Functional duties of an assistant manager. Employer requirements for the applicant's professional skills

Assistant manager is a position that is present in the personnel structure of almost any Russian large or medium-sized enterprise. Often, the incumbents of this position are seen as secretaries with a very limited range of functions and responsibilities. But this is a completely incorrect approach to understanding the specifics of the position in question. The assistant manager can be endowed with the widest range of powers. The requirements for his qualifications and competence can be very high. What is the nature of the position in question? What are the typical rights and responsibilities of an executive assistant in a Russian company?

Position specifics

What is this position - "assistant to the head"? The duties of such an employee - what are they? In most cases, the position "assistant to the head" refers to the secretary. In rare cases, this phrase denotes the position of deputy director - but this is typical, as a rule, for small companies. In more or less large businesses, the duties of a personal assistant to the head come down mainly to secretarial functions. Which one exactly? First of all, this is office work, work with correspondence, solving problems related to organizing various meetings and other events in which the head of the company is directly involved. The duties of a secretary (assistant) to the head also almost always include taking phone calls in the office.

In some cases, the corresponding position is differentiated into several varieties. So, secretaries who perform mainly technical work - receiving phone calls, processing correspondence, etc., are called referents. In turn, those specialists who are responsible for organizing events and office work are called office managers. There is a point of view that for such a position as an assistant to the head, the duties and powers are assumed to be broader in comparison with typical secretarial ones. In particular, these can be expressed in the need for personal attendance at events in which the head takes part - corporate parties, business negotiations, holidays. The assistant in this case may be responsible for the presentations prepared by the head, or for the image component of his boss's participation in the event. It can be noted that in work books the position of an assistant manager is most often referred to as a “secretary”.

Requirements for an Executive Assistant

Consider such an aspect as the typical requirements for candidates for the position of "assistant manager". The duties that are supposed to be performed by the employee in the corresponding position require certain skills and qualifications. Their specific list is largely determined by the job specifics of the secretary. So, if the activity of the assistant manager will mainly correspond to the position of the referent, then the requirements in this case will not be so strict: secondary education, minimum work experience, basic skills in working with a PC and office equipment. In turn, if the competence of the assistant to managers includes some managerial functions, then the list of requirements in this case will be longer, and the job responsibilities will require a higher level of qualification of the candidate for the position of secretary.

A typical set of skills that an assistant manager should have in most cases is as follows: knowledge of common foreign languages, knowledge of popular computer programs for working with documents, images, presentations. An important aspect of the qualification requirements for an executive assistant is personal qualities. These include courtesy, attentiveness, goodwill, responsibility, readiness to solve new problems. The preferred age range for an executive assistant candidate in many organizations is 18-35 years old. But, of course, there are enterprises that especially value the experience of an employee, and therefore willingly hire people much older.

Many firms, however, prefer to recruit for jobs that involve the performance of functions that are typical for an assistant to the head, specialists without much experience. This may be due to the specifics of the business segment in which the company operates. In some cases, it is better to train an employee to work in a company that, relatively speaking, opened the first production of microprocessors for smartphones and tablets in Russia, from scratch, with immersion in all the necessary nuances of such a high-tech business segment, than to try to explain to an experienced person that the old methods of solving tasks in some cases do not work.

Main responsibilities

Let us consider in more detail characterizing such a position as an assistant manager, duties. We noted above that these are largely reduced to secretarial functions. But it is not always the case. It often happens that the assistant to the head of the company, especially when it comes to a large organization, is involved in making key management decisions. He can accompany the negotiations in which the boss participates - and not only in the technical aspect, but also connect to the relevant dialogues, express opinions, advice.

In some cases, the manager can delegate some of his functions to his assistant - for example, in terms of informing the enterprise team about any significant management decisions. Of course, an employee in the position in question often performs work related to ensuring the comfort of his boss’s activities - in terms of making sure that his office has an optimal microclimate, there is always, relatively speaking, fresh tea, so that the main equipment used by the manager is stable functioned.

