Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting My Career as an Executive Assistant

I’d never thought of an Executive Assistant role as a career path I would be interested in. After all, I was dreaming about being a teacher, then wanting to be a flight attendant. When I look back, those roles always come to mind first. Once I completed high school, I found myself drawn to travel consulting, and that was all I wanted to do. How did my childhood dreams of what I wanted to be fly away? Why did I have a change of heart?

My mother inspired me; my mother was a highly regarded Executive Assistant to the CEO of Saudi Arabian airlines in Sudan. I guess the travel consulting & wanting to be a flight attendant were inspired by all the traveling I was exposed to as a little girl. Because of my mom’s job, we traveled to so many places. She even took us on the conferences she was attending for work aside from family vacations.

When I look back on those memories, they were good days, filled with warm memories of my childhood.  I guess that explains the direction I was heading in my career. I witnessed excellence growing up. I can’t say the apple fell far from the tree.

All those amazing professional qualities I admired about my mom’s career inspired me to push harder, serve with a smile, be humble and share from the heart! I had learned to give more than to receive as the true meaning of hospitality toward people. In other words, to be gracious and grounded.

Fast forwarding a bit, I did study travel consulting; however, by the time I graduated, my field was no longer in high demand due to technology taking over the travel industry. With the onset of online bookings and different alternative websites available to people, there was little demand for new travel agents.

I remained in hospitality though working for airlines. That was fun for a while, but shift work took a toll on younger me and my social life, so I decided to move away from the travel & tourism industry toward a more stable daytime work.

That’s when my journey started in the banking industry. I was hired by temp agencies to do short-term jobs at first as a receptionist. I then moved up to an Administrative Assistant until I worked my way up to earn my role as an Executive Assistant.

Through this unplanned journey that had me landed on the Executive Assistant(EA) role, I must say I enjoy my role as EA a lot. One might say it’s my calling to be a career EA. I noticed that it brought together all the critical skills I wasn’t even aware I possessed within me; the tenacity, speed, meticulous planning, and organizing skills that apparently drive my husband nuts, among other qualities. Who thought I would use those skills and get paid for them? The idea of it seemed so easy, right? No, I don’t think so….

I did not realize this journey towards building a respected brand as an EA would be a real test of my patience, strength, value, integrity, and stamina against all sorts of difficult people, scenarios, and roles.

In the grand scheme of things, an EA career can be very rewarding if you find the right fit and chemistry with the executive you partner with. On that note, I wish I knew a few things before I started, as EA comes to mind.

Below is a list of things that I gathered from my experience and point of view;

1. If you have a strong work ethic, it will scare your peers and make them look bad. They may make sure you don’t shine (this is a tough one. You are who you are, so don’t change yourself to conform to the ways of others. It won’t serve you well in the long run.)
2. If you are too approachable, pleasant, friendly, and dress well, you may cause animosity with the long-tenured EAs. (Find the balance for your own peace of mind!)
3. Find a mentor immediately, someone who is seasoned and can share some guidance, wisdom, tips & tricks of the role.
4. Don’t follow without questioning; why are things done this way or that way? Get a clear understanding of the tasks you are doing. Just because you are new to the EA role and you don’t have enough experience, you are allowed to question things to get an understanding. For this, it is important that you explain clearly why you are asking those questions. You want to avoid people mistaking them for putting up roadblocks or challenging authority.
5. Learn the business! Knowledge is power; the more you know, the better you can be at your job. You will earn the respect of your peers, team members, and executives alike.
6. Be curious, and don’t let people slow down your curiosity. This works well with number 5 above.
7. Be nice…to a point. Everyone is going to take advantage of the new person (they always do :-), find the balance to learn that it’s okay to say No, not everyone needs to get a Yes all the time. Assert yourself and discern when is a good time to do that.
8. There are many politics involved. I had no idea to what degree until I lived it with each start of a new role. I knew there was politics within organizations, but I did not realize how it all plays out and how it can impact your job stability, performance, and morale.
   • I experienced it with a few of my EA peers, who were never kind to help, support, or teach. Most of them wanted to see me fall flat on my face, so I didn’t look better than them. Backstabbing, gossip, and misinterpreting actions and words kept getting me in trouble.
   • I felt that I could not trust anyone and could not ask for help because even when you do, you will get in trouble. Asking for help means it’s a weakness and shows a lack of knowledge.
   • I also experienced that when people don’t like your executive, they make life difficult for you too! (keep your radar up, learn to read between the lines, and who you can trust to be your go-to resource person)
9. Attend as many meetings as you can to ramp up quicker on getting to know the business.
10. Get to know your executives’ likes & dislikes quicker by asking them directly at the beginning. Don’t wait to find out.
11. Get involved in a professional EA community early on for training & development. You can get so much support you may not be getting from your peers within your organization. (example, IAAP).
12. To make really good compensation as an Executive Assistant, you have to work in the C-suite & up (with that comes added responsibilities; having a mobile phone, being available 24/7, longer work hours. Vacation and time off are a challenge as well. Just to name of few)
13. Age discrimination & number of years of experience is a big thing (this I experienced every time, I should have listed it as number 1). The older, the wiser, is what I was told. I have about 10 years of experience in various departments and industries, but that was still looked upon as not ‘seasoned enough’ for senior roles until I proved myself successfully each time.
14. You will get no training; you either sink or swim as there is no EA manual or someone that will share their best practices with you. (Unless you work in an amazing environment and culture that fosters such a work environment, which is rare to find) Create your own manual.
15. Please educate yourself that there is a difference between an Executive Assistant role & Administrative Assistant (stay tuned for a blog on that)
16. People will always resist change, especially when a new person joins the team. The only way to work around that is to have a lot of patience and try to understand why things are done a certain way.  Determine whether an individual rule is in place or a company policy; there is a difference between them. Once the time is right to introduce a new process to make things easier and efficient, educating your team on it will be less of a struggle and something leaning more toward acceptance.

In summary, there are definitely more items to add to this list; but this blog would never end! When I look back to when I started, I have had some bad experiences and came to cross some evil personalities. Which made me question if I want to continue to work in this field as an Executive Assistant. Am I cut out for this? Do I have thick skin? Then I experience magical moments when I feel so proud of myself and my accomplishments. Executives who told me I made a huge difference in supporting them felt fulfilled and rewarded. In the end, it’s all in the delivery. I love building those lasting connections with people I support or work with. That brings value and meaning to the work I do, which in return brings a sense of fulfillment to me.