Job Responsibilities
As a Level D (Top level) Administrator in a Global department,
my duties include both everyday office support tasks and project
management. I support 3 mid-upper-level executives. All of
these managers have completely different roles in the
department, so their needs vary and their work almost never
overlaps, meaning I need to attain & build upon a knowledge of
several different areas of the business. Everyday support
includes calendar management & meeting arrangements,
international travel booking & visa ordering, expense reports
(which, in this Global department, means having to frequently
calculate a dizzying array of currencies -- sometimes 3-5
different currencies from a single trip), Powerpoint
presentations, purchase order placement & management, and all
the other usual executive-support stuff. I need to maintain
advanced capabilities in Microsoft Word and Powerpoint, Internet
Explorer, Lotus Notes (including Notes website management), and
basic to intermediate skills in Excel. (If I had a Finance &
Accounting support role, I'd have needed stronger Excel
skills.) I had never used SAP or BBP or Notes before hire, but
had to quickly learn to use them.
In a Global department, I've found it's also invaluable to have
had some training in a 2nd language such as French or Spanish.
Not at all necessary to be bilingual, but because you deal with
people from every corner of the globe -- with sometimes thick
accents -- it's extremely helpful to have some exposure to
languages different than one's own.
One of the projects I managed was the coordination for several
booths at an internal company "convention"; I helped smooth the
importing "bumps" and local logistics issues for booth teams
from several regions around the world. Other projects typical
for a Level D administrator could be internal website set-up and
management, or perhaps coordinating local arrangements (lodging,
booking of meeting rooms/presentation equipment, arranging
banquets, etc) for a multi-day global conference. (Who knew
that planning my own wedding a few years ago would give me
skills and experience I could use to such benefit later? Hah.)
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Job Requirements
Many upper-level Administrators have at least an Associates
Degree, and some have 4-year degrees. I came to the company
with some college but no degree; however I entered mid-career so
had a great deal of relevant experience. Fellow admins who
entered mid-career had former careers as successful sales reps
or other such non-support roles, and they've used the experience
& knowledge gained from those former careers to great benefit in
their current careers. Without exception, these individuals are
happy with their move to this career path with this Company.
The interview process isn't overly stressful but it's extremely
thorough. After hiring, I learned that I'd been up against 2
other external candidates plus 2 from inside the Company.
I've heard, but not sure if it's true, that it's impossible to
get hired from outside to any Admin position higher than a Level
C. But with excellent performance and a caring
manager, "promotion-in-place" can be possible within a couple
years. (Meaning you can possibly get promoted to a D level
without having to change where in the Company you work.) From D
level support, you can choose to continue along the "executive
support" path and look/apply for openings in the Executive
Secretary range. It's almost unheard of -- but it IS possible --
to advance into management from an Admin position, but you'd
have to look for opportunities to independently lead very large,
challenging projects in order to prove your worth. From what
I've seen you have a better chance of breaking into a management
path if you're hired into (or transfer over to) a Marketing
Specialist or Design Specialist role. (These are also lumped
under the "A&T" classification -- i.e. Administrative &
Technical -- but because they are primarily project-management
roles, the opportunities to prove you have excellent leadership
skills are far more available.)
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Uppers
Vast, interesting, changing variety of job experiences. No single day is
exactly like the one before it, or after it. Highly challenging work
(interspersed with a few of the occasional humdrum things that a blindfolded
monkey could do, but that's to be expected in ANY job). In a large company like
this, everything is computerized and networked, so all but the most
troglodyte-ish managers handle their own email and computer stuff, and send only
the more intricate things your way. So most Admins at this level don't have to
spend their days with mundane, repetitive secretarial tasks, and instead get to
flex mental and creative muscle with more absorbing, challenging work. You get
paid well, especially relative to similar positions at smaller companies, but you
truly, thoroughly earn every penny because you are entrusted with so much
responsibility at this level.
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Downers
In a large company, upward mobility is much, much more
restricted than in a small one. Almost impossible to "jump the
gap" into management, even the very lowest level of management
where all the fresh, book-smart but inexperienced college grads
begin their careers. It can be frustrating to see an intern
spend 3 months working a project that any good C-Level admin
could handily tackle, then see that same person back a few scant
months later, degree in hand, newly hired into a handsomely-paid
management position. But then, that person will soon be running
themselves ragged in salaried 70-hour weeks, and one can be
thankful again for one's own hourly position that allows for a
better work-life balance.
There's a feeling of moorlessness, as well, due to
the "onward/upward" system for managers that usually dictates
they get a new assignment every 2-3 years. You might get hired
by one set of managers, then find yourself a year later having
to adjust to 1 or 2 new managers, as the original ones were
promoted to different assignments and others came in to replace
them. This takes getting used to, and can make you feel like
you have no control over your situation, particularly since many
jobs require that you stay in them a minimum of 2 years,
regardless of whether your manager changes. You have to learn
quickly to adjust to the new person. (But then, they have to
learn to adjust to you, too. They might have been just as
attached to their prior Admin as you were to the Manager whose
place they just took.)
