PurPassionCity

Executive Assistant / Personal Assistant

The pull to create structure from chaos

Organization · Disordered → Ordered

The shape of the work

Pace
  • A hard push you keep up for a long stretch
  • Short, intense, and the stakes are right now
What your week looks likeNo pattern — you plan around what comes
How much you move around at workMostly at a desk, but you get up for site visits or other work
Whether you can work from anywhereSome days in, some days wherever you want
How quickly you receive feedback on your workGive it a few days
What you're actually working withNumbers, measurements, records — things you read on a screen / Concepts, theories, designs, stories — things you think up / Other humans, face-to-face — talking, teaching, treating, leading

Behaviours this work is made of

Core
  • Deciding what matters most, in what order.
  • Organizing time itself.
  • Providing what someone needs to endure.
Also present
  • Making expert knowledge available to someone else's decision — seeing what they can't see from experience and making that sight useful, without owning the outcome.
  • Exchanging meaning — both transmitting and receiving, adjusting in response.
  • Making multiple moving parts work together in sequence.
  • Ordering events and actions through time.

In words

An executive assistant works directly for one or a few senior people, such as a chief executive, a partner or a director. They run the executive's calendar, screen messages and requests, arrange travel and meetings, prepare briefing papers, draft correspondence and handle confidential matters. The primary gradient is Organization, because the job turns an overloaded schedule into one the executive can actually follow. Prioritizing is the core skill: deciding what reaches the executive, what waits and what someone else should deal with.

Called an executive assistant (EA) in most English-speaking countries, a personal assistant (PA) in the UK, Ireland and Australia, and an administrative assistant to the CEO or chief of staff in some US organisations. Some EAs work for wealthy individuals or families rather than companies, which makes it a more personal and wider job. The role is more senior and more trusted than a general administrative assistant, and good ones often act as the executive's partner in running their working life.

There's a guide here if you want one

Kitsune can talk through anything on this page — whether it might suit you, what to do next, questions this page doesn't answer. Everything here is yours to read either way.

The best EAs make decisions on someone else's behalf all day, and the skill is knowing when to decide and when to ask. Trust takes time to earn and is easy to lose, since the assistant sees private information about people, money and plans. The hours follow the executive, which can mean emails at night and a changed plan on a Friday evening. Pay can be good at the top end and is higher in finance, law and technology. Scheduling and drafting tools are improving fast, so the part of the job that remains valuable is judgement, discretion and the relationship with the executive.

Most executive assistants worked their way up from receptionist or administrative assistant roles, usually over three to five years, and a degree is helpful but not required. Short courses in business administration, minute-taking, travel booking and software tools help, and some countries have recognised professional bodies and certificates for assistants. Strong writing, calm under pressure and discretion matter more than formal credentials. From this role people move to senior or chief executive assistants, chief of staff, office manager, project or operations roles, event management, or stay as a trusted partner to a leader over many years.

Before you go