To ask any ex PA's or EA's what they do now and how they transitioned?

[Keke94LND]

Sorry to post here but .. I wanted traffic 😬 also FYI PA stands for personal assistant and EA stands for executive assistant.

I'm an EA and have been for 6 years and I want OUT.. but how and to what?

Any ex PA's/EA's able to share their experiences? Please 😁

@LakeShoreD

I’m a project manager in corporate strategy. I didn’t really intend to move, I actually quite liked being an EA, but it just sort of happened- I was asked to provide some admin support to a specific project and my involvement with it grew over time. Then I asked for a transfer to another office and they placed me in a new role relevant to that experience rather than another EA role. It’s very standard at the company I work at, unless you actively come and out and say you don’t won’t to advance any further then chances are you’ll be promoted regularly without even having to apply for anything. It sounds like your company may be the problem.

Yeah I do think my company is the problem in a way, it was fine when I first started because I was doing a lot of new things and I got a lot of my own projects, but now I've been here 3.5 years, I find it very unmotivating that I can't be promoted, so it feels there is nothing to strive for, I kind of feel I have learnt all there is to learn and now there's no where to go

Became an IT project manager. Went for a job as an IT account manager and it went from there.

After 12 years as a PA in a big company in the City I worked with a career coach to figure out my next move. Applied for an internal role (same company, completely new area) and got it. The network I had built as a PA over the years helped massively as some fairly senior people supported my move. I really wasn't sure about career coaching before but it was worth it for me.

I’m and EX PA and am now a facilities manager I had a career break went into a HA in the repairs dept realised I had a knack for quotes and contractor management took a pay-cut to work for a restaurant head office in their property team got promoted to Facilities manager and never looked back.

I would also really look at what salary you want. Going in to HR is unlikely to get you vastly better paid than being an EA (esp if you took a senior EA role). Also working in charity / education / healthcare sectors unlikely to result in high salaries either.

If you want more money, look at finance / law / fintech etc

@Bienchen85

After 12 years as a PA in a big company in the City I worked with a career coach to figure out my next move. Applied for an internal role (same company, completely new area) and got it. The network I had built as a PA over the years helped massively as some fairly senior people supported my move. I really wasn't sure about career coaching before but it was worth it for me.

Oh I have wondered whether a career coach was worth it! How did you go about getting one? And what do they actually do/help with?

If agree with @FastnetLundyRockall that HE might be a good place for you to explore more - there's a wide variety of roles and in my experience, quite a lot of internal movement. I moved from EA work within the private sector to a governance/compliance role at an HE institution, and it has a lot more going for it than my old jobs! Mostly I appreciate not being on call all the time, and being able to plan things much further in advance, as I was constantly firefighting in former roles, rather than planning ahead.

I was a PA for directors in an NHS trust. Had a baby then moved to a different part of the country. Now do admin work in a school which fits with said baby. Doesn't pay v well but am happy.

Can I ask do you find that there is a general lack of respect for PAs/EA’s within the workforce?- I sometimes feel where I work there is very little respect shown to my colleagues in these roles.

@Emerarta

Can I ask do you find that there is a general lack of respect for PAs/EA’s within the workforce?- I sometimes feel where I work there is very little respect shown to my colleagues in these roles.

Yes, I don't work with any other people who do my job, so I find it very lonely at times, whilst people are kind to me, I find that I am seen as 'just' an assistant, I think the role in general is looked down upon by the general public too, Iv been told my friends that I 'could do better' than this job, which I found quite upsetting, even though I kind of agree.. so maybe I internally view this job as lesser if that makes sense.. even though it ofcourse isn't. I also find people love having someone to blame when things go wrong, and to just pass responsibility of anything over to.. there was also one time a guy complained to my colleague about me who then passed the message on to my boss who then had a word with me about it and the complaint was because this guy had had a meeting in the meeting room and I had not removed the two mugs from the meeting room after the meeting... not quite sure why he couldn't have moved them himself.

@Emerarta

Can I ask do you find that there is a general lack of respect for PAs/EA’s within the workforce?- I sometimes feel where I work there is very little respect shown to my colleagues in these roles.

