TIPS FOR ASPIRING E.As

THE LIFE OF AN EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

photo from www.creinfocus.com

I am so eager to share what I learned from being an Executive Assistant or EA that I won't let the sun set today without writing this blog :) Being an EA is not an easy job. You need to have flexibility, focus, and efficiency in your task. Reporting, coordinating schedules of meetings, trips, media appearances and filing/keeping records of personal files of the bosses are the basic tasks an EA does. In my case, I work with four bosses in the office. They are the Chief Operations Officer, Executive Chef, HR Directress and Chief Finance Officer. Most of the time, I work with the COO and the Executive Chef.

With the COO, this is what I usually do: coordinate her meeting/event schedules, on-time deposit of her checks, process of request of payment for her reimbursement,keeping records of her personal documents and submitting recommendations for event/marketing tie-ups with the company. With the Executive Chef, he allowed me to schedule his meetings and activities like magazine photoshoot, tv guestings, speaking engagements, cooking demos. I also gather requirements for his Visa applicatons whenever he travels abroad and do some minor banking transactions in behalf of him. With the CFO, I usually called her secretary every morning to check her schedule for the day and inform our office personnel about it. I also monitor the errands' logbook and daily trip summary form of our messenger. I am responsible to track the status of the errands and the whereabouts of our messenger during working hours. I also need to update the log book about the status of errands  The Finance Manager is the one who frequently asks me every now and then regarding the status of errands and where the messenger is, so I stay alert on that. With the HR Directress, I check the documents for her signature and make sure she signed it. I also put her interview and meeting schedules on MS Outlook Calendar with notification two hours before the scheduled time of the meeting or interview.

My other tasks for the company itself is to gather 86 items from eight restaurants and email it to the purchasing department, the research and development department and the COO. I also inform all Restaurant Manager and Kitchen Managers the monthly schedule for the Mancomm Meeting,incoming store activities, new memos and other communications. I have daily, every other day, weekly and monthly tasks as an E.A. Getting used to these job descriptions for more than half a year is what drives me to share some useful tips for aspiring EAs.


Here are the tips that can be useful to you if you want to work as an Executive Assistant:

1. Be sure of the exact schedule of meetings, travels, events of the bosses. Inform them a day up to two hours before their scheduled activities. MS Outlook Calendar is a useful tool in organizing meetings since it automatically sends notifications to parties involved. You just need to adjust the reminder portion for two hours or 30 minutes alarm.

photo from www.masonhorvath.com

2. Know the importance of urgency and efficiency at work. There are times that the bosses will give you an urgent tasks that sometimes you are not too familiar on how to do it. It may freak you out or stress you a bit but you need to do it because whatever tasks given to you by the Executives is your job. That is why you are called Executive Assistant per se. No matter how urgent the task given to you, be sure efficiency is your end goal. The bosses will check the outcome of your work. Because if the E.A is inefficient the bosses are somehow affected especially if the task given to you is related to what they do.

3. Avoid pissing off the bosses. If you want to have a peaceful working environment and  a serene heart while doing your job, avoid situations that will pissed off your bosses. It will only happen if you have consistent poor work performance and series of inefficiency in your task. And if you missed to do the important things that will have negative affect the entire company.

4.Do the task as instructed by the bosses. The bosses will usually give you instructions to most of your tasks especially if it's bit personal. So do it as told. Don't assume that your way is better than their ways.

5. Ask, don't assume. If you are not sure on how to do the task given, feel free to ask your boss or the people around you that is familiar with the system or procedure. Never assume, because your assumption might be wrong.

6. Be organize and detailed. It's necessary to be organized when it comes to filing documents, monitoring of transactions, keeping records of whatever file/things given/entrusted to you by your boss. Make a list or a log book of the things entrusted to you. So when the boss suddenly ask you this or that, you have a guide where to look for it. I created a folder few months ago called For Monitoring which includes excel files for RFP (request for payment) monitoring, Check Deposit monitoring, Received Documents monitoring, Managers Schedule Monitoring,Check Release monitoring for me to easily locate the files or monitor transactions done.

7.Don't wait for the deadlines. Do your task the moment it was given to you. Procrastination is a not so good habit. It may cause you trouble in the end.

8. Be friendly and energetic. As E.A you might have the role of a telephone operator. You need to kinda screen the calls first before you forward it to the concerned person. Your bosses will like to see an energetic you that shows you really like what you're doing. Being friendly is a plus as well.

9. Be in the "middle of everything." This is what my boss told me. Being in the middle of everything doesn't require you to be nosy. But you just need to know things in the office. You need to be updated on what's happening in the workplace. So when someone ask you, you have an answer. Be sure you know the bosses schedule, how to operate various office machines, do some minor computer trouble shooting.

10. Honor God through your work. Work is a blessing from God. Honoring God in the workplace is loving the job you have and doing it with passion, to the best of your ability as if doing it for the Lord.

These are only few on the many things you will learn once you are on the job of being an executive assistant. I hope these tips will be helpful to you. Thanks for reading :)