Working mode

So, we now know what are the job responsibilities that characterize such a position as an assistant manager. Our next task is to study the specifics of the employee's work schedule in the corresponding position. Of course, in the general case, the assistant performs his duties according to the schedule established by the Labor Code, that is, within the framework of an 8-hour working day, 5 days a week. But in practice, significant deviations from the corresponding regime are possible. Such scenarios may be typical for a position such as an executive assistant with additional responsibilities.

The fact is that a specialist working in this position can be involved not only in the affairs of his company, but also in solving problems that are not directly related to intra-corporate activities. So, an assistant with the appropriate authority can be sent on business trips, to seminars, conferences. An employee can also carry out some intermediary duties between his supervisor and managers working in other organizations - for example, in terms of document management or the implementation of joint projects. The work schedule for solving such problems, of course, may be far from what is provided for by the Labor Code. In fact, it becomes irregular, often longer than the standard 8 hours.

Consider what the job description of an assistant manager might look like. The structure of the relevant document, as a rule, begins with general provisions. They may indicate that the assistant manager is in the professional category. Thus, already at the level of a local source of law, the company can fix the fact that the person in the position in question is not a manager (not a deputy director). With a high probability - a secretary or, for example, a personal assistant to the head with additional responsibilities.

Assistant job description: general provisions

The "General Provisions" of the job description may also contain wording that reflects the qualification requirements for a specialist. For example, that an assistant manager must have a professional education and some work experience. Sometimes, in the same part of the job description, the business area is fixed, in which it is desirable for a person to have experience in doing business.

The "General Provisions" fixes the key competencies of the employee. They can be expressed in the requirements for knowledge of the enterprise management structure, the internal and external policies of the employing company, the principles of the company's communications with authorities and other organizations, the standards that characterize office work, the rules of business communication, as well as the internal labor regulations in the company.

Assistant Responsibilities

The next key section of the instruction is "Job Responsibilities". What is its specificity? In this section, the main responsibilities of the assistant manager are fixed. These can be: planning the boss’s working day (in terms of meetings, calls, interviews), organizing technical support for the manager’s work (in terms of ordering transport, organizing business meetings), participating in business trips, business negotiations, keeping minutes and other documents, ensuring interaction between managers enterprises with other structures of the company, maintaining communications with government agencies.

Helper Rights

The job description always includes the rights that the assistant manager has. The duties stipulated by the specifics of the position are always supplemented by appropriate preferences. So, what rights does the employee in the position in question have? It is interesting that the duties of the assistant to the head of the enterprise are quite correlated with them. So, for example, the right to sign and endorse certain documents arises in connection with the need to periodically work with such sources. An example of another right of an employee in a relevant position is to request from direct management, as well as from other specialists of the company, the necessary information to be included in the documents. The assistant manager also has the right to demand from the boss to ensure comfortable working conditions. The job responsibilities of a person in the relevant position may be associated with the periodic sending and receiving of documents - and these procedures must be carried out using various technical means. The Secretary may expect full access to such.

Assistant Responsibility

So, we have studied what is included in the duties of an assistant manager, as well as what the range of his rights can be. But in most job descriptions for specialists of the profile in question there is one more section - “Responsibility”. What wording might be in it? The assistant manager is most often responsible for: improper performance of the duties stipulated by the instructions in question, but within the limits that are fixed in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation; offenses that he committed in the course of his activities - again, within the limits of Russian legislation; for causing harm to the company - within the limits fixed in the Labor and Civil Codes of the Russian Federation and other sources of law.

Summary

So, we have studied the specifics of such a position as an assistant manager, the duties and requirements that characterize this position in the personnel structure of the enterprise. The specialist performing the relevant work most often performs secretarial functions, but may have much broader powers. In rare cases, the concept of "assistant to the head" corresponds to the position of deputy director, but this is typical mainly for small enterprises.

In the "classic" interpretation of the phrase "assistant manager", the work of a person in the corresponding position can be close to the functions of a referent, clerk, or, for example, an office manager. In the work book of an assistant manager, most likely, there will be an entry “secretary” or “referent”, although much, of course, depends on the corporate standards adopted in a particular organization.