I sort of mentioned this upthread, but the ones who are good are the really dedicated ones who stay late when needed, sort of project manage their teams and prove that they’re an essential part of the team who are dedicated to playing their part in making the team a success

My company has had plenty of very young women who join, make lots of mistakes, leave early, get to work late etc etc which doesn’t give them a great reputation. Because they tend to join without a degree, it’s younger people who don’t have a higher education or the commitment to the role or the life experience to always act in a way that is very professional and they just aren’t that committed to the role - they see being an EA as a job rather than a career

This isn’t limited to EAs in my experience, the junior analysts can also be quite unprofessional but seem to be more committed to their roles

Can I ask what field you work in now?

I moved from being a PA to a similar role (one which crucially came without the PA label, but involved a similar level of organising someone's life for them) in a field in which I was interested. That enabled me to gain a degree of expertise in that field, and I applied from there to a media job which required that level of expertise. Send me a message if you want me to be less vague!

I grew to truly loathe the fact that I wasn't someone people contacted for myself, IYSWIM, but only as a means to get to the person I worked for. Still sometimes feel happy now when I remember that time, and open my emails which are now all for me!!

@Emerarta

Can I ask do you find that there is a general lack of respect for PAs/EA’s within the workforce?- I sometimes feel where I work there is very little respect shown to my colleagues in these roles.

I think it's basically down to sexism, it's now a primarily female job doing lots of things that are similar to old-style "wifework", whatever sex your boss is, i.e. diary, coffees, being kind and polite to important clients, replying to correspondence, booking rooms/flights etc and so on. It's a nightmarishly busy job at times but it's seen as fluffy for that reason I think. In a later job I saw the boss's PA replaced with a man (who had a gender neutral name, coincidentally) and it was quite incredible how people changed when they realised that "Billie" was a man. 1) amazed and 2) instantly more respectful somehow.

Could you take a medical secretary position? Some NHS boards then offer in-house staff to apply for programs where you can train as physio, nursing, midwife, or lower levels like health care /midwife assistants etc first. Especially now with shortages. I’m currently a medical secretary and there have been opportunities to apply for nursing with work hours/pay kept and you get relieved one day a week for in the ward training. Great opportunity for someone and I would have done it if my circumstances had the room for it. But I’m happy at current so not too fussed. Or becoming a PA to hospital manager etc would have same options.

I took a step down to take a step up. I had worked up to being an EA to an executive level manager and transferred into an HR Admin role which was a more junior position and worse money but I've worked my way up, company paid for me to do my CIPD and have progressed from there.

Being a PA is quite a common route into HR. My previous two bosses also started out as PAs and ended up as HR Managers. There's a lot of transferable skills as HR can be quite admin-heavy and if you're used to working for a senior director you can already communicate well with people at all levels and often have to be discreet as your privy to sensitive information.

I should although you have to apply, they are quite lenient on the qualification side. Also you could do lab tech assistant posts while has a large admin component and then be trained up. People I know with no biology or chemistry qualifications have done this and been admin based.

Hi OP - have you considered the civil service?

They are very good at skills/competencies based recruitment, rather than just experience, so you wouldn’t have to come in as PA/EA. Though, I have to say, good PAs are absolute gold dust in the civil service, so if you did come in as that you would be highly valued. Lots of people do an EA role and then use it as a jumping off point for other roles within the civil service. Not sure what your salary expectations are - I would say that with your experience you should easily get an ‘executive officer’/EO role, possibly a Higher Executive Officer/HEO role if you matched the profile well. In London, EO pay goes up to c.£30k and HEO up to c.£36k.

If you fancy a look, there’s loads of EO grade civil service jobs here www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi?SID=dXNlcnNlYXJjaGNvbnRleHQ9MTM4OTgxMDU1Jm93bmVydHlwZT1mYWlyJnBhZ2VhY3Rpb249c2VhcmNoYnljb250ZXh0aWQmcGFnZWNsYXNzPUpvYnMmb3duZXI9NTA3MDAwMCZyZXFzaWc9MTYzMzk2NTY2Ni1lY2RjZmEzMjVlNTU3ZjAwZDNmMjdmOTkwNTI4ZjE3ZWVjYjRiMjgw

@FoxgloveSummers

Can I ask what field you work in now?

