Need some advice from PAs/administrators please!

[Purpledahlia88]

I'm looking to get back into work as a PA after a 5 year career break (SAHM) but am really struggling to stand out from the crowd. I have a couple of years experience working as an administrator before I had my son and have been volunteering for the past 6 months in an office. I have also taken a training course in advanced office packages which is on my CV.

I was thinking of doing some more training just to make me stand out but would love some advice on what people in this sort of work think would be most valuable?

Thinking of a course in Sage as I have never used it but have noticed it is a necessity in quite a few of the adverts I've seen. Or maybe someone like a course in diary management?

Were you a PA before or an Administrator?

If you want to work as PA to a Director then Sage will be of no use whatsoever. That's more of an Office Manager role in a small company iMO.

I think temping and volunteering is the best way in. Yes, you could do a course if you want to brush up on your MS Office but most of that you can learn on the job. I've learnt things by being asked to do them and a lot of Googling!

Things seem to be picking up but it's been tough out there for about the last five years. There are more candidates than jobs and salaries have stagnated in that time. Workloads are also much higher. A PA role used to involve working for one person now it is often 3+ which can be pretty stressful!!!

There was a thread recently about retraining and all the established PAs said not to do it. Lots of people recommended going the project management route. Is that something you could do? Same stress but much more money which sounds like a bit of a no brainer to me..