The need to invite specialists of the profile in question characterizes the activities of the leaders of most Russian enterprises. The effective work of a top manager depends on how well his assistant will solve his tasks - seemingly secondary from the point of view of practical enterprise management, but in fact extremely significant for the organization. The work of the secretary is the most important in the structure of communications of the team, which is headed by the head of the company.

Note that many firms practice the appointment of several assistant directors at once. At the same time, the status and powers of each may differ. One specialist may be responsible for secretarial functions, another may be an office manager, and a third may accompany the manager at events. At the same time, personnel managers can practice the interchangeability of employees within the framework of their respective areas of activity.

They often talk about its place in the management system, much has been written about its role in modern business, its sphere of influence is expanding, and its functionality is becoming more complicated from year to year. Only his status remains unchanged. Assistant - who is he? What does he do? Why does his modest persona draw so much attention to himself?

From the history of the profession

It is believed that the first assistants appeared in ancient Rome. Roman jurisprudence, which developed formulas for legal transactions, needed to dress them in traditional written form. Gradually, mechanical work on legal materials becomes not only more independent, creative, but almost exclusive. Its representatives in the era of the republic were scribae and exceptoreset notarii - scribes involved in putting legal material into documentary form. Scribae were in the public service, exceptores et notarii - in the service of private individuals. The position of scribae could only be held by Roman citizens who were not deprived of civil honor, and persons who had been subjected to a derogation of civil rights did not have access to this position. Their election was for life and was not limited to the term of service, but extended to successors. Scribae could give up his place to another person for a fee.

From among the more capable scribes, the magistrates chose their assistants, whose duty was to prepare public documents (tabulae publicae) and maintain public accounts (rationes), as a result of which they were called scribae librarii. Assistants occupied a high social position. One of the names that have come down to us from the depths of centuries is the name of the close assistant of the ancient Roman emperor Augustus - Maecenas, who carried out diplomatic, political and private assignments. His patronage of poets, artists and scientists made the name "Maecenas" a household name.

Who is hired as an assistant?

A leader today is, first of all, a leader who is distinguished by intelligence, flexible thinking, the ability to analyze and introspect, emotional maturity, organizational skills and amazing performance. Naturally, such a leader cannot exist in a vacuum. He needs a link, a conductor of his ideas, tasks, a person who will take upon himself the solution of many problems, free him from the burden of routine. The faster the business develops, the larger the company and the more successful the leader, which means that the need for a serious assistant becomes urgent.

Choosing a personal assistant, a successful leader declares the highest possible requirements not only for his education, professional qualities, work experience, practical skills, but also for personal characteristics. A personal assistant is not so much a position as a special status of a trusted person that a leader needs . A personal assistant is a professional, responsible person who is able to take on huge responsibilities to ensure the activities of the manager, to free him from waste of time.

It's hard to find a really professional assistant. An experienced recruiter approaches with all responsibility the choice of a personal assistant to the manager: he does not even consider the proposals of applicants who often change jobs, without education, work experience, and resumes drawn up with grammatical and stylistic errors will not arouse his interest.

There is an opinion that a person between the ages of 25 and 30 can be an assistant. Many experts are very skeptical about the establishment of such boundaries. Work that requires high tension and high concentration of attention makes special demands on professionalism, psychological stability, and communication skills, which are acquired solely through knowledge, experience, and reputation. That is why recently the position of personal assistant has grown significantly. Focusing on a set of objective and subjective parameters and characteristics, a person who has reached full personal and professional maturity can be considered a reliable assistant. From this point of view, the 30th birthday is not the final stage of the assistant's career, but rather its starting point.

More recently, it was mostly the fair sex that became personal assistants. Today, a male assistant is no longer a rarity.- he is distinguished by purposefulness, determination and emotional restraint, he has intelligence, the ability to think strategically. In turn, female assistants are more stress-resistant, adapt better, feel the nuances of relationships better due to their flexibility, quickly find a way out of a difficult situation, are attentive to details and have the ability to listen, and are more patient when performing routine work. Therefore, the choice of an assistant should be based not on his gender, but on professionalism, a set of skills.

