Personal assistant

Responsible for:
As a personal assistant or 'PA', it would be your job to help ease your manager’s workload by providing secretarial support and dealing with a range of administrative tasks. Many managers rely heavily on their PA giving them both a high level of responsibility and privy to sensitive/confidential information. You may also be known as an executive secretary or executive assistant.

Average salary:
Starting salaries are around £18,000 to £25,000 a year, but earnings in some large organisations can reach £30,000 to £40,000+ a year.

Typical working hours:
Your typical working week would be 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, possibly with extra hours to meet deadlines. Flexitime, job sharing and part-time work may be available. You would be office-based, but you may sometimes travel to attend meetings and other events.

Qualifications:
To work as a PA, you should have proven experience of administrative work. You should be computer literate and able to use a variety of office computer software. Extra skills like shorthand or audio typing will be an advantage.

Employers will look for a good standard of general education, and many may prefer you to have a recognised qualification in administration. Before looking for PA work, you may find it useful to have NVQ level 2 and/or 3 in Business and Administration, or a secretarial qualification from City & Guilds, OCR (RSA) or Education Development International LCCI.

Foreign language qualifications can also be useful depending on the companies that you work for and the types of clients that they are dealing with.

General requirements:

• Excellent organisation
• Oral and written communication skills
• Accuracy and attention to detail
• Ability to ‘multi-task
• High level of computer and administrative skills
• Tact and discretion for when dealing with confidential information
• Calm and professional manner

Career prospects:
You could work as a PA in all kinds of companies, so your skills are very transferable and with experience, you could take on more responsibility by moving to a larger company or working for a more senior manager. Promotion into management may also be possible.