Talk to me about resilience!

[SmokeAndBone]

I've just had another knock-back from an agency after they put my CV forward for an EA role.
It's the last of many. I've asked them to critique my CV and have been told 'it's good'.
I've asked for some independent advice about my CV and followed it. I spend ages with my applications, check for mistakes and choose carefully what I apply for.
But I'm losing heart. I know something will come right for me if I keep trying, but I feel so demoralised.
Come inspire me with your stories of job-hunting success!

It's very competitive for EA and PA roles now - fewer jobs and lots of candidates.

Where are you based? What is your experience? What level was it? Are you in a job at the moment? Would you consider contracting/temping?

I'm in the South East but a bit too far to commute to London.
I've been in a similar role for over 2 years, in education.
Not really open to temping, I'm looking for a permanent role, a step up. Currently working to one Director of a team of 8.

Just the one Director or the team as well?

Are you applying for jobs working for one or multiple directors? That seems to be the norm these days.

One Director mainly - travel, Board meetings, diary, comms, plus some admin for the team as a whole - leave absence, booking training, liaison with facilities, that kind of thing.

And most jobs working to one Director at CEO level.

I think you just need to keep plugging away. I was a PA for a long time (up to CEO level) and it definitely got harder over time as there are fewer jobs. The quality of those jobs has also declined (far fewer 1:1 roles and high expectation to look after multiple directors - ugh!).

I think there are fewer Ea and PA jobs rhan there used to be. There can also be a sizeable pool of candidates from which interviewees are picked. So yes you probably need to keep plugging away.

Can you reshape your CV, do additional training to make your skills more current, differentiate yourself? Find your value add, so you stand out from the crowd.

Also consider office manager roles. These have taken over from some PA/EA roles and include some of the aspects of those positions.

This is only an example of one company - but we're a big one - 1 on 1 PA to director is now only for MD level. All other exec/non exec have 1 PA for 2 of them, if not 3 depending on how much support they require.

Then there is a new role called TA, team assistant, who supports 'Heads Of' and their teams. Again at least 2 per TA. So that could be 100 people asking for room bookings, travel etc. I regularly think it's a massive job!

So unfortunately when those changes took place we had a number of redundancies and downgrade of roles.

Thanks for interesting replies - I do look at job descriptions and think that some of these places want a lot for their money!
I wonder if it's just something as simple as I'm too old.

I looked at my performance contract from 7 years ago the other day - by comparison to today, I don't know how I filled my time! My accountabilities have easily doubled. In 2 years the department has gone from 109 people to 60 through org design and redundancies. It's tough out there.

I do look at job descriptions and think that some of these places want a lot for their money!

They do and there is a lot of grunt work now (i.e. booking meeting rooms, booking travel, processing expenses, etc.). Most PA jobs are pretty rubbish these days and not very interesting.

I gave up at the start of the year and do something completely different. I have a much more manageable workload than I have had in years. Mind you, I listen to our admin lady ranting on and think how that used to be me!