The requirements for the education of a candidate for the position of a personal assistant are not too strict: they can be a specialist with a higher education in any field, the main thing is the presence of other components necessary for the implementation of the functionality for this position. Most often, the humanitarians succeed in the role of assistants - specialists in the field of tourism business, public relations and documentation support for management, historians, translators, journalists, philologists. The assistant may have a technical, economic or legal background - such professionals often have an analytical mindset, demonstrate their abilities in the preparation of reviews, reports or project supervision, and perform tasks of increased complexity. And of course, education corresponding to the profile of the company is always welcome.

At the same time, the requirements for work experience and professional skills of an assistant are very high. Wrong are those who think that it is enough for a personal assistant to have secretarial skills - to know a foreign language, to be computer literate, to have experience in writing business letters and providing business trips, booking tickets and organizing business meetings. In addition to all of the above, the assistant must:

● have an analytical mindset and the ability to systemic logical thinking;

● have a good memory, have a quick reaction;

● be hardworking, enduring, stress-resistant;

● have a broad outlook, competent speech;

● be able to take responsibility;

● have good taste;

● Be committed to the corporate interests and personal interests of your leader.

Assistant Responsibilities

The main responsibilities of an assistant manager include:

● administrative support of the head;

● planning of the manager's working day, coordination and organizational support of meetings and reception of visitors;

● information and analytical support for the manager: search and processing of the necessary information; preparation of information, analytical and presentation materials, reports and speeches, analytical reviews, reports, etc.;

● conducting business correspondence of the head;

● preparation of meetings, councils, meetings held by the head, formalization of the results of business meetings/negotiations;

● participation in negotiations, business meetings, receptions; accompaniment of the head at meetings, trips, etc.;

● organization and provision of business trips and meetings (logistics of optimal routes, booking of tickets, hotel rooms, transfer; visa support; registration of participation in conferences and seminars; organization of leisure activities);

● implementation of relationships with representatives of companies, enterprises, organizations, public authorities and administration to resolve issues that do not require the direct participation of the head; obtaining documents and information from state authorities and management on behalf of the head;

● oral and written translations, language support for business negotiations and meetings;

● organization of presentations and protocol events, representative activities;

●preparation of expense reports;

● execution of personal assignments of the head.

This list is not exhaustive, in a particular company, the duties of an assistant may vary.

About trust

The issue of trust is the very cornerstone, the basis of the foundations on which the entire system of relations "assistant - leader" is built. For many leaders, an assistant is not just a confidant, a person exposed to the secret of knowledge, but also almost a member of the family. The degree of trust is sometimes so high that he is trusted with confidential information, bank account numbers, payment cards and pin codes, large sums of money, safe codes, company seals and personal secrets. That is why many assistants provide not only the organization of the official activities of the head, but also solve his family and home problems: they buy gifts for family members, order flower baskets for loved ones, select household staff, organize children's vacations, etc.

It is important to remember that trust is given to an assistant who:

● is proficient in business communication skills;

● knows how to hear and listen;

● observes subordination;

● maintains neutrality and confidentiality;

● maintains a balance between confidence and compliance, has his own opinion, is ready to defend his position, but understands well when it is necessary and where to retreat.

Pros and cons of the profession

Let's start with what they usually end up with modestly leaving "for later" - with the question of wages. The very high requirements for candidates for the vacancy "personal assistant to the head", as well as the serious offers of applicants, have significantly raised the bar on salary expectations and offers. In Moscow, the approximate average salary of an assistant manager varies from 40 to 60 thousand rubles, in the regions - from 20 to 30 thousand. Having work experience, recommendations, and knowledge of foreign languages ​​allow the candidate to qualify for a higher remuneration.

Daily managerial experience, increasing level of responsibility, changing the nature of the tasks to be solved allow the assistant to acquire invaluable knowledge in this position. Assistant - a position that involves constant growth and self-realization, improvement of personal qualities, abilities, talents; opening up real prospects for professional activity. Given all of the above, a professional assistant in the future can apply, at a minimum, for the position of head of the secretariat, office, business management, but other developments are also possible - executive, administrative, managing director or organizing their own business.

