Minneapolis/St. Paul Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
anyone here an Administrative Assistant?
I'm pretty sure strength is an admin...didn't know if anyone else was.
mind if I ask you a few questions?
what's the best/favorite part of your job?
the worst?
did you have admin assistant experience prior to getting hired as one?
what experience do you think would be helpful in landing an admin assistant job?
what is a typical day like for you?
do you mind sharing a ballpark of what you make?
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Re: anyone here an Administrative Assistant?
yup, i am.
what's the best/favorite part of your job? i am the kind of person who likes "checking the box". i love task completion. it brings me satisfaction. also, i'm just good at this because i'm organized and task oriented.
the worst? taking "orders" from someone else. if you don't click with your boss, being an admin is THE WORST JOB EVER. you MUST like who you support.
did you have admin assistant experience prior to getting hired as one? i've been an admin my entire professional career. i started out as a receptionist and was give more and more responsibilities. i eventually supported the CEO of a local fortune 500 company.
what experience do you think would be helpful in landing an admin assistant job? i think if you have project management experience, that's a good basis for being an admin and vice versa because really, that's what you do, put out fires and keep work moving along. you need to be proficient in outlook, excel, powerpoint, word, good at problem solving, communicating, logical... it's not rocket science but there is definitely a type of person that is more successful at it than others.
what is a typical day like for you? i arrive around 8:30. check in with my boss and spend the rest of the day alternating between working my way through my to-do list, moving meetings, hunting down people or presentations, putting out fires... it's something new everyday but at the same time there is a familiarity to the way things flow. you do have to be able to adapt to change quickly. if i have school, i leave around 5:20 otherwise i'm usually out around 5:30-5:45.
do you mind sharing a ballpark of what you make? i've made anywhere from 30k to 60k as an admin but you can make more and you can definitely make less.
what's the best/favorite part of your job?
When working for the COO, he was hard to get an appointment with because he was so busy, people would bring me food for 15 minutes of his time. I will proudly admit that I took bribes (but not really, I would've gotten them 15 minutes anyway). Like Strength, I liked to check stuff off of a list and liked seeing that things were getting done.
the worst?
Taking orders from someone that was NOT my boss that thought they could order me around - some people just assumed that I was a "lowly person on the totem pole" and treated me like crap. I did not put up with it and you have to be straightforward with those people from the beginning.
did you have admin assistant experience prior to getting hired as one?
Nope, I did data entry first.
what experience do you think would be helpful in landing an admin assistant job?
Volunteering in admin positions for non-profits, any customer service is helpful (try telling the Pres of a company that no, your boss just flew to Australia unbeknown to his own assistant and the budget will NOT be ready for another week...).
what is a typical day like for you?
Dept secretary - get there at 8, check messages, get out correspondence for the day, do mail merges, order supplies, do the mail, set meetings, answer the phone, cover for the receptionist's lunch, screw around on FB during down times and leave at 5
COO assistant - Put out fires starting at 5am some days (I worked more than 40 hours...), get in at 7, sometimes earlier, sometimes later depending on the amount of hours I was working or what was going on, check the messages, get the calendar up for the day, clear off his desk, get out presentations for the day, go to meetings to take notes, send text message reminders for meetings, sit in conferences, order supplies for departments, order books for IT, put together presentations, keep the peace with the crazy people, have lunch at some point, set appointments, make travel arrangements, then go home anywhere from 4:30 - 8pm. As you can tell this was a high pressure and VERY busy position but I really liked it. I was always busy, always around the "big wigs" in the company and I knew how to work the politics to keep people happy and keep my boss happy. Some of it was being a "gatekeeper" and other parts of it were stressful, but overall it was great.
working for a lawyer - get in at 9, check messages, put together billing, sending correspondence, get Court dates for cases, answer the phone, make appointments and then I go home at 1.
do you mind sharing a ballpark of what you make?
I made anywhere from $10 per hour to $16 per hour.
"send text message reminders for meetings,"
this totally made me laugh because you definitely utilize ALL resources to keep your boss on time. there are days that i literally will stand in his doorwary until he finally wraps it up because i know if i sit at my desk, he'll keep talking. oh the things we do... (coming from the girl who just went and picked up tea for her boss... but he always treats me too if he asks a favor like that so it's win/win!)
I've looked at admin positions before and have always thought an admin job would be something that I'd enjoy and do well at. I love the clerical side of things. I too, love being able to check things off & get things done. I like to help people, I like to help facilitate things. I like learning new things, doing something different, but yet having a routine, everyday.
This may come across really selfish or lame or whatever, but I want to feel important. Important in the sense that I helped someone's day, I helped someone get to where they needed to be, I helped them be successful. That sort of makes me sound like a pushover, but whatever.
I appreciate all the feedback.
LOL!! My boss was very much into technology so we all had instant messenger, we were ENCOURAGED to use facebook, twitter and everything else new. He was a great gift giver though - but I picked out all the presents/gifts for his children and wife's birthdays, Valentine's Day, anniversaries, etc... That was awesome and pretty fun to do!
what's the best/favorite part of your job? checking tasks off my list
the worst? dealing with a terrible boss
did you have admin assistant experience prior to getting hired as one? no
what experience do you think would be helpful in landing an admin assistant job? office support experience (similiar to what pp said)
what is a typical day like for you? got into the office at 7:00 a.m. checked email. called boss regarding her agenda for the day. alternate between my usual tasks, attending to the boss, and trouble shooting for the team (besides my boss, I provided admin support for a team as well).
do you mind sharing a ballpark of what you make? I was working through a temp agency and was making $14