How to Become a Personal Assistant

If you like helping others be successful and sharing the credit, then the career of a personal assistant may be perfect for you. The basic role of a personal assistant is to provide administrative support to senior managers or directors. Personal assistants ease their manager's work load by taking on the headaches of various administrative and secretarial tasks. ]

What's Involved

A personal assistant is often the first point of contact in an organisation. Their duties include screening telephone calls and handling them when appropriate. They are responsible for dealing with incoming email, faxes and post. They make appointments and organise schedules, and may be called on to produce various types of documents and reports.

Personal assistants can work virtually anywhere, but are often found in large, private-sector firms or handling tasks within government agencies. In fact, anywhere you find a successful executive, you will also find a hard-working and indispensable personal assistant.

If you've been considering a career change to become a personal assistant, you'll definitely need a few fundamental skills on board before applying for a job. These include good organisational skills, as well as being proficient at handling clerical and administrative duties. Your duties may sometimes require you to handle confidential or classified information, so you should be known for your honesty, integrity and discretion. A few Good References would prove beneficial in this instance.

A particular degree is not strictly necessary, but business or management degrees will make your application stronger, particularly if applying to a job with a large corporation. Secretarial studies are also a positive addition to your portfolio. At the same time, it is also possible to become a personal assistant without any degree. You should be able to demonstrate Reasonable Maths and English skills and be well versed in the operation of word processing, spreadsheets and presentation software.

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Qualifications

If you don't have a degree, potential employers will be looking for a least two years of experience. One excellent way to prepare yourself for the work of a personal assistant is by temping. Part-time work in a variety of companies and situations will provide you with valuable experience and contacts that you can leverage for future employment and promotion.

Employers today are more likely to look for third-party certification of your skills. You can really enhance your opportunities for employment by obtaining the NVQ level 2 and/or 3 in Business and Administration, or a secretarial qualification from City & Guilds, OCR (RSA) or Education Development International LCCI.

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Climbing the Career Ladder

Once you gain employment as a personal assistant, there are several opportunities for career advancement. You may be Promoted To Positions that have more responsibility, requiring you to hire, train and manage junior personal assistants. Or your career ladder could lead you into service with a more highly placed executive, or with an executive at a more prestigious firm.

Some personal assistants are given the opportunity to become executive assistants. In most cases, this means you will begin handling personal details in addition to your secretarial and administrative duties. You will work more closely with your manager or director, and will probably work much longer hours. On the other hand, compensation will be higher, and the contacts and experience that you gain will be invaluable.

So if you're wondering whether you're right for the job, you need to make a few considerations. Personal assistants know how to communicate, but also know when to take a back seat. They are flexible and good at organising. They have a good memory and are able to juggle several different tasks at once. If this sounds like you, then brush up on your English and maths, get trained on word processing and database software, and get to work!

Choosing the Right Career for You

How do you know what career you will best suit you? Our article Deciding What Career You Want offers tips and guidance to help you assess your interests, skills and work experience.

The Next Step

Now that you have read through the advice above, you might want to put it into practice. Our Career Change Matcher lets you tell us what is not working and what you want instead and we will match you with career paths that fit. Try it now →