The flip side of any profession is the price we pay for mastering professional skills. The working day of an assistant lasts longer than the working day of the manager, so it often starts early in the morning and ends in the late evening. In addition, a personal assistant should be available to his boss almost around the clock. If the manager has only one assistant, sometimes it is even difficult to take a day off, go on vacation - the assistant is strictly limited by the vacation limits of his manager.

In addition, the established relationships, harmony, personal attachment to the leader often play against the desires and aspirations to change something, make the assistant a hostage to a particular official, and, consequently, to the profession.

The position of an assistant should be considered as a launching pad, and his career and personal growth depends on determination, a clear awareness of his capabilities, desires and the amount of effort made.

Name in history

The names of figures who left their mark on the history of world politics, culture, science, diplomacy are known to everyone, but the names of their assistants, who took on hard and sometimes thankless work, contributing to the birth of many achievements, history does not always preserve for posterity.

Pavel Ivanovich Yaguzhinsky ( 1683-1736) - assistant to Peter I, statesman and diplomat. An active and energetic man, since 1701 he became the constant companion of Peter I in all campaigns and trips abroad, everywhere he found himself in his place and earned the favor of the king. Over the years, he served as Prosecutor General of the Senate, Minister Plenipotentiary to the Polish Sejm in Grodno, Cabinet Minister, was an envoy in Vienna, an ambassador in Berlin. Peter I repeatedly entrusted him with important diplomatic missions. Pavel Ivanovich conducted very difficult negotiations with the kings of Denmark and Prussia. Yaguzhinsky, as a personal trusted tsar, took part in all European congresses without exception. Including because he spoke English, German, Spanish and French, not to mention Polish and Lithuanian. The emperor was not mistaken in his choice of the procurator-general. Yaguzhinsky zealously and very quickly carried out all the instructions of Peter I. He never dragged the execution, as other nobles often practiced, but, having received any task, after a day or two he reported to Peter I about the results.

Contemporaries who watched Yaguzhinsky in the service are unanimous in their assessments: “A prominent man, with an irregular face, but expressive and lively, with a free manner, capricious, proud, was smart and very active; he did as much in one day as the other could not do in a week.

Pyotr Petrovich Konovnitsyn(1764–1822) – assistant to Mikhail Kutuzov, adjutant general, count. Unusually brave and reckless in military affairs, Pyotr Petrovich at the same time was an excellent staff worker, extremely accurate, diligent and punctual.

Contemporaries evaluated him as "an extraordinary type of Russian nature." After the retreat from Moscow, Kutuzov appointed Konovnitsyn the duty general of the headquarters of the Russian army, on whose shoulders lay a huge burden of organizational work in the army: the supply of ammunition and food, fodder and medicines, uniforms and transport. This appointment was not accidental: Mikhail Illarionovich, with a general confusion after the loss of Moscow, needed a balanced and firm person next to him. In addition, honest Konovnitsyn, as it were, neutralized the chief of staff L. Bennigsen, who was intriguing against Kutuzov. Since that time, Pyotr Petrovich became the first speaker at the commander-in-chief, all Kutuzov's combat correspondence with his subordinate military leaders passed through him.

In 1815–1819 Konovnitsyn served as minister of war, since 1819 - member of the State Council, head of military educational institutions, chief director of the Page and other cadet corps and the Tsarskoye Selo lyceum.

Charles Maurice Talleyrand-Périgord (1753–1838) – assistant to Napoleon Bonaparte, an outstanding French commander and statesman. An entire era is associated with his name: royalty, revolution, Napoleon's empire, restoration, the July Revolution. Fate bound these people for 14 years. Napoleon appreciated Talleyrand: "He is a man of intrigue, a man of great immorality, but of great intelligence and, of course, the most capable of all the ministers that I have had." Talleyrand became a knight of all French orders and almost all foreign ones. Back in 1807, at the height of Napoleon's power, Talleyrand wondered how long the emperor's triumph would last. Being a sophisticated politician, Talleyrand felt that it was time to leave, and left the ministerial post. The highly experienced diplomat was not mistaken in predicting the collapse of Napoleon. Talleyrand, having shown miracles of diplomacy, convinced the allies to leave the throne not to the heirs of Napoleon, but to the royal family - the Bourbons, and, again finding himself in favor, became Minister of Foreign Affairs and head of government for the third time.