In the small companies where I worked, there was of course a
management hierarchy but there was a much looser, easier,
friendlier and collaborative interaction between management and
non-management. Here, that easy cameraderie doesn't exist as
much unless one is an integral part of a small team.
The other downer is the title -- "Administrative Assistant" just
doesn't do justice to the job tasks & heavy responsibility at
this level.
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Lifestyle
Depending on the managers' needs, work hours can be extremely flexible. For
example, I might find that in the summer the traffic is best if I start at 8:30
AM and leave at 5:00 PM, but in the winter, a start time of 7:30 AM and end at
4:00 works best. So far my managers have been completely accommodating. And I
haven't had to worry if I'm running a few minutes later than usual (assuming I'm
not late for a scheduled meeting) -- I just make it up by staying later that day.
It's amazing how much stress that eliminates during the morning commute.
Dress code is business casual, and varies depending upon which department you
work in. (Advertising or Design groups might be more casual or trendy than, say,
External Relations.) Jeans, plunging necklines, scruffy unshaved faces,
spaghetti straps or barely-there skirts are unacceptable but beyond that, most
anything goes. Employees at the Cincinnati HQ tend to dress in a more tailored,
business-like way than those at other locations, from what I've seen & heard.
But you can still be comfortable.
There is a huge emphasis on diversity, and there are "diversity events" during
the year to stress how important it is to learn about and embrace other cultures.
The Cincinnati HQ is a virtual Tower of Babel, filled with folks from every
corner of the globe, since "up-&-coming" managers are all sent through Cincy for
a tour of duty. It's a wonderful, enriching, exciting environment to be
surrounded by so many people from so many different cultures.
Admins don't often have the opportunity for travel. Exceptions occur, like if
you support a very high-level manager who is leading a worldwide conference in a
different city or country and you need to travel to the site to ensure that all
comes off smoothly. Marketing or Design Specialists may get more travel, if
their job is such that it's necessary. There is always an eye to the bottom
line, toward keeping costs shaved to the bone, so travel for the sake of travel
(e.g. allowing an Admin to tag along to Brussels for a meeting that s/he isn't
organizing) just isn't done.
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Compensation
Salaries are kept strictly confidential within the Company, and
I'm not going to break that rule here. NOBODY, at any level,
divulges his/her own salary, and it's a very useful, strife-
avoiding rule.
Benefits are MUCH better than at smaller companies. The profit
sharing program is tremendous, a fat little sum is deposited
into your profit sharing trust after every fiscal year, and is a
percentage of your salary.
All salaries are on a predetermined curve, that never changes.
For example, if you were to enter at a C Level Admin job, you
can only make so many "merit" raises over a period of years
before it levels out to basically COLA raises. The only way to
make more is to earn promotion to the next level, where you
would begin the curve for that level. If you were to start as a
C level, and stay a C for 15 years, say, you can't ever get more
merit raises after your first several years. The pay is good,
and you may be happy enough with a slight increase, but the only
way to earn more is to provide more value to the Company by
advancing to a project-heavy D level, and beyond. This system
might sound kind of limiting, but it actually keeps the
competition keen, and helps ensure there aren't many laggards
about -- there's a lot of energy and vitality, and most people
are high performers, always keeping their eyes peeled for the
next opportunity to prove their value and demonstrate their
capabilities. It makes for an exciting, high-performing
organization, and that's not just "corporate brainwash talk";
I've been around too many slackers in my previous jobs, and
they're a drain not only on their employer but on everyone who
has to work around them.
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Advice to Jobseekers
Master as much software as you can. Not just the
Word/Excel/Powerpoint trifecta, but learn Photoshop,
Illustrator, Pagemaker, Acrobat (not just the Reader), SAP,
whatever -- devour everything you can, and bring examples of
this mastery & past leadership triumphs with you to the
interviews.
Once you're in, don't EVER stop learning more. Never turn down
an opportunity to take a class on software or leadership skills,
or any other business skill that can help you achieve
superiority relative to your peers. Look for opportunities to
volunteer for company initiatives or campaigns.
With increasing technology creeping into the remotest aspects of
work, the traditional "Admin Assistant" job is vanishing like
the Gulf Coast shoreline. I've learned from Admins who've been
with the company for 20+ years that today's Admin jobs encompass
projects and responsibilities that had, years ago, been assigned
to managers. Technology is making our job easier, but it's also
eliminating the need for mundane, repetitive aspects of our job,
sorta like the robots that today build the cars that used to be
hand-made by an assembly line of people. There will always be a
need for Assistants; the challenge is to stay cutting-edge
competent and to eagerly assume responsibility for ever-larger
projects, so that you can't simply be replaced by a
Blackberry...or some low-wage, offshore, call-center staffer.
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