Executive Assistant job

[Lilydolly1981]

Little bit of advice please :-) and apologies for the long-winded post.

I currently have a role in a very busy, but local (close to home) office as an Administrator and Receptionist; which I have undertaken for the last 8 years. Prior to this I was a Medical Secretary for several years, and prior to that, I had various other administration roles since leaving school. Point being, administration is all I know and I have a lot of experience.

I now feel ready for something else, the kids are older, no childcare to worry about etc. found a role going for an EA at the University and I’m just wondering whether anyone here has done anything similar? How did/do you find it as a role, and what were your previous roles?

Part of me thinks, fresh new start, less front facing, get a foot in a new door etc. then the other part thinks I may be equally as stressed with the potential demands (internally anyway), also travelling for work which I haven’t had to do for some time (I appreciate most people have to do this and I’ve been lucky), and then the money isn’t more than my current role.

Better the devil you know, but with little room to progress; or take a leap of faith?

Thanks

Isn't it just administration with a fancy name?

Why would you do it then if the pay isn’t better than your current role?

It's definitely administration, can't say much for the title. Admin jobs do have differences in them, although there are certain similarities and transferrable skills that will be very useful.

Well, I was thinking more along the lines of starting fresh, with potentially more opportunities down the line. So the money might not be better now, but perhaps it might eventually, or there may be another opening completely. It's a much larger place to work for than the place I'm currently working for.

Hi OP I don't think it gets any higher than executive assistant does it? I mean I just don't see where else that could go?

If your ready for change what I would do is join university instead around my current job. If you look on the OU website you could even do something online. I'm thinking like a HR related course in buisness administration. There's definitely a ladder in HR and you already have most of the transferable skills required. Really you just need a course in employment law and employee rights, policy writing etc etc.

That's a fair point. Wouldn't necessarily expect to go higher than that, but other roles might come up in other University Colleges/Departments, and it might make it easier having a foot in the door; experience in that sector. It was definitely easier in the NHS as an internal candidate, than as an external one (well I thought so anyway). Perhaps partly because you're already trained on the system etc.

Thank you @Mummy2024 will look in to that 😊

Your absolutely right on the issue of being internal. Maybe it's worth applying for the university job and looking for some extra training in HR aswell. The pay can get pretty high, you can also go back to the NHS though in a managerial admin type role or a personal secretary and I'm pretty sure that the nhs will have a ginormous hr department ripe for climbing that ladder lol

I was an EA at a university a few years back, with a background in events. I enjoyed it, working closely with c suite colleagues with other PAs reporting to me. Gave me a lot of skills and opened doors to other roles

Ea jobs can be really well paid. It's as high as you can go in admin, so probably wouldn't get a promotion, but there'll probably be other way jobs with higher salaries once you're ready to move up