How to break out of entry-level Admin roles

[llamakoala]

I’ve been doing ‘admin’ in various forms for ten years and have done a variety of things (i.e. some recruitment resourcing, auditing, website and shared area maintenance, reporting, etc) in addition to ‘standard’ admin tasks. I’ve always worked extremely hard, engaged with stakeholders and have juggled a lot and taken on extra responsibilities, where available. I’ve taken on a lot of extra stuff in my current role. I’m always told I’m over-performing for the job, but there is never any option to progress for me.

While I have a lot of transferable skills, whenever I start looking for work I just don’t know what to look for and it seems that I’m limited to ‘Administrator’ job titles. It’s so frustrating and depressing. Admin jobs are very poorly paid anyway and there doesn’t appear to be anything that pays better that someone would consider me for, so I feel very stuck. Obviously it’s not all about money but I feel very sad that I’m renting a room in my thirties and I feel like I can do better.

Any practical suggestions as to roles I could look into? I’m not interested in HR or Finance.

Sure there are lots of other people in the same boat who would benefit from this.

For what it’s worth, I do have a very long-term career plan which won’t cost me much money but will cost me time - possibly several years before I’m ready for it - and I’d like to be able to improve my quality of life and breadth of experience, in the interim period.

Thank you for reading.

Can you look for a company you eventually want to work for and get an admin job there and work your way up?

Could you try and get into the NHS or civil service where often admin staff can work their way up?

My only suggestion would be accountancy exams starting with AAT but you’ve said no to finance so may not be of interest.

Exec PA’s are pretty well paid in comparison to administrator roles and it sounds like your skills would transfer well- could you move into that area? There’s always then the option to move into a different area within the company after a couple of years.

Project management? That’s where I’ve seen some administrators progress quickly.

What are you good at? What do you enjoy?

Good admin skills could transfer to project management. Maybe via a project office admin role?

Good IT skills could get you an IT support role.

I would start with either your interests or your long term carer goal and look at roles related to them that you can use your skills in. Or look at something with on the job training like police or ambulance call handler

Try looking at coordinator roles they tend to me slightly more specialised in various areas hr, finance, clinical, training etc.

Agree with the poster above who says project management. I started as a low-level administrator at a university but started working on projects as part of my role. I then got put through PM training by the uni and applied for more specific project-based promotions, and I'm now less than 10 years later in a very senior programme management role in the private sector. Universities are often a great employer and like to promote from within, so are a good place to aim for.

I went from admin to office manager and then onto PA.

I find PAing deathly dull but using it as foot in the door to move onto something else. The pay is good and my CEO is brilliant but it's boring to me and some CEO's aren't very nice to work for so do your homework (glassdoor offers quite good insight)

Senior Analyst roles in the Civil Service?

You don't say what qualifications you have - so it's impossible to suggest what might improve your prospects.

Though I also think we need to know about the mysterious long term plan ...

I'm an Exec PA, the money is better than admin (mid £30K's) and it's not a massive leap for an experienced admin person, sounds like you could do it!

Thanks everyone - some really good ideas and some things for me to keep an eye out for. I do search for jobs every so often to see what’s out there but always feel at a loss.

Nice to hear the personal anecdotes from those of you who were able to get out of admin too.

I’m not sure if project management as a whole is ‘for me’ although people have suggested it before because of how I am.

I would never feel right sitting in an interview pretending to be passionate about something I’m not really into.

Love languages, personal development and psychology, writing. I’m constantly learning, reading and researching things that interest me.

Just got ‘A’ Levels - four passes but all very low. Had the full four years of student funding (BA Eng Lit) but abandoned my degree in my final year and never actually graduated - had a lot of personal problems back then. Long story. Hoping to finish it with the OU when I can afford it.

I would like to say what I plan to do but am afraid of being recognised (you never know!) as I’ve put quite a few personal posts on here and people in RL know what my long-term plan is. Sorry!