptionist jobs near me
Part time receptionist jobs near me and receptionist jobs near me part time are common at small businesses, medical and dental practices, hotels, and professional services firms. Part-time hours typically run 15 to 28 per week, below the federal benefits eligibility threshold. Pay typically runs $15 to $20 per hour at entry level.
Part-time receptionist work suits students balancing classes, parents balancing childcare, candidates re-entering the workforce, and people layering multiple income sources. Some part-time roles offer flexible scheduling around the employer's peak hours.
Dental receptionist jobs and dental receptionist jobs near me
Dental receptionist jobs support the front office of dental practices. The work covers patient greeting and check-in, appointment scheduling, insurance verification, basic billing, treatment plan coordination, sterilization-area coordination support, and the general flow of patients through the office.
The role requires basic dental terminology comfort and familiarity with practice-management software (Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft). Pay typically runs $17 to $24 per hour at entry level. Most dental practices train new hires on the specific practice-management system they use during the first one to two weeks.
Hotel receptionist jobs and hotel receptionist jobs near me
Hotel receptionist jobs (often called front desk agents in hospitality) support hotel operations with guest check-in and check-out, room assignment, basic billing, concierge support, and front-of-house operational tasks. The work runs in shifts to cover 24/7 hotel operations, including evenings, overnights, and weekends.
Major US chains (Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Wyndham) maintain continuous hiring at their hotels. Pay typically runs $15 to $22 per hour with shift differentials of 5 to 15 percent for evening and overnight shifts. Tips occasionally supplement base pay at concierge-adjacent positions.
Veterinary receptionist jobs
Veterinary receptionist jobs support the front office of veterinary practices. The work covers client greeting and check-in, appointment scheduling, basic medical-record handling, payment processing, prescription pickup coordination, and pet-friendly customer interaction.
The role requires basic veterinary terminology comfort and a genuine comfort with animals (including emotional support for clients with sick or older pets). Pay typically runs $14 to $20 per hour at entry level. The work suits people who genuinely like animals and can stay professional through emotionally heavy moments.
How to find legitimate local receptionist work
The most reliable channels are LinkedIn Jobs filtered by your city plus receptionist keywords, direct corporate career pages of major US employers, healthcare-system and hospital career pages, hotel chain career pages, local staffing agencies (Robert Half, OfficeTeam), Indeed local searches, and industry-specific job boards.
A clean resume that emphasizes any prior customer-facing experience (retail, hospitality, food service all count), clear written and verbal communication, and professional polish during the interview is usually enough to land a first receptionist seat.
Eight common receptionist roles
Receptionist work splits across industries. The cards below describe each major variant and typical US pay ranges.
Corporate Front Desk Receptionist
First-line corporate office reception role. Common at major US enterprises, professional services firms, and venture-backed scale-ups.
Visitor greeting, vendor and guest coordination, conference room support, mail handling, light admin tasks.
Pay: $17 to $24 per hour at entry level.
Dental Receptionist
Front-office role at a dental practice. Requires basic dental terminology and practice-management software familiarity (Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft).
Patient check-in, appointment scheduling, insurance verification, basic billing, treatment plan coordination.
Pay: $17 to $24 per hour at entry level.
Hotel Front Desk Agent
Hospitality front-of-house role at major US chains (Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Wyndham). Shift-based work covering 24/7 hotel operations.
Guest check-in and check-out, room assignment, basic billing, concierge support, front-of-house operations.
Pay: $15 to $22 per hour with shift differentials.
Veterinary Receptionist
Front-office role at veterinary practices. Requires comfort with animals and emotional resilience for difficult client situations.
Client check-in, appointment scheduling, basic medical-record handling, payment processing, prescription pickup coordination.
Pay: $14 to $20 per hour at entry level.
Law Firm Receptionist
Front-office role at law firms (BigLaw, regional firms, solo practitioners). Demands strict confidentiality and professional polish.
Client greeting, attorney coordination, conference room support, mail and document handling, light filing.
Pay: $19 to $28 per hour at entry level (NYC and SF higher).
Medical Office Reception
Front-office role at medical practices, clinics, and outpatient facilities. Requires HIPAA awareness and basic medical-terminology comfort.
Patient check-in, insurance verification, appointment scheduling, basic patient communication, EHR data entry.
Pay: $17 to $24 per hour at entry level.