I moved from being a PA to a similar role (one which crucially came without the PA label, but involved a similar level of organising someone's life for them) in a field in which I was interested. That enabled me to gain a degree of expertise in that field, and I applied from there to a media job which required that level of expertise. Send me a message if you want me to be less vague!

I grew to truly loathe the fact that I wasn't someone people contacted for myself, IYSWIM, but only as a means to get to the person I worked for. Still sometimes feel happy now when I remember that time, and open my emails which are now all for me!!

I work in the finance sector, very small private equity firm managing various investment portfolios. Finance definitely doesn't interest me at all, I think I would be better in a more arty/creative related field or charity but having said that of-course finance is where the money is. I definitely feel you on that, I feel like I barely have any work of my own and it's all other peoples work that I'm doing if that makes sense. Definitely interested on hearing more about how you transition.. how did you go about getting a job with a different title?

Ex-PA here. Large IT company - I moved after 4 years as a PA into a business operations role, gained team leader experience and from there moved to a client facing project manager role. I’m now a programme manager in the same company.

Sorry, I meant to say that I did an EA role for a year after graduating while applying for graduate schemes - ended up on the civil service ‘fast stream’ where you come in as an HEO. I absolutely love it.

@FireworkParrot

I took a step down to take a step up. I had worked up to being an EA to an executive level manager and transferred into an HR Admin role which was a more junior position and worse money but I've worked my way up, company paid for me to do my CIPD and have progressed from there.

Being a PA is quite a common route into HR. My previous two bosses also started out as PAs and ended up as HR Managers. There's a lot of transferable skills as HR can be quite admin-heavy and if you're used to working for a senior director you can already communicate well with people at all levels and often have to be discreet as your privy to sensitive information.

Very interesting! HR is currently on the top of my list for realistic career moves! I need to get it into my head that taking a pay cut won't be forever..

I didn't have my CIPD before I moved into HR and I don't really think you need it but if you can afford to self fund it Level 3 may set you apart for an HR Admin role. I wouldn't look at Level 5 unless you already work in HR as you really need the experience and background and a lot of the assignments ask for experience from your organisation....it would be too challenging without it I think.

[quote Zitouna]Hi OP - have you considered the civil service?

They are very good at skills/competencies based recruitment, rather than just experience, so you wouldn’t have to come in as PA/EA. Though, I have to say, good PAs are absolute gold dust in the civil service, so if you did come in as that you would be highly valued. Lots of people do an EA role and then use it as a jumping off point for other roles within the civil service. Not sure what your salary expectations are - I would say that with your experience you should easily get an ‘executive officer’/EO role, possibly a Higher Executive Officer/HEO role if you matched the profile well. In London, EO pay goes up to c.£30k and HEO up to c.£36k.

If you fancy a look, there’s loads of EO grade civil service jobs here www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi?SID=dXNlcnNlYXJjaGNvbnRleHQ9MTM4OTgxMDU1Jm93bmVydHlwZT1mYWlyJnBhZ2VhY3Rpb249c2VhcmNoYnljb250ZXh0aWQmcGFnZWNsYXNzPUpvYnMmb3duZXI9NTA3MDAwMCZyZXFzaWc9MTYzMzk2NTY2Ni1lY2RjZmEzMjVlNTU3ZjAwZDNmMjdmOTkwNTI4ZjE3ZWVjYjRiMjgw[/quote]
Hey thank you! I did briefly consider it a while back but I didn't look into it too much! I'll have a look thank you! I earn £35k currently, and live in London so I can't take too much of a salary hit unfortunately! But I do understand to change careers I may have to make sacrifices

Very interesting! HR is currently on the top of my list for realistic career moves! I need to get it into my head that taking a pay cut won't be forever..

I've done it twice in my career, taking a pay cut to get my foot in the door somewhere better and it's definitely been the right decision in the long run for my career. Scary at the time but personally was totally worth it for the opportunities it provided me.

I retrained in HR, and I’m so glad I did after 20 years as a PA. Have you thought of HR or Project Management?