To take an admin job? Can they ever become something more? WWYD?

[ConfusedCareerWoman]

Has anyone here had the experience of starting off in an admin position, but turning it into something high flying and lucrative?

I'm stuck. I left an account executive job in PR having been in that line of work for 2 years, and I am not sure I want to go back into it, but I know that if I stay out of it too long it won't be easy to get back into. I don't know if it's really for me.

An admin position has come up in a field I really like and the money (£25K) is better than I was getting in PR. There would be a small amount of marketing and sales involved, but I don't know if I will just be pigeon holed as admin/ reception and no room for movement.

What would you do in my shoes? Take the admin job, or stick with PR to see if I get on better with another agency?

Does anyone have interesting stories about where you went from an admin type position?

I started out as a clerical assistant in HR, which enabled me to work closely with HR Officers, giving me an understanding of their role (useful not only in terms of promotion but also just in confirming that it was the kind of job that I wanted to do). From there, I got an initially temporary promotion which then became permanent and I was then given funding and day release from work to study for professional qualifications. I'm not sure I ended up in what you'd class as a "high flying and lucrative" job but I definitely progressed within that career and I know other people who started as admin staff who did become fairly senior.

I do think it depends on the organisation as I have worked in other places where I don't think it would be easy to progress. I think partly it depends on the set-up e.g. Would you be working directly with and supporting people doing the job that you want to progress into or are all the admin staff based together and just processing documents without getting see the full context of the work? How big is the 'jump' in terms of grade/responsibility to the next level of seniority? What is the organisation's attitude towards training and development? You could ask at the interview if there is the opportunity to learn about the area of work and possibly progress. If there is, they will welcome someone who shows they are keen. If not, the job probably isn't for you anyway.

I started as a typist in an estate agency years ago. Found out everything I could and made it known i wanted to progress; worked my way through to manager of huge branch within 5 years earning about 5 times my starting salary.