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A good executive assistant is worth their weight in gold. Hard to find!
If you like this sort of work you can find careers or at least learn a lot. An admin taking over for the boss is pretty rare, but I have found that admins who plan a lot of events find they love event planning and switch to that career.
It really depends on your skills and what you want!
Nope, not accurate at all. It is actually poverty level around here if you have a family. You can't even qualify for a one bedroom in apartment in most of the entire region - one bedrooms average around $2000 in the whole region!
I pay for rent far less than that price.
And you said" if you have a family"
Im pretty sure two people would be working to support a family in Los Angeles
Im doing okay for me
I guess some people can't live within their means..
I pay for rent far less than that price.
And you said" if you have a family"
Im pretty sure two people would be working to support a family in Los Angeles
Im doing okay for me
I guess some people can't live within their means..
The Bay Area is quite a bit pricier than LA. $50k only works for a single if you are locked into old housing prices. For a family it is definitely impossible unless you have few housing! And it would still be a serious struggle. You can qualify for section 8 for a family of 4 on a $70k income in my county. That's the low income bucket Yup $70k gets you section 8. The very low income bucket is $45k.
The Bay Area is quite a bit pricier than LA. $50k only works for a single if you are locked into old housing prices. For a family it is definitely impossible unless you have few housing! And it would still be a serious struggle. You can qualify for section 8 for a family of 4 on a $70k income in my county. That's the low income bucket Yup $70k gets you section 8. The very low income bucket is $45k.
For a family I may agree but I don't have a family to raise which is probably why I think its good money. Only a girlfriend.
Even so, its your own fault if you can't make it on that salary if you are single.
That's a solid pay for Admin Assistant
Last edited by CosmoStars; 01-24-2017 at 03:07 PM..
[quote=tigergirl87;46932894]Thanks everyone for responding. Yes my employer does do college reimbursement. I just don't have a desire to go back to college. To be honest I don't know what I would get a Bachelor's Degree in either. I already have an Associates Degree and my college told me I needed 33 hours to obtain a full Bachelor's Degree but this would be in General Studies.[?QUOTE]
If your employer will reimburse you then get the General Studies Bachelor's Degree- it will help you in the long run. Also, if you wanted to go to grad school in the future for something more specific you would already have your BA.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tigergirl87
The office I work in is "okay" but my training was kind of a trial by fire. My supervisor comes in late almost every day and my predecessor trained me in 2 weeks. The 2 weeks were basically filled with her visiting with others as she was just ready to retire. The thing that I dislike is that this office has no standard procedures or even general idea on how things are completed. If one of the Executive Assistants were to retire, the person coming in would have a very hard time as they have no guide on how they want things done and everything constantly changes. At least when I worked in the library you had procedures, while this office does not. I deal with citizen inquiries quite frequently and there really is no guideline on how to handle things so I find myself winging it which gets things done. Supervisor's job is to deal with citizens who want to speak to Manager but she cannot deal with confrontation very well and shirks it to other employees. I guess I cannot complain though. At least I do have a job, things could always be worse.
If the office has no standard procedures in place what is stopping you from writing down what is working for you in specific situations and creating a book of standard procedures to train future hires with?...
If I were you, I'd keep an eye out for admin positions in HR in your agency. Once you're in there, pick up an HR certificate and get all the accompanying experience you can, across various HR functions, and start working your way up the HR ladder.
With an associate's degree, you are often qualified for the next level position, HR tech. Once you get that position, then think about continuing toward your bachelor's degree while continuing to get varied experience. One of my friends is at the tech level and pulls in a salary in the 80s with great benefits.
With a bachelor's degree, you then become qualified for an analyst position, with a higher salary and even more responsibilities.
I always thought HR work was pretty portable.
Wow, I never thought about a certificate in HR. Great idea!
Thanks everyone for responding. Yes my employer does do college reimbursement. I just don't have a desire to go back to college. To be honest I don't know what I would get a Bachelor's Degree in either. I already have an Associates Degree and my college told me I needed 33 hours to obtain a full Bachelor's Degree but this would be in General Studies.[?QUOTE]
If your employer will reimburse you then get the General Studies Bachelor's Degree- it will help you in the long run. Also, if you wanted to go to grad school in the future for something more specific you would already have your BA.