Part-Time Receptionist
Local part-time receptionist work at small businesses, medical practices, and professional services. 15 to 28 hours per week.
Same standard receptionist mix as full-time but compressed into part-time hours; suits flexible-schedule candidates.
Pay: $15 to $20 per hour, limited benefits.
Senior Receptionist
An experienced receptionist trusted with harder visitor coordination, training new receptionists, and broader administrative support. Common path to office coordinator role.
Visitor management at scale, training of new receptionists, advanced calendar and scheduling work, light admin coordination.
Pay: $22 to $30 per hour.
What US receptionist employers screen for
US receptionist employers screen for a small consistent set of skills. None require advanced credentials at the entry tier. Most provide one to two weeks of paid training.
Calm professional phone presence
Receptionists handle inbound calls all day. A calm, friendly, professional tone is the central verbal skill of the role.
Visitor-facing communication
Greeting visitors warmly and getting them to the right person quickly is the central in-person skill. Professional polish during the interview is a strong signal.
Microsoft Office or Google Workspace baseline
Word, Excel, Outlook or Docs, Sheets, Gmail at the baseline. Comfort with at least one suite is expected at the entry tier.
Appointment scheduling discipline
Resolving scheduling conflicts, managing competing appointment requests, and keeping the calendar accurate is foundational. Strong schedulers get noticed for promotion.
Industry-specific software fluency
Dental receptionists need Dentrix or Open Dental. Medical needs Epic or Athenahealth. Hotel needs the property-management system. Most employers train new hires on their specific stack.
Discretion and confidentiality
Receptionists routinely handle sensitive information about visitors, clients, patients, or attorneys. Discretion is a soft skill employers screen for hardest at law and healthcare employers.
Multi-tasking under pressure
Receptionists juggle phone calls, walk-in visitors, scheduling conflicts, and admin tasks simultaneously during busy stretches. Calm multi-tasking is teachable but real.
Customer-friendly empathy
Especially at healthcare, veterinary, and hospitality reception, customers are often stressed or in pain. Genuine empathy plus the ability to stay professional is critical.
Mail and shipping coordination
Most receptionist roles include mail handling, package routing, and shipping coordination. The work is mundane but reliability here separates strong receptionists from average ones.
HIPAA awareness (healthcare track)
Required for medical, dental, and veterinary receptionist roles. Free online training is available, plus employer-provided onboarding training at most healthcare employers.
Receptionist career path
Receptionist careers progress through five recognizable stages from entry seat into office management work.
Junior Receptionist
0 to 2 years
Entry seat. Structured paid training during the first one to two weeks. Daily rhythms become clear within the first month.
Receptionist (Mid-Level)
2 to 4 years
Experienced receptionist trusted with harder visitor coordination, training new hires, and broader scope. Pay typically increases 15 to 25 percent.
Lead Receptionist or Office Assistant
3 to 6 years
Front-of-office lead role. Common path into administrative assistant work where the receptionist's scope broadens to include calendar and document support.
Administrative Coordinator
5 to 8 years
A broader administrative role that grew out of receptionist work. Coordinates across teams, supports executives, and owns operational follow-through at scale.
Office Manager
8+ years
Senior management of office operations. Hires, supervises, and trains other receptionists and admin staff. Owns vendor relationships and the office budget.
Receptionist careers, common questions
Practical answers about front desk, dental, hotel, veterinary, and part-time receptionist work.
Receptionist jobs are the first-line interaction between a business and its visitors, clients, or patients. The work covers greeting visitors, answering and routing phone calls, scheduling appointments, handling mail and deliveries, providing basic information, and supporting other administrative staff with light operational work. The specifics vary by industry. A dental receptionist handles different patient-flow work from a hotel receptionist, but the core craft (professional, calm, customer-facing communication) is the same.
Find receptionist roles that fit you
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Related searches
Topics commonly searched alongside receptionist jobs. Tags with a destination open the related guide; others stay informational.
- Receptionist Jobs
- Receptionist Jobs Near Me
- Front Desk Receptionist Jobs
- Front Desk Receptionist Jobs Near Me
- Part Time Receptionist Jobs Near Me
- Dental Receptionist Jobs
- Dental Receptionist Jobs Near Me
- Hotel Receptionist Jobs
- Veterinary Receptionist Jobs
- Medical Receptionist Jobs
