2. How To Get Started In EA,PA,Carreer

Chapter -2 How to get started in a EA, PA Career

A job search is a sales campaign – and the product is you. As a corporate professional you have written business plans, developed marketing strategies, sold and closed deals. That is precisely the process you should follow to define, pursue and change careers to land a top job as a Personal Assistant. Below is an outline of a sample “Career Plan” aspiring PAs can follow:

1.Choose the type of Employer: Musicians or actors are not the only individuals who need personal assistants. Personal Assistants can work for professional athletes, attorneys, sports agents, politicians, directors, bestselling authors, affluent families, basically anyone with enough wealth can hire someone to manage their complex lifestyle.

2.Organize your Job Search: Juggle cover letters, resumes, follow-up calls, appointments, interviews and thank you notes with all the right tools. Build the perfect resume that works in all the applications you’ll use for your on-line and off-line job search.

3.Enhance your Skills: Personal Assistants need to know a little bit about everything, and know where to find out more. The ability to be resourceful is vital. PAs must be able to find “any type of information” at any time. Most affluent employers are looking for savvy, technologically competent employees who can show them how to transfer information from their palm pilot to the computer or keep track of their personal finances.

4.Take Courses: Computer training, project management and other administrative courses are necessary for today’s professional personal assistant. Please look over our mentorship and recruitment services. Institutions like iPAT are crucial for executive assistant training. Investigate part-time training, distance learning and online courses. Doing training in your own time shows commitment and will help convince future employers that this was a decision you thought about carefully and then followed through.

5.Expand your Career Network: Create and utilize a powerful set of industry contacts – people who know the industry and can provide you with leads and unpublished opportunities. Tap the hidden job market by building relationships with recruiters – they often have the direct line right to opportunities and make sure that your resume gets into the hands of the right people. Networking is an important first step: Let everyone know that you are a Personal Assistant looking for work. Contact a celebrity directly by getting in touch with their publicist, agent or business manager; or contact a staffing use networks like LinkedIn, Quora, etc. to join the online executive assistant network and keep in touch with working professionals.

6.Get Hired: Nail the interview, follow-up, follow-through, and negotiate the best employment package.

Shifting Careers

So, you’ve been a corporate banker all your life but now you want to be a personal assistant. Changing jobs is tricky enough, but shifting careers is another matter. We’re all used to the idea that no job is for life and many of us move frequently between employers with relative ease. But changing careers completely is a bigger and much more complex decision – and one a lot of aspiring personal assistants are grappling with.

Being in one job for a long time – or out of work for a while can make you believe there’s not much you’re good at, apart from what you’re already doing. If you let yourself fall into that trap, the rut you’re in will feel deeper than it really is. There are so many skilled things we do instinctively every day that we stop recognizing them as special. Many of these things are proficiencies personal assistants need in order to be successful. Knowing you are skilled and capable gives you the confidence to try new things. But how easy do you find it to see just how good you are and then describe that to someone else?

Transferable Skills

Finding a personal assistant job doesn’t have to be difficult. Qualifications and experience aside there are some very important attributes that all employers feel they can’t get enough of:

• Communicating effectively
• Working well in a team
• Problem solving
• Using initiative
• Being well organized
• Being adaptable

These transferable skills are essential for success in the most high-powered jobs. Yet they are often learned and perfected in ordinary situations. Ironically, many of us completely overlook our abilities just because of that.

Assess Yourself 

Click Here  >>> 2 – A task for Self Assessment / Re-evaluate yourself

When looking for work, it’s crucial to evaluate your readiness before attending any interviews. To do this, apply the following checklist:

Re-evaluate yourself

I’m an effective communicator because I can:

• speak clearly and accurately
• talk easily to strangers
• listen carefully
• persuade others of my point of view
• follow written instructions ask the right questions
• explain things effectively
• reach agreement by negotiating or bargaining

I’m a good team-member because I:

• get along well with all sorts of people
• share information
• am open to other people’s ideas
• am loyal
• trust others
• am flexible and prepared to compromise
• deliver what I promise
• always support team mates by doing my fair share

I’m a problem solver because I can:

• see problems before they get too big
• look at difficulties from different points of view
• tackle things myself rather than leaving it to someone else
• learn from my own mistakes
• try out new solutions

I show initiative all the time because I’m:

• able to see what needs doing without being told
• willing to take on new things
• good at making decisions
• good at getting things started

My organizational skills mean I’m:

• able to plan work so that the most important things get done first
• able to get things done on time
• good at doing more than one thing at a time
• good at planning how things should be done
• able to coordinate people and resources

I’m adaptable because I’m:

• open to new ideas
• not afraid to try different ways of doing things
• quick to learn new things
• able to deal with changes

Effective Networking

Most personal assistant jobs are part of the hidden or unadvertised job market. The unspoken rule in show biz is: “it’s who you know.” The truth is most jobs go to friends, or friends of friends or family members, or friends of family members. But if you know the right people you will make contacts!

