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Personal or executive assistant, office manager or secretary are just some of the titles used interchangeably for this profession nowadays. The role of a classic secretary is undergoing vast change, opening up new possibilities to applicants. Assistants assume a key role in a company and this is increasingly becoming reflected in their salary.
A modern understanding of secretarial and assistant roles
The classic role of a secretary no longer exists. We can roughly distinguish between two roles: a secretary who has a purely administrative role that is geared more towards clerical work and a professional assistant who is in possession of relevant skills and works for a team. Management assistants are multitaskers who deals with relevant departments. A personal assistant to a member of the board or management organises private trips and family appointments in addition to dealing with professional tasks. An assistant to the board can also negotiate budgets and acts as an interface between management and other departments. Generally speaking, there are strong differences within industries, i.e. an assistant to management in the industrial sector has a different range of tasks than he or she would have in the financial services sector.
Image: Undervalued... but with a high market value
The role of an assistant is clearly undervalued by many job candidates in Switzerland. Good assistants are hard to find as candidates have to satisfy both professional and private criteria. As a rule, candidates know their market value and demand a high salary. The trend is moving away from the classic secretarial role to that of a versatile and highly trained assistant. Clients know how difficult it is to find suitable personnel and actually have a higher opinion of assistants than job applicants do. How an assistant is perceived also depends on the industry and the role.
What companies expect from assistants
This depends very much on the industry and the company itself. Some clients are looking for assistants who are university graduates while others are looking for candidates who have completed a vocational training course. Assistants need to find a balance between private and professional tasks, i.e. they should not mind making coffee for their superiors and being responsible for budget planning at the same time. Languages are vital to the role. In Switzerland, English is in many assistant positions a must, besides fluency in German and/or French. Experience abroad is also a plus. Clients’ requirements vary greatly from location to location.
Common characteristics of modern assistants
Assistants are determined and resilient, but also very discerning. They do not usually resign from a job for financial reasons. Frequent reasons for leaving a job are above all a lack of challenge in the role, an absence of opportunities for further development or an unsatisfactory relationship with a supervisor. Many assistants define themselves through their supervisors as they have close relations with them. If a supervisor resigns, the assistant's whole world might fall apart. The professional goal of most assistants is to become an assistant to management or the head of HR/Legal/Marketing, i.e. C-level positions.
In-demand profiles and the challenges they involve
Companies show a strong interest in assistants who have a solid education behind them; having completed school, a vocation training or even university. Classic vocational training includes foreign language or sales training courses. In the course of an assistant's career, it is advisable to take further vocational training courses. Those who have decided to pursue a degree course instead of vocational training should definitely supplement their studies with practical experience. Internships in large companies or small organisations boost an assistant's CV making them more employable.
Recent graduates and young qualified assistants increasingly want to be involved in project work. Companies are therefore considering additional tasks in order to make the job more attractive to the 25- to 35-age group. The requirements for job advertisements vary depending on the sector. Recruitment consultants play an important role here, bridging the gap between the needs of the company and the skills of the applicants.
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