What’s the Difference Between an Administrative Assistant & an Executive Assistant Role?

I worked at some point as an Administrative Assistant in my early years before I landed my role as an Executive Assistant.  I started in a general role in banking. Most of those duties were answering phones, directing visitors, maintaining files, entering company data into computer databases, and scheduling meetings (more in the list below). The tasks leaned more toward answering phones and general office duties with little to no influential or decision-making responsibility.

I believe my current success has come from my humble start as a Receptionist to an Administrative Assistant and, on my way to that, an Executive Assistant. The journey was a humbling and rewarding experience. I was young and very eager to learn. I worked hard and long hours and never refused an opportunity to learn, always welcoming every task that no one wanted to do to learn more. Some tasks were tedious, mind-numbing, or too much volume, while others were the tasks that were ‘beneath other people’ to do, so they gave them to me, the Admin.

Now with those days behind me, I find that with each new Executive Assistant role I took and supporting a new Executive, I have found myself constantly changing and adapting to their different leadership styles. One size does not fit all in this case. It pays for you to know your executives’ likes and dislikes while observing them and adjusting as shifting or changing situations arise.

As you may have already seen in my other posts, I enjoy lists a lot, and that’s how I like to explain and bring focus to some key points.

While in the Executive Assistant role:

• I have managed the Executive’s calendar
• Booked travel, both domestic & Global
• Managed inboxes
• Created, edited, and complied PowerPoint presentations
• Organized events
• Coordinated and managed office moves
• Oversight and managed office renovation projects
• Attended leadership meetings
• Created agendas
• Transcribe minutes and distribution of materials
• Followed up with action items
• Organized and coordinated team building
• Managed offsite meetings and conference planning from start to finish
• Answered my executives’ phone during their absence
• Was the departmental delegate of authority on most compliance and attesting of system access, technology requests and billing/invoices payment, business expenses, and the ever so clear and precise task of “duties as assigned.”

What I find, as an admin, is that you tend to do tasks in bulk on behalf of many staff such as Sr. Directors, Directors, sometimes VPs, and other team members.

A few examples of these Administrative Assistant tasks include:

• Individual expense reports for the (Senior) Directors
• Invoice statement logging/transmittal
• Monitoring vacation days
• Printing for the team
• Basic office tasks
• Greeted clients and guests
• Answering the main phone
• Booked meeting rooms for staff
• Ordered catering
• Photocopies
• Created, labeled, and filed documents, to name a few
• I was the point person to deal with office technology and maintenance issues
• Update the department directory
• Order and maintain office supplies
• Update floor plans
• Maintain the kitchen and meeting rooms areas
• Send courier packages on behalf of the staff
• Maintain personal department files
• Sort the mail daily, and the list could go on

An Executive Assistant will focus more on the Executive you support. Personal appointments and daily schedules are typical for your Executive or multiple executives, depending on your setup. Additional responsibility may be supervising other office staff (Office Manager, Administrative Assistant, Floor Coordinator, for example). You may also be tasked with oversight on specific office projects covering everything from corporate slide prep or demos, office relocation, and vendor vetting to event planning on a larger scale and supporting board meetings.

Key Differences

There is a bit of prestige and more money to be gained as an Executive Assistant. The primary reason is that the Executive Assistant caters to and can become the unofficial right-hand of the senior Executive. These executives can include the president, Senior vice president, and other c-suite officers (e.g., CEO, COO, CFO, etc.).

The administrative assistant’s scope is more in support of the organization. They generally deal with routine tasks, which can include, but are not limited to, scheduling meetings, filing, answering phone calls and entertaining visitors.

Remember that it does not mean that the Administrative Assistant’s tasks cannot be assigned to an Executive Assistant, as they probably can. The critical difference here is that an Executive Assistant is the one who is mainly called upon to perform duties that involve greater time sensitivity and a bit more finesse, which means that you would need to have a certain degree of knowledge about the business and insight learned from experience.

The Executive Assistant needs to be able to carry out all the requests of the senior leader and often serves as the last barrier before the executive office, which means that you can be secretive when handling confidential information while trying to be discreet always. In most cases, executives treat this professional as the go-to individual for ideas, recommendations, and confidential help. But like other positions in the company, duties, and responsibilities will also vary according to the company’s ruling culture.

Training

You can qualify for entry-level positions as an administrative assistant with some knowledge of general office skills and a high school diploma. You can always take free online courses to help move that forward (I list these in another blog here ). If you have the time or resources, you can always complete an office administration certificate or a 2-year degree program at your local community college.

Positions for Executive Assistants may require post-secondary education. Keep in mind if you are hunting for a job outside of your place of employment (remember, the outside folks won’t know your work as your colleagues do), degrees in business, office management, or related areas would be looked on more favorably.

All is not lost, though, as a combination of your successful history of employment, references, networking, and interview skills can overcome most objections any future employer may offer to compensate for not having a related degree.

Certification

I would recommend, though, for those committed to an Executive Assistant career complete professional certification. The International Association of Administrative Professionals offers the designation of Certified Administrative Professional for those who pass an exam and hold administrative experience (www.iaap-hq.org).

In short, the more you educate yourself on the differences between the two roles, you will be able to decide whether the role, the company, duties, and responsibilities are the right fit for you. Whether this will provide the challenging opportunity, training, and development that will help you with your career growth is something only you can answer. You decide what kind of brand you want to build for yourself. When you show curiosity, going beyond and above the call of duty, you build greater trust with your Executive, and you become an extension of them, the glue that makes all things work and happen.

It would be fantastic to hear from you in the comments below or via email at info@myeablog.com. What have you seen as the big difference between these roles lately? How did you move from one to the other?