PA and secretarial jobs

[TheAverageJoanne]

Do these still exist? Anybody doing one of these jobs?

Yes I’m an EA within Finance- have been for the past 20years. My company had a team of 10 EAs

I think now they're generally called administrative jobs rather than secretarial. I'm a PA/Administrator at a university. Plenty of these jobs exist at universities, Civil Service, local government etc. Some are not badly paid either. I saw a PA job offered in a Yorkshire school for £35k per year.

Executive Assistant?

Lots of PAs where I work (large corporate). They earn around the £30k mark (£40k in London).

yes Executive Assistant- PA is a less used term in finance. All the assistants in the firm I work for are higher tax payers.

PA in the NHS - I work for the Exec team, was previously a medical secretary

Plenty of EAs and Private Secretaries in the civil service. Grades are dept dependent though I’ve found, most are HEO in mine.

We did an external recruitment campaign a few months ago and although had 100’s of applications we weren’t able to fill all our vacancies.

I'm an EA/PA in a law firm. Look on Linked In - there's thousands of these jobs around.

Same here, been in role 17 years, very large company, loads of EA's across the teams

That's interesting, why not? Were they not qualified, were the applications not very good or did they mess up interviews?

What qualifications are asked for or is it more focused on skill set?

Jumping on this thread to ask about relevant/respected qualifications for EA's or PA's.

Had a quick Google but got slightly confused by it all!

The quality of the applications was quite low, not necessarily the candidates themselves but how they addressed the application.

No qualifications and only experience of working as a PA/EA and the rest just general skills - organisation, prioritisation, communicating etc

You need to be super-organised - not only on your own behalf but on behalf of the person (s) you assist, and you need tact and diplomacy in abundance because you'll often have to deliver messages others won't want to hear and subtly massage egos to get folk onside.

You need to be proactive and prevent problems before they happen - you need to be the one pointing out that the all day meeting for the entire management team someone's planning in eight weeks' time clashes with the day bonus outcomes are due to be delivered, for example.

You need the confidence to challenge your boss where needed, and the soft skills to do it without offending him/her, and the patience to deal with situations where people are asking you to do stuff that, in the time they've sent you three paragraphs on Teams telling you what to do, they could have done it twice over themselves.

Acatdance
That confirms my suspicion that in a lot of circumstances it's the EAs who ensure things happen and the wheels don't fall off.

It was like this years ago too, I was an EA in a multinational (left 11 years ago) I dreaded recruiting into my team, the applications would be really poor, we often had to run the cycle 3/4 times

I'm an EA, I don't have any relevant qualifications. I started with a team secretary job, then PA, Project Manger, then EA.

It's more about being very organised and diplomatic, as PP outlined upthread.

Me! Legal EA in a global law firm in Sydney. On AUD115k which is good but c-suite EAs earn $130-140 easily.
Plenty of banks, law firms wtc still have PAs. Job has changed significantly since lawyers do their own typing etc but it’s an interesting role that’s fairly well paid if you don’t have a tertiary degree.

I'm a PA/EA, people seem to think the jobs are an easy job to do and that they don't need any experience (you see it on here) when in reality it's bloody hard work.

I love my job but the personalities of the executives I look after mean I have to switch how I deal with people and how I work multiple times a day. On top of them I have events to organise, meetings to attend etc.

I work in an accountancy firm - we have loads of secretaries. Their IT skills are amazing, it's not just typing.

Good to hear this isn't dying out.

I am an EA and have been for the last 37 yrs in Blue Chip companies, Media and Health... I should be retiring this yr but my boss has asked me to stay on. I really enjoy it and we work well as a partnership. My role is reactive and proactive in equal measure... am sending this in my way into the office, a rare treat as we work hybridly.

It's changed a bit in my form, it's now business support unless you're c suite who tend to have their own EAs. The team support the fee earners rather than one individual. They are well paid.

I'm a medical secretary in a GP surgery, very busy but rewarding and really interesting. I'd worked in secondary care for over 20 years before making the switch to primary care and I'd never go back now.

I'm a PA/EA, people seem to think the jobs are an easy job to do and that they don't need any experience (you see it on here) when in reality it's bloody hard work.

^ this 100%

Yes, very much alive and kicking - PAs/EAs actually in high demand if LinkedIn is anything to go by! I can only speak for law but it’s actually a very challenging role.