Saturday, April 21, 2012

Answering Reader Mail: Tips and Tools for EAs?

"Do you have any suggestions for tools that would help in the day to day work? For example, I am about to start as an EA, and am a bit worried that I won't be able to write down everything my boss says. Do you use a voice recorder? Do you recommend any other tools?"

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Answering Reader Mail: From Lawyer to Executive Assistant?

“First of all I would like to say thank you for the wealth of incredibly useful and generous advice on your blog!

Secondly, I was hoping you might be able to extend that generosity to offer some specific advice for my own position. I am currently looking to transition into an executive assistant position and although I've knocked on a few doors I would like to put together something of a game plan before I really start approaching people. I like many aspects of my job, but the most important thing for me is working for the right company, in the right industry and with the potential for growth, and my current position offers none of those things.

I currently work as a lawyer and undertake every day many of the types of responsibilities that make up an executive assistant role, such as administration, communication, project management and so on, usually in a very demanding and high pressure context, and before this I worked in various communications/PR roles. Despite this, I get the feeling that convincing employers of my suitability for an executive assistant job is not going to be an easy task - in a competitive job market, employers don't want to hear about skills as much as they want to hear about experience in the field. From this perspective, I would really love to know whether you think a transition from my current position is feasible and, if so, what the best ways of communicating and building on my skills might be to land a job?

Thanks very much!”