How do I become a PA?

[ThirdNameChange]

I've been a Medical Secretary for 5 years now.

First at a dental surgery, then for the Orthopaedic Department in a London Hospital - I work for two Drs. I'm currently on maternity leave. I won't be having any more DC.

I have a lot of transferable skills, and I've tried focusing on these during interviews. However, I never hear anything back For any similar roles to my current one, I hear back within days usually (for interview).

I work for the NHS.

I'd like to branch out and become a PA for a more corporate field.

Transferable skills would be...

Organised
Highly reliable
Minute taking
Email
Scheduling
Post handling
Meet/greet
Fast typist, very accurate too.
Quick to spot mistakes
Good at using my own initiative
Good at prioritising workload
Complaint handling.
Good telephone/professional manner.
I would definitely say I 'look' the part.

I don't have dairy management experience as such, perhaps that is holding me back? I do however have experience managing meeting times, and slotting in patients, handling cancellations, etc.

Any advice? I would love to be a PA. How could I enter into this field and develop my prospects even further, into EA eventually?

Diary management might be a barrier - it’s a huge part of a Pa’s job.

Other than that you sound very suited, just keep applying

The PAs I’ve had all started as secretaries then were promoted to PAs. I think lack of experience in the corporate world may be the issue here, as you’re trying to switch sector and get promoted.
Maybe move to a secretarial role in a large form then apply internally for PA roles?
And yes diary management is very important, so you need to get experience of that.

Would you be able to sign up to some temping agencies? Go for the pa roles to get some experience on your cv

It will be the NHS background which is an issue. Do you have any private sector experience from before your medical roles?

If you can stand the instability of temping, it's a great way to broaden and deepen your skills within a relatively short space of time. If you're near a big city and can be fairly flexible on where/when you work then I think that may be a good route in.

Knowing how things work is so important for a PA role. A really good understanding of how things work in an organisation can make a huge difference to how well you do that role and people will be concerned that you’ll have no idea how things work in a corporate environment.

I agree temping would be an excellent idea.

It will be the NHS background which is an issue. Do you have any private sector experience from before your medical roles

I had an admin role for 6 months, prior to my job with the dental surgery. It was for a small finance company, who very quickly went into administration. Small being an understatement, so I don't think it's very useful, experience wise.

Temping would definitely be the route to get going, I think. My only issue there would be my DC, perhaps being out of work here and there, etc.

How long would you say I should temp for before applying for more permanent roles?

It may sound quite selective but which type of industry do you think may be easiest to get my foot in the door with? Finance, logistics, legal, etc? I know the obvious answer is Medical

Do you know how to put invites into people's diaries? Have you ever organised an event within the NHS? Are you good with Excel and Word, can you pass with PowerPoint?

Have you tried private medical PA. I.e a PA at Bupa or with a Consultant?

Are you sure you want to be more corporate. After 20 years in the industry I don't recommend legal. They don't pay as well as they used to. Recruiters now use benefits as part of the salary to attract staff. As though you pay your mortgage with a staff (barely subsidised) canteen.

I moved away from PA a couple of years ago and am in-house corporate at the moment.

I know I'm going on but if you intend to temp. Use one agency for temping and a separate one for permanent. As if you are a good temp they have a tendency to keep you in assignments. Oh also try temp to perm if you can. also try direct. my last job was from Linkedin. I hear Indeed is good.

Hope all that helps. This is just my experience. And I'm two years out of the game now.

DH has a PA and her role is very different to what you have as transferable skills. His PA is dreadful but previous one was amazing. Skills are

1- Prioritize DHs diary, responding to low level requests so DH doesn't have to.
2- Organize travel which includes planes, trains, automobiles and boats. He travels 3-4 times a week so it's a considerable amount of work to organize this.
3- Answer the phone.
4 - Be available after hours to deal with travel issues.
5 - Deal with certain parts of personal admin such as dry cleaning, ordering food for delivery to home if away for an extended period of time, answering calls from the nanny, setting up appointments with DC schools because DH is never available for parents night. Another one which is very helpful is coordinating Christmas cards.
6- Hardest one is organizing events. Lunch for 50, a golf day, BBQ parties and tours both here in NYC and in other locations.

@Want2bSupermum

Sorry I have to ask, if your DH's PA is rubbish why she still works with him? I've always been curious. I've worked with some rubbish/lazy, PAs and always wonder how they keep their jobs for years. What is the rational of keeping them?

Banking PA here. Missing from your list I’d say are the following:
Diary Management
Processing expenses
Travel booking
Creating presentations with PowerPoint
Inbox management (Outlook)
Acting as a gatekeeper

On your list skills I don’t have/don’t need are:
Minute taking (some PAs can do this, personally I can’t & it’s never held me back)
Post handling
Meet/greet
Fast typing (obviously a reasonable speed is needed but I’ve never had to copy type)
Complaint handling

So on first glance I’d say there’s not a great deal of overlap. I’d also suggest temping to develop those skills if you want to move into a more corporate environment.

Faulty His previous assistant was with him for 15 years. At first she supported both DH and DHs boss but about 10 years ago she just supported DH and his boss hired his own assistant.

The new one is on borrowed time. DH is in the office one day this week so she won't be let go until next month.

Supermum good for him.

