Help, job advice please. Anyone work in the city?

[CityMaybe]

Posting here for traffic.

I have a second round interview for a job in the city supporting a team of hedge fund managers, as far as I can tell this involves being a mix of a PA and front of house person. The starting salary is £22000 (I earn £18000 at the minute, no potential to earn more with time) going up once probation is passed.

I'm wondering what to do and if I should take it if I get offered it. At the minute my job is teaching an extracurricular activity to quite a high level to students and this was my dream but it isn't financially viable long term. I'm 28 now so need to make good decisions to set me up for the future.

Does anyone know how far I could progress in a city job or what the top tier PAs earn?

Also, I was told the hours would be 'usual office hours', am I right to suspect they could be very long in the city?

Does there tend to be a culture of working through lunch breaks etc?

Oh and that should read as 38! To be 28 again, I wish...then it wouldn't feel so urgent to make the right move now.

In my city firm (law firm) support staff work standard office hours (9-5, 9.30-5.30 or 10-6) and do take lunch hours. Overtime is sometimes requested beyond this. It's the professional staff who work the daft hours.

PA jobs in the city can end up with mega bucks at PA to CEO/senior partner level. I'm not sure what the max would be. Probably there will be a few outliers beyond this but around 60k would not be out of the question. The most we pay (no really big dogs in our London office to PA to) is about £35k.

My history is working inlaw rather than finance, but still in the city. There is usually good scope to increase pay over the years (if you're any good), finance has a reputation of being quite tough to work for but again if you're any good the rewards can be great. Certainly some friends who do similar jobs in finance get a similar pay, £25-28k but good bonuses.

What are your home responsibilities?

Hhmmm. I'm not current but I did work in the City a few (8!) years ago.

I'd say the salary is very low, I was earning several thousand more than that (aside from bonus) 8 years ago and my role was pretty easy going - I worked over normal hours maybe once or twice a month and usually had a similar number of long lunches. Once in a while we'd all decamp to the pub and not return after lunch but that was usually for an event.

Oh, I also had a great pension and private medical insurance.

Thank you Eurochick that sounds very reasonable re the hours, and the money does sound very attractive.

Hmm, I am very excited by the second interview and hope I get it, so that's probably a sign I should accept if I'm lucky enough!

Mini and Princess, what side of things were your jobs in though? The one I'm going for is just a humble entry level PA role?

(If Im confusing anyone, I namechanged back forgetting I had changed it to start this thread!)

Good luck. Become invaluable and you can earn megabucks. My DH's top PA's were on £60k plus.

Also, they did mention bonuses, but I have no idea how much that might be?

Hello!

I work in Asset Management and have an assistant who primarily supports me and then also my team of 17 as well. She currently gets 38,000 per year and she got a 3,000 bonus in 2013 too. She does a mix of keeping me on the straught and narrow but in a combined effort to enrich her role, she also gets involved in some of our BAU and project work. The thought being that at some point, she maydecide that she doesn't want to be an assistant any longer and may want to pick up a junior role within a business function, so we're trying to increase her exposure and give her some work that will broaden her skills.

If you do want to see this as a stepping stone onto bigger and greater things, then I would make it your business to get involved in as many different things as possible. Take time to really understand what they do and what their clients do. Alwaysbe proactive and step up to take on more work outside of your BAU.

In terms of working hours - well my assistant is pretty much on the go the whole day - 9 til 5 / 6. I'm pretty flexible though and if she needs to leave early for whatever reason, then it's fine. She does got out for lunch some days but normally only after she's got me my lunch as I never have time. Equally though, when needs must, she's pinned to her desk. I rarely ask her to stay late but she does often check her blackberry last things at night or first thing in the morning in case something comes up.

I would say that a Hedge Fund business may well be slightly more pressured that our place, so you really do need to check out what's expected hours wise plus how much they would expect you to be contactable outside normal hours and at weekends as this might impact your decision and ultimately your free time!

Happy to try and help some more if needed.

The £60k mentions are crazy! In a good way!

