What did you do after you were an admin assistant?

[eastwest]

I'm thinking about looking for employment after a long period of self-employment. The last office-based job I did was admin assistant, and I enjoyed it. (I know I will almost certainly have to get some voluntary experience, and a MOS qualification, before applying for jobs). However, I can't seem to find much information about career progression online. So I wondered, if you once worked as an admin assistant, what did you subsequently go on to do? Office manager? Can you specialise, for example as a legal secretary? Or is it possible to move into something like marketing and communications? Any advice welcomed :)

Sideways move to accounts assistant. Best thing I ever did.

I asked for a promotion to office manager as I was no longer assisting anyone and did more than admin! Would like to move in to accounts side after I've had my baby and mat leave is done though

Side stepped into a Project Administrator role and then onto Senior Project Co-ordinator.

Admin manager, manage a team of 12 now.

Also part of my role is accounts based, keeps things interesting

My first job out of college was admin assistant at a charity and after about a year I got an internal promotion to a support worker role. In my current company the admin assistants also often go on to get internal promotions - to sales roles, comms roles etc. Depends on the company but admin can be a great way to learn about an organisation and who does what so can potentially open up lots of possibilities. Good luck!

Moved across to become a Personal assistant. Now an executive assistant to a high up government department official

I’ve moved into an Admin Manager role.
2 assistants from my team have recently gained secondments into other roles in the company. We work in homelessness support so they used the understanding they’d gained by working in admin to move into support worker roles.

Executive Assistant with a bit of Project Co-ordination/management on the side.

I moved over to office management after admin assistant. Mucho better pay, perks and bonuses. Good luck!

This is so useful! Thank you everyone. I actually have some project management experience from my self employment, so it's really good to know that's a possible direction to go in.
Also, do you think it sounds sensible to get the voluntary experience and then a MOS qualification? Is there anything else I should be doing to make myself more employable?

I actually decided WHERE I wanted to work which was an airport, wrote a general "I'm looking for a job" letter which I sent to a few companies on the airport. I was offered a job as an aircraft spares buyer which I took!

You can definitely move up! Usually it's to higher level administrative positions that go by other names. So things like office manager, officers, etc. And often in organisations if you have experience in a department, say marketing, you can move into higher level positions through the experience. Kind of like learning on the job. Depends on the organisation though.

Good luck!

I'd probably start apply for jobs straight away

Project officer/management... eventually.

But I also became an editorial assistant/editor and an HR assistant (I was a bit flaky in my twenties!).

You could definitely consider marketing - these days they like you to be working towards CIM (?) qualifications. I also considered becoming a legal assistant and working towards a legal exec CILEX qualification.

I'm now a dresser for theatre, film and TV.

I didn't like admin

While doing an admin job I started doing more and more finance work. Invoicing, expenses, accounts payable and receivable. Also filled in for the pa when she was on leave to look after the directors.

Kept with the finance work, moving into more senior roles and studied part time for a long time while working full time and I'm now a chartered accountant.

@Shelby30 wow - that’s some career progression!

@Greatbootsboots Yeah it was hard work, took almost 7 years of studying. Part time degree followed by professional exams but totally worth it.

Similar to @shelby30
Got am admin assistant job after dropping out of uni at 19. After about 6 months the accounts person left so they offered that role to me - I took it. Started studying part time, moving up the ladder to accountant by 24, qualified and have been doing that ever since (20 years!)

Another who side stepped to accounts assistant. I've since progressed to assistant accountant and am studying to become a management accountant