Personal assistant Review

I am a personal assistant to the director of our department. I manage his diary, take minutes for meetings, collate information, assist with projects and normally sort out travel arrangements. I also work in finance payables and pay external invoices and raise internal ones. I help the finance officer with month end information for a range of financial areas.

I have learnt minuting skills and continue to improve on this as it is not my strongest skill. I am currently being involved in a couple of projects whereby I have to co-ordinate the data and contact people to make sure they are on target, so I am finding my voice more. I have learnt more skills on remote working than I previously knew like VPN connections and TEAMs capabilities within Microsoft.

I enjoy learning and stretching my mind and what I am learning is only helping me within my role. As I get deeper within it I am finding topics I have covered now coming up which makes me feel more confident within my role and builds my knowledge so i can put back into the company.

It is very structured and organised as time is of the essence. The assignments in the first year have been intense and I have little room to breath before moving onto the next one, especially when I am working full time and more work is coming my way. I am hoping the second year will be kinder as I would have paved the way in the first.

My employer allows me the time to do it and helps if I have any questions on any of the topics, all I need to do is ask. They like to give me projects that will help my understanding and impact on the assignments I write so I am getting clearly guided responsibilities that enable me to write from a place of knowing.

Monthly meetings with my assessor to keep me on track and then the less frequent meetings with the co-ordinator all help support me in different ways. I know I can get in touch more frequently if I need to. My assessor assists me with links that can be of help in some assignments, particularly when it can be hard to find information. I am a hefty researcher so she also send me these to save my research time.

It has been a great help, only now has some of my role opened up to elements I now have a clear understanding of through practical application and knowledge. I am involved in projects now and don't feel overwhelmed and lost with the more senior management. I just covered an element on flexible working as we were going through a pandemic and working at home, now my workplace is looking at flexi working and I was able to contribute to the pro and cons of this.

I don't get involved in any extra curricular activities, not now and not before COVID hit. I am in a PA network that would meet physically in normal circumstances but I joined as COVID hit, I have attended a few online sessions where we troubleshoot issues and have a wellbeing catch up.

Yes

They are a great employer. They offer training opportunities, fair rates of pay, generous holiday entitlement and sickness cover. There are events and networks that can be explored. Their website is the portal to so much communication and they are front runners in education and research. Who wouldn't want to work for them when they offer so much.

Don't be put off applying for a job even if you have no degree! If you can do the job and have all the other essential traits they are asking for just prove why you are right for the job in the cover letter. If you are open to doing a degree state so and if you get an interview ask what opportunities there would be, you may qualify for an apprenticeship in a full paid role!