To ask other administrators...

[Hoohoohelp]

I work as an Administrator earning 18k per year. I want to progress in my career, but I've asked my current company about career progression and there seems to be nothing to move on to. What other (better paid) positions could I look for with administration experience?

What about an EA or PA role?

I started off in admin and moved into marketing from there. Did an on the job CIM and went from there.

What about an office manager role? Better salary and wider breadth of responsibility.

I've looked at office manager and PA roles but both seem to need prior experience. I'm a newly single mum and just would like to be working up to something. I don't want to have to rely on tax credits etc especially as universal credit is coming in and seems horrible. I just feel stuck in low paid work.

If there is no progression ask for training with a view to creating yourself a role or moving on.

Research the kind of roles you would consider a step up and see what qualifications they are asking for.

I would also look at your local college - are there any business qualifications? Or would your company sponsor you doing a degree?

Project management.

University administration? I did it for a few years and my husband still does. I mostly enjoyed the work, especially when student-facing, and the back-office stuff fulfilled my need to organise things you can progress into management or more specialist administration roles.

What are you interested in? Depending on what part of the country you are in, you can get entry level finance roles on a similar salary. They usually provide training and progression. If it doesn't interest you, try and do as much training as possible with your current company. The more systems, software and skills you have, the more attractive you are to other employers

I'm a PA, I earn £25K for 4 days a week, I have no admin experience! Definitely keep looking in the PA/EA area, if you have good admin experience you'll find one!

This was my career route:

Clerk
Assistant to Director's PA
Director's PA
MD's PA (small company)
PA to Executive (massive company therefore bigger job even though technically a step down)
I've stuck with the Executive level roles and now earn a pretty good salary.

Don't be afraid to apply for PA roles - anyone with any kind of admin experience would count as having "experience". Remember to tweak your CV to reflect any relevant experience.

Good luck.

I'm in North Wales. PA jobs here don't seem to pay anywhere near 25K for full time.

My employer doesn't seem to want to provide further training. They just want me to show up do the job and go home. I will keep looking. I'd love to progress to project management but it seems a big jump from where I am now and not sure the pathway I would take to get there.

I don't have the money, time or childcare to do any courses unfortunately.

But thank you for all your encouragement I will keep applying to PA roles. Hopefully I'll get one. Earn a bit more money and progress from there.

I worked as admin in retail, then after two years jumped over to admin in the public sector. I booked myself onto relevant training courses via the local authority, so I eventually I can move on to another role related to my degree. Could you do something like this?

Also the OU offer stand alone modules with qualifications at the end, I did these whilst in my admin role. They won’t benefit me for another couple of years but I know they are required for the role I want.

Well done you ..... coping alone with a little one and a full time job.

Not a lot to offer regards finding alterative employment. Keep looking.

OP: I recently read an article about this amazing company for virtual PAs in Wales- www.moneypenny.com/uk/work-with-us/

(I'm in London but would apply like a shot!).

they have an insanely stunning office (with office pub inside /culture/perks/flexible working) I'm a senior level PA and administrator experience is perfect/similar to what we do.

I'm not far from you OP, it's definitely possible, keep going, you can do it!