If you tend to be outgoing and are comfortable with contacting new people, you can spend time networking your way to one of these dream jobs. Traditional networking involves developing a list of your personal and professional contacts, informing them that you are conducting a job search, and asking your contacts to point you in the direction of anyone they know in the industry who may be able to help. Once you determine who knows whom, ask them to write a letter of reference for you. Most celebrities prefer direct referrals from someone they know, so it is imperative that you tell everyone that you know to tell everyone they know you are looking for a job. The key to effective networking is to let all of your contacts and those contacts to whom you are subsequently referred off the hook with regard to knowing about a specific job opening (in writing and verbally). You are only hoping for further contacts who may not necessarily know of a job opening, but who may be able to “point you in the direction” of someone who also may or may not know of a job opening. People are far more open to helping and referring when they realize you are not expecting them or their referrals to know of a specific job opening at the time.

Once you have your personal organizer filled you should start marketing yourself by mailing, e-mailing, or faxing personalized letters and resumes to decision makers. This strategy is different from the less effective traditional strategy of mass mailing letters and resumes to generic recipients like “Human Resources Department” or “Hiring Manager,” which we do not recommend. Take a straightforward approach with regard to the fact that you are looking for a job. Names of key decision makers in a celebrity’s life are also sometimes available on the Internet; if not, they are published in various print directories, often from the same source as their online counterparts (ask the reference librarian at your local library). You can do a search for a celebrity’s publicist, attorney, agent, business manager, etc.

After identifying the decision maker, personalize and send your cover letter and resume to this person. Although in the traditional job search you should follow up after each mailing with a telephone call to the recipient; that is not recommended when working with celebrities. You do not want to be viewed as a star-struck. Your motive for sending the resumes and letters is for “branding” you simply want to end up in a decision maker’s file for any upcoming openings.

However, if one of your personal contacts suggests or arranges for you to make a phone call to a decision maker, make sure to do so. Although you will want to put it in your own words, the following is an example presentation for your telephone contact:

• Introduction: “Good morning Mr. XYZ. I am an experienced project manager with an in-depth knowledge of getting things done on time and within budget. I am interested in transferring those skills to a role as a personal assistant. Have I caught you at a good time? …” [Unless you hear a definite no, follow immediately with a brief professional profile create interest with a brief professional profile: “… I have most recently been involved with developing …” “I think I can bring value to <VIP> because I am detail oriented … flexible…”
• Clarify purpose—forward conversation: “…The reason I am calling is that I am looking for a new challenge and, having researched some of the people you represent, I felt we might have some areas for discussion, or at least you might be able to point me in the right direction. Are these the kinds of skills you look for in a prospective personal assistant?”

If the decision maker knows of an upcoming or current opening, typically questions will be asked regarding your background. If there does not seem to be a current interest, you will want to obtain a referral to another decision maker who may or may not have a current opening. Of course, a secondary objective is to remain in this decision maker’s personal file for future openings.

• To obtain a referral you might say something like: “Mr. Jones [or use first name if appropriate], who else might you know — who may or may not necessarily have an opening but who might be able to point me in the right direction? … [If so] May I use your name?”

It is a good idea to send a thank-you card, note, or e-mail to those contacts who have referred you to others. You can take this a step further and update your contacts with a note or email when you obtain a position. With this process you are building a professional network targeted toward industries and organizations of interest. This network can serve you now and in the future.

Click Here  >>> 2 – B – Join iPAT LinkedIn groups for Ea Networking

Click Here  >>> 2 – C – How to work with Recruiters- Application Draft, checklist and  Questions to ask

Click Here  >>> 2 – D – Standard EA resumes Template, boss Dashboard – Pending

Click Here  >>> 2 – E – Interview Questions