If the office has no standard procedures in place what is stopping you from writing down what is working for you in specific situations and creating a book of standard procedures to train future hires with?...
The office I am in is very territorial and competitive. I do have my own guide that I have created front desk procedures but people in the office perceive this as taking over or me setting my own rules. I guess you would say I am the low man on the totem pole compared to the exec assistants (there is another sr. admin below my self though. When the Manager asks me to do things over his assistant I get a bit of backlash. The office has no defined job definition of how to handle things as such people generally have no accountability. I realize one has to be open to change and I am but this place has no foundation which kind of creates a free for all environment. People higher up assuming their counterparts know and then important elected officials not getting invited to events. As I said I have a baseline for how my procedures go but have a boss who cannot handle confrontational situations with citizens and is always asking staff how to handle problems.
As the front of the line person I do my job by finding out as much as I can about what their problem is and have a department head reach out to them, but sometimes the citizens want to speak to the Manager's Assistant and she wants them to be put through her voicemail, which is good and all but then she does not call them back creating an angry citizen.
I am sure this is way more than you needed to know, but this is the kind of environment I work in where every one NEEDS to have recognition and when another part gets recognition (lets say someone who has not been there very long) it causes tension and insane competition. I have been in this department a little over a yr though and eventually will move on, but right now I am in the pinnacle of all departments where I deal with Mayors, Councilman, and other elected officials. It for sure has given me the ability the network with many department heads etc.
I am just looking for some sound advice. I am 29 years old and I work for local government and have done so for about 4 years. The city I am in has excellent benefits. I started out working in a library as a technician but decided to apply for a different job. I am now working as sr admin. I do not hate the job and I think I am paid ok (36k) but am looking for something else. All my past jobs I have worked in I basically did data entry/cataloging etc. I already have an Associates Degree and recently wanted to go back to school, but I really don't want a bachelors as I have about 10k in student loan debt. In case you are wondering, I initially went to College for a 4 yr degree but left school in 2010. i had about 18k worth of debt but have been focusing on paying it down. Nevertheless, I contacted my school when I was interested in going back to college and did an audit and they told me that I already had a degree, (mind you and Associates but a degree. So now I am thinking of pairing this degree with some sort of certificate to make myself more marketable. I am just wondering is an Admin. Assistant a real career? I do not need or desire to make tons of money and in fact I would be happy making about 50 k a year as I am very frugal. Should I just stay where I am or earn a certificate? As I mentioned before, I have no desire to get out of the government. I will be 100 percent vested in October and my benefits are too good to leave. We all get a 3 percent raise yearly which isn't great but is better than nothing. I know in the private market an admin may make better money, but I know it all comes at a price.
Should I stick with the Admin. job or aspire for something better? Also if I attempt to do more, are any of my skills transferable? I thought about becoming an accounting clerk, paralegal, or maybe even legal secretary.
If you want to get a job in the capacity of a legal secretary/paralegal
You can get a certificate of some sort and apply to positions in the court system, since you already work for the government you might land a good position within the courts where you can use the knowledge you gained from the program -- and move up in ranks -- take tests to move around.
OR
You can take tests, get the study guides and move up in rank into other positions.
I'm sure the skills you have acquired in your other titles will be transferable --- as a legal secretary in addition to admin skills you have to know procedure and have some legal knowledge.
May I ask how long it took you to get the job in your local government? What state?
If you want to get a job in the capacity of a legal secretary/paralegal
You can get a certificate of some sort and apply to positions in the court system, since you already work for the government you might land a good position within the courts where you can use the knowledge you gained from the program -- and move up in ranks -- take tests to move around.
OR
You can take tests, get the study guides and move up in rank into other positions.
I'm sure the skills you have acquired in your other titles will be transferable --- as a legal secretary in addition to admin skills you have to know procedure and have some legal knowledge.
May I ask how long it took you to get the job in your local government? What state?
Well not very long at all. I'd say about a few months. I applied back in 2012 for a part library tech position and was not called for an interview. I applied again shortly after and was called in for an interview and was hired. I worked part time for a yr in a half and started full time shortly after. I then re-applied to a different department in 2015. I live in Texas.
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