Coach
Related Posts
Rising Star
Rising Star
More Posts
Any mass hiring happening for freshers??????
Those who tuned into KPMG town hall, thoughts?
Additional Posts in EAs / Executive Assistants
Subject Expert
Enthusiast
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
Community Builder
EA to project management, either business project coordination or event management
EA to chief of staff, for those who take things off of their executives plate or get proactive with the rest of the leadership team
EA to operations, broad open path
EA to HR, more common but restricted growth. More lateral
I was going to say the same thing!
The EA role is the black hole over here. There is so little opportunity to move elsewhere and part of it is because they will only view you as an EA even if you show skills above and beyond.
Co-sign. There is an unfair stigma (that I do not understand) associated with this title and it is hard to move out of this role.
Coach
It’s become more difficult to accomplish this type of move here. Relationship building with partners and staff in advisor/consulting takes a beating every time they add to the EAs team. While not every partner needs the same level of assistance, the ratios are insane and interesting elements of the role have been redirected to associates (even to offshore resources). Best bet is to align with the EA mgr and a partner in the group of interest.
Trapped as an EA forever.
I've done it at 3 different companies. It may be harder than it once was, but it depends a lot on you. Do you look for additional ways to get involved in the business? Do you asked to be trained on things you don't know how to do? Do you ask to help out on projects across other teams or departments? Do you have other skills or experience you can bring to the table?
If all you're doing is being a very good EA, then yes, you are likely not going to get anywhere else. But if you show that you can do other things well, that's when people start to see your potential.
Coach
SOS1, if you could elaborate on the roles you were able to pave the way for yourself to move into, I think that would be very insightful for the group to understand. I think many of us in this profession do all the things you mentioned as part of our regular job duties, however, in the larger corp structure there seems to be limited mobility out of this profession into a different career track, especially if your education background is limited to a high school diploma (HSD). Having a limited education background seems to close many doors due to required education for many roles, however, that said, I also notice and have colleagues and peers with masters degrees that are running into the same problem. It seems no matter how much we involve ourselves in other things and take on the duties of others, rather than this being recognized as an opportunity to promote, it’s viewed as an opportunity to expand one’s current job without a title or salary change and removal of those duties from another higher level persons plate.
In my own personal experience, I see my managers and a few peers as well, recognizing the expanded work their EA’s are doing and looking for ways to develop them, but running into roadblocks when discussing promotions with HR, whether their financial or background requirement roadblocks, it’s the same end result.
That said, I think if you could provide further clarification on your experience it might help many to not only advocate for themselves when seeking this type of advancement, but also help others understand what the pathway might look like for them to work their way out of this profession into a career track with upward mobility.
Coach
SOS1
* very good points. Though sometimes all one needs is another job description to help focus their efforts.
Did you restart as an EA or was this overall career building? Can you offer a little more info re the opportunities that you made for yourself? I see a lot of opportunity in operations. Some in consulting from EA to associate if you have more specialized knowledge.
I’ve seen a lot of movement recently of admins and senior admins at ZS into other enterprise areas and a few into PMO. I would say we have more opportunities now than there were 5+ years ago at ZS.
I’m also trapped by the title. No career path anymore. Sigh.
Nope. No path forward. Also told no pay raise ever.
Coach
SOS1 was this at any of the big 4? What was your partner ratio? WLB?
GT1 perfectly said.
I believe there are definitely opportunities out there and agree with a lot of the suggestions here. The other thing is that you need to make it known that you are looking to move into another role, and find out what you need to do to prepare for that. For example, I was interested in moving into HR, and the company paid for me to take classes toward that goal.