TEXT 8.1. BE MORE THAN JUST A TYPING DRUDGE

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 342.

When you hear the words "secretary" or "personal assistant", what do you think of? Miss Moneypenny? Dawn from The Office? Or the bitchy, glamour-obsessed types sent up in Ugly Betty? Say what you like about these three stereotypes, you wouldn't call any of them career role models.

But being a secretary or a PA doesn't have to be a career dead-end. In fact, more and more women - and men - are using administrative roles to kick-start their careers. Gone are the days when PAs and secretaries were regarded as typewriting drones: they're now thought of as integral parts of the company.

"The whole marketplace has changed dramatically in the past five or 10 years," says Geoff Sims, the managing director of the secretarial arm of Hays global recruitment agency. "In the past, PAs looked after someone's diary and made them coffee, now they are executive assistants who are expected to make decisions and deal with the same issues as their bosses."

The birth of the "executive assistant" has been partly driven by technology: business deals can be struck in the office over email or even on the move via BlackBerry or mobile. The urgency of modern business means that PAs maybe forced to make split-second decisions on behalf of their employers.

This added responsibility goes hand-in-hand with greater rewards. Being a top PA in London is pressured and competitive, but also lucrative. Sims recently came across a job as a seven-day, on-call PA for a global property billionaire. The salary? ₤75,000 a year, plus benefits.

"That really demonstrates how the responsibility of the role has progressed," he says. "Rather than being subservient, it's now an established managerial position. It's about having a bit more of a stake in what you're doing: you need to understand what's trying to be achieved."

For this reason many PAs choose to specialise, especially if they have a background in areas such as law or medicine. The more reliable your knowledge, the more likely you are to move up the career ladder. But even if you have no former experience of the type of business your company does, don't fret: merely working there is a sure way of getting some.

Judith Kark is head of development at Quest Business Training, a merger between three London secretarial colleges: Queen's, St James's and the Lucie Clayton Charm Academy. She says becoming a secretary or PA can be the perfect option for people who either don't fancy going to university or don't know what area to go into afterwards.

"It's attractive because it's a route into many other aspects of business and management, but it's still a definite career," she says. "It doesn't tie you down, but future opportunities always exist. And if you just need to get started in an office, it's an excellent entry point."

Once you have your foot in the door, there are two main ways to progress: you can impress your organisation and slide into a more business-orientated role, or remain as a PA but become so well-regarded that you find yourself working alongside the top executives.

Quest offer a 36-week diploma which covers everything from IT and computer skills to crash courses in shorthand and business management. There's even a modern nod to the institution's roots as a "finishing school": classes on personal presentation and workplace style have replaced those on deportment and dinner party planning. Charlotte Gillam, 21, enrolled on the course straight after her A-levels. Although she began by temping, after only two months she secured a permanent job as a sales and marketing coordinator for Coloplast, a pharmaceutical company in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. She is certain she didn't miss out by skipping university

"I wasn't interested in further academic qualifications," she says. "I wanted to start work. I'd recommend it to people who don't know what they want to do - there's nothing like being in a workplace, because you pick up things you wouldn't pick up otherwise. It's just a great stepping stone."