Why the PA’s role offers such a unique insight into business

A complete awareness of the function of leadership, the diversity of work on offer and having control of your own career development are just three of the reasons that make the role of the PA uniquely privileged. According to recruitment agency Hays, which recently surveyed 536 top EAs face-to-face, unless you aspire to become the CEO of an organisation, there is no other job opportunity that gives you such a unique insight into the running of a company as being an executive’s assistant.

“EAs are the trusted partner of their executive. They make their executive as efficient as possible by offering support, professionalism and technical expertise. In turn, they become a collaborative assistant who has their executive’s confidence,” says Alex Jones, Regional Director of Hays Office Support, based in Sydney.

In terms of gaining a valuable insight into leadership, Alex notes that since PAs get close to top-level management they are therefore privy to information that is not known outside the leadership circle, such as future strategic initiatives or operational decisions.

In addition, the type of work done by a senior administrative professional is extremely varied, with EAs able to gain experience of a wide range of tasks as their responsibilities continue to evolve and grow over time. The position of executive assistant also allows individuals to focus their career development on an area of personal choice, such as health and safety, facilities management, basic accountancy, HR or marketing.

A further benefit of the job highlighted by Hays is the way in which EAs can freely move across different industries and are not restricted to any one area. That means they can take advantage of peaks within a particular sector to help move forward on their chosen career path.