Maybe I'm being daft, but why are they paid so much for PA duties? I know it involves being very organized, accurate etc but what makes the difference to get the huge salary?

Apologies for the bad spelling and poor spacing - my laptop keyboard is rubbish and I was trying to type way too quickly :-)

A 60K PA? You have to be available 24 / 7.

I worked for a senior partner, a couple of associates and usually a trainee. I did Corporate law so did often do late nights but these were on a fairly voluntarily basis and obv paid overtime. My salary when I left after ML was about £45k. I started working inlaw firms when I was 20 and was40 when I resigned. The low starting salary is understandable. They want to make sure you're any good first, but become invaluable and you'll do fine!

HandbagAddiction - thank you for all that, that's brilliant! Am I right thinking your assistant is a graduate, so early twenties? Did she have much experience before hitting the £38,000 salary?

I think it's really brilliant that you are helping her broaden her skillset in order to branch out into other areas of the business if she decides she wants to - what kinds of other roles would be available to her (or potentially to me!) having come into the world of finance this way?

Thank you everyone!

I worked for a Director and the CEO of a medium sized Reinsurance company. I was also responsible for events and got involved with coordination of monthly board reports.

My job title was Office Coordinator though, which was a bit of a catch all. There was one if us for each floor of the offices we were based in and we all had at least one senior to PA for plus other duties.

sorry for late - that's very low as PA for hedge fund in city - I'd be looking at least 25K minimum. good PAs can early 35K upwards good friend of mine works for investment company as bilingual PA gets approx 35K.

I was earning 22K as PA for architects in that area but more Spitalfields.

Handbag - 24/7 PA my friend is one has to have her Blackberry on 24/7 weekends etc and she's bilingual - she's only on about 35K.

I don't think the high salaries are there anymore as they know people are desperate for jobs/work. or if they are there they're more scarce. people tend to hold onto jobs tight as PAs as far as I know.

There is no end to what you can get working with hedge fund people! I worked as a PA in marketing in the West End (London). Gave up work 15 years ago. I left there earning just over £40k. My friend works for high up bank people as a PA (London), earns over £70k, but works ALL HOURS.
Hedge fund managers, are very high earners, and also very stressed - some of them are lovely! Probably some not so. They'll need a great friendly, helpful (willing to do anything) PA they can rely on. You will have loads of opportunities to learn and move forward and potentially become one of them. You'll need a thick skin, not take things too personally, but you could have a great time. I wish you well. Good luck!

I can see my future £60k slipping away

Actually no, not at all! Long story which clearly I cannot go into but I would say she is probably around the same age as you - well your revised age anyway !!

In terms of opportunities, gosh there are lots of possibilities. You could move into being a junior sales assistant or what we call Account Management Servicing. Not sure what Fund Administration and Custosy set up your Hedge Fund place would have, but there maybe a possibility of getting involved in the operational side - client order management or fund administration perhaps. Equally, you could go down the project administration route. Depdending on their size and the numer of project / initiatives they have running, there could be a need for a good project admin person. Marketing assistance, event management, i.e. managing the set up and running of all client related and internal events, etc. could be an option. I almost don't know where to stop.

The key thing for me is demonstrating that your are keen, interested in their business and markets / financial services more generally. Plusa'can do, will do' / 'no task too small' attitude which will invariably make you the 'go to' person to get something sorted out.

Good luck and let us know how it all goesand what you decide. Equally, happy to try andanswer any more questions.

Management level PA here, been in it for ten plus years, have my hand in everything cross business and have to be on call as and when, salary almost 50k and bonus around 12k a year, it's taken ten years of toil to get to this though

Aaarrgghhh - meant 'you're' not 'your' in the last post....

Thank you! Getting some great insight, this is wonderful. Making me even more keen to get this position too!

iamusuallybeingunreasonable, could I ask you what you think is most necessary in terms of attrubutes for a PA coming into a company?

And do you enjoy your job? When you say 'on call as and when' does it interfere with your weekends and evenings a lot?