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Moving on from being a PA/EA

1 reply

Sundaycoffee · 12/01/2024 23:59

Im in my late thirties and have been a PA/EA for most of my working life.
Currently working for a large company. My 3 bosses are lovely, I enjoy my job and get a fair amount of perks in my role. I earn a 50k a year salary in greater London which I can get to in 20 minutes in the car with 2 days working from home. Generally I am happy doing what I do but I can't help wonder if I should be aiming for more.
There are opportunities within the company that I always consider applying for such as project management / event management roles with potentially more career progression.
I keep getting cold feet in applying as I am happy and comfortable in my current role and the money isn't awful for a PA role outside of central London without the fees of commuting.
However, I am scared about moving into a non-support role. Worried about taking on a role for similar money (but with room to progress) for more stress. Inevitably all these roles will involve having to lead meetings, give presentations to audiences in our townhalls (of up to 200 people). Having being in a support role for so many years this scares the cr*p out of me and I don't know if I could do it! I don't even like speaking in the leadership meetings I attend and get very flustered.
Are there any PAs or EAs that have been in this position and managed the transition from supporting to leading/managing and how did you find it?

OP posts:
Copen · 13/01/2024 08:03

I'm a PA/EA and had similar thoughts over the years (I'm in my 50s). I ended up becoming a project manager, then a business analyst.

I'm quite anxious and didn't enjoy being away from a PA/EA role. I ended up going back to EA work, but asked to incorporate some analyst work into it. That way I felt the 'safety' of the EA role but also stretched myself and had longer projects to work on. The money is no different to just plain EA but it makes me feel more fulfilled, and the company likes that I can pivot to different things.

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