Here is a summary of what my PA does . I imagine this is quite typical for a large corporate organization.

My PA is the first point of contact for anyone who wants me. She deals with large amounts of correspondence and phone calls. A key area is managing my diary and organising meetings and appointments. If someone wants my time they will have to get through my PA first. She takes minutes at meetings and produces my reports and presentations. A large amount of her time is spent organising events and conferences. Our travel and expenses are outsourced and everyone has to deal with their own. She has to be organized and make decisions herself as I’m regularly out of the office. I’ve recently dropped to working 4 days a week so it’s been an adjustment for both of us.

I know how to put invites into diaries.
I've also organised informal 'dos' outside of office hours, for staff. For example, the Christmas 'do'. But no travel arrangements apart from whilst working at the dental surgery, calling taxis.

I have bought lunches for those I work for, and arranged a spread a few times. That's it.

I've very good skills on Outlook email.

I really do understand what one PP said about having a real feel and understanding for how the game works and how things need to flow, as a company. That's so important in my current job and I can't imagine how I'd do my job efficiently without knowing what sort of person or professional I'm looking after and working for, what sort of department I'm involved in and what I'm specialising in.

Scope is so necessary, I agree.

I deal with all post addressed to my Drs and nobody gets on the system as a new referral if I don't action it. Likewise, I am usually the first to read his emails. Unless you're within desperate, you cannot email him directly. You have to email me first.

I also deal with all enquiries and complaints from patients and staff/carers.

I was a secretary/EA/PA for a very good number of years (too many to want to mention!). I spent 2.5 years in an NHS setting, and I have to say it was hard to get away from that back into private/commercial sector again. I did eventually but it was longer than I anticipated!

Emphasise your transferable skills, talk about time management, and also managing your boss' time ("managing upward"). Friendly but firm, efficient, able to make your own decisions on your boss' behalf are all things you will do now, and you will also be able to do them in another setting.

I've always had to take minutes in the roles I've been in, and a number of people can't/won't do this - so use that to differentiate yourself. A lot of employers won't think it's a big deal, but there are still a good number that are looking for that in a support role.

From your list, I'd say the following are most important:
Organised
Highly reliable
Minute taking
Email (goes without saying these days)
Scheduling (assume scheduling meetings??)
Quick to spot mistakes
Good at using my own initiative
Good at prioritising workload
Complaint handling (not essential but I assume you can flip this around at interview and show it to be a good demonstration of managing difficult people / difficult requests?)
Good telephone/professional manner.

I also meant to say that I have never had to deal with personal admin for my bosses. Sure there would have been a few small things that I did, but it was never part of the role in a major way. But to be honest, I would never have put my hand up or offered to take it on anyway, unless it was specifically part of the job when I started.

Chatwoo – I wouldn’t ask my PA to handle personal admin. Her time is valuable for the work she is doing for our employer.

Want2bsupermum – I’m really surprised that your DH’s employer is ok with his PA handling personal admin. Having food delivered to home and organising parent/teacher appointments are nothing to do with his PA. I have personal appointments blocked out in my diary so that my PA is aware that nothing else can be booked for those times. This would include appointments with DC's school.

My bosses ran the firm, so going out buying shirts, lunch, etc have happened. When their mum was being moved to a home I helped with the paperwork, when their daughter was going to art school filled out applications. When they wanted to write sympathy letters, I typed them up.

At the same time, they also wanted my opinions on how the departments were working. It was very collaborative.

We talked about the effects of mergers, the effects of not having proper succession planning, possible routes to pushing new objectives.

I knew when the main guy was stressed and he needed his signature mint tea. It's a real relationship that takes time.

This is why stating what a PA is is hard. It's different things to different people. Every boss has different needs, it's a PA's job to support them. Those needs need to be met. At the same time I am aware that after having a close symbiotic relationship, they put up with any old crap after you are gone.

I remember temping in a place that gave you 10 fee earners. I still couldn't figure out how anyone gets to give a personal service if looking after 10 people. I left after 4 days.

parker His travel schedule is horrendous and we have 2 children with autism. It's a lot of appointments and he does 2 a month, a catch up with each teacher and their social workers. Obviously these appointments can only happen during school hours (8:30-3) and take a lot of coordination with the school. The calls coming in from the nanny don't happen much but when they do they need to be appropriately handled.

Given how much DH works outside of office hours there is always going to be creep of person admin into his assistants scope of work.

I shortlisted a PA role yesterday. There was an application for someone with similar background. I filled my interview day with existing PAs

I would say temp or internal promotion. We have an administrator acting up into the role and she has been brilliant. She might get it.

Public sector so nhs doesn't put me off

I used to be an NHS med sec. I then took a 6 month maternity cover job as an office manager/PA for a union and then jumped into banking. So it is possible! It’s just getting out of the NHS that can be tricky. What about the Civil Service as the next step?

I just wanted to update that I've been invited in for an ASAP interview today for a PA (9 months cover), for an events type company based in London. £28k

I tweaked my CV a little bit to place emphasis on some of the things mentioned so thanks a lot MN

The company contacted me themselves and were really keen to have me in to 'get the ball rolling' as they put it

Also, I hope it's normal office hours (I don't mind working late sometimes but not early mornings!)

I was contacted by email 20 minutes ago. So just about 7am

Congratulations - it’s looking promising!