How did I get here?

What is ‘here’? – my ‘here’ is currently EA to the Director/Chief Executive of an agricultural research organisation. As an EA, in addition to diary management, minute taking, intranet updates, travel booking and event planning, I also organise visitor programmes and tours, manage budgets, organise a portion of our staff awards, sit on recruitment panels, collate and send out all-staff quarterly reports and work on ad hoc projects such as writing proposals for new methods of working, applying for small elements of funding and supporting external grant reporting. I have been fortunate to travel to Africa twice to learn about, and support, a project ‘housed’ by our organisation and I will soon be taking on additional liaison responsibilities because of my inclusion in this. Last year, myself and a colleague started an EA internal network at our institute as a form of communication and to showcase our capabilities as a team on projects.

But… my journey didn’t start like this!

I was thrust into the PA/EA world via a very supportive recruitment agency who, at the time, saw much more in myself than I did! I had graduated from my degree about 18months previous and had NEVER been an assistant before. I had acquired administrative experience at various jobs whilst studying, but never having any real idea of what a PA does and in truth, it wasn’t my chosen career area at that time. I found myself in a world-leading automotive organisation as PA to the Vice President…. I was apprehensive!

Looking back, this role gave me great opportunities to develop my skills and identify some of my strengths. Starting out ‘fresh’ having had no real training, mentor or first-hand experience was daunting and I learnt as I went along. I built relationships and took on more responsibility, offering to help with student programmes/tours, and then took on the role of supporting the SVP in addition to the VP. This gave me exposure to more areas across the organisation, both in terms of work experience and networking.

After four years within this role I moved to work at a University, which increased my knowledge in invoicing, purchasing, updating webpages, understanding project milestone reporting, budgeting and large-scale event management. Again, I was fortunate to be able to study part time for a Master’s degree (in a field related to my degree) and was also conducting research assistant tasks. This role gave me my first hands-on involvement of organising interviews, recruitment panels and hiring visiting staff on different contracts (UK and overseas). I undertook extra training sessions to add more ‘strings to my bow’ and increased my knowledge of the systems behind how the University functions.

After four years at the University I took the plunge and was accepted into my current role. I knew this would be a challenge, as I was ‘stepping up’ - and I am still learning.

I try to attend local PA/EA networking events to meet with others, and join training webinars. There is so much more to absorb, (and it’s been said many times before) that the role of the PA/EA is changing and growing. Expectations of us are increasing, not just in our workload but our skills and knowledge levels. It is becoming more important to understand, and think, strategically for the organisation and those we support. I have joined a training network to help me do just that, to fill in the gaps on areas where I think I can improve. What I have found beneficial, is to look back over what I have learnt and where and how I have applied it, especially beneficial for work reviews but also to take personal stock of what new skills can be honed/developed. One of my targets this year is to identify a mentor.