Alexey AndreevichArakcheev(1769-1834) - assistant to three kings - Paul I, Alexander I, Nicholas I.

He served in the Gatchina garrison, transferred to the full control of Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich, the future Emperor Paul I. At one of these reviews, the executive lieutenant Arakcheev noticed the future emperor. Soon Arakcheev became the commandant of the palace, he treated his duties with diligence and diligence - he was in the service at any time of the day. Under Paul I, by the age of 28, Arakcheev rose to the rank of commandant of St. Petersburg and received the baron's coat of arms, in which, with the permission of the emperor, he entered the motto: "Without flattery, betrayed." Under Alexander I, he began to widely plant military settlements, the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bcreating which had long occupied his thoughts, since 1815 he actually concentrated in his hands the leadership of the State Council, the Committee of Ministers and His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery, was the only speaker to the tsar on most departments. Since 1817, during the reign of Nicholas I, he served as chief commander of military settlements. Arakcheev refused to take part in the suppression of the Decembrist uprising, for which he was dismissed by Nicholas I

Friedrich Engels(1820–1895) – assistant to Karl Marx, one of the founders of scientific communism. The meeting with Marx, held in Paris in 1844, marked the beginning of a creative community that continued until the death of Marx. Engels actively participated in the organization and activities of the League of Communists, together with Marx he wrote the program of the Union - the Communist Manifesto and published the New Rhine Gazette, in 1849 he participated in an armed uprising in southwestern Germany. Having received an inheritance from his father, Engels provided constant material assistance to Marx. Together with Marx, he led the activities of the First International. After his death, he set about publishing volumes of Capital, compiling the final text from Marx's draft manuscripts.

Nicholas Roerich(1874-1947) - Russian artist, philosopher, scientist, writer, traveler, public figure, politician. He painted about 7,000 paintings and created almost 30 literary works, the author and initiator of the International Treaty for the Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions and Historical Monuments (Roerich Pact), the founder of the international movement for the protection of culture. At the age of 24, he became assistant director of the museum at the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of Arts and at the same time assistant editor of the art magazine Art and Art Industry. Three years later, he took up the post of secretary of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts.

Evgeny Petrovich Petrov (Kataev)(1903-1942) - assistant to the Russian prose writer Ilya Ilf, writer. Together with I. Ilf, he wrote the novels The Twelve Chairs and The Golden Calf, which were very popular. In 1932-1937, Ilf and Petrov wrote feuilletons for the Pravda newspaper, during this period they traveled around the United States, which resulted in the joint book One-Story America.

The creative cooperation of writers was interrupted by the death of Ilf in 1937. Petrov enters the service of the Pravda newspaper, writes film scripts.

During the Great Patriotic War, he worked as a correspondent for the newspapers Pravda, Krasnaya Zvezda, and the Soviet Information Bureau. Awarded the Order of Lenin.

Igor VasilievichKurchatov(1902-1960) - assistant to physicist Abram Fedorovich Ioffe, an outstanding physicist, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the first and long-term leader of the Soviet nuclear program.

Kurchatov organically combined the talents of a physicist and an organizer. It was he who was chosen by Academician A.F. Ioffe, who obtained permission to organize a department of nuclear physics at his institute and recommended that Kurchatov be appointed the head of the atomic program - and this largely determined the rapid success of the development of nuclear weapons. In 1943, Igor Vasilyevich founded and headed the institute, which later became known as the Institute of Atomic Energy of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Under his leadership, the first cyclotron in Moscow, the first atomic reactor in Europe, the first Soviet atomic bomb, the world's first thermonuclear bomb, the world's first industrial nuclear power plant and the largest research facility for controlled thermonuclear reactions were built. The 104th element of Mendeleev's periodic system is named after him kurchatovium.

Yuri Mikhailovich Baturin(born 1949) - Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation, Russian politician, scientist (lawyer and political scientist), cosmonaut (382nd cosmonaut of the world and 90th cosmonaut of Russia), Hero of the Russian Federation, Secretary of the Union of Journalists of the Russian Federation.

From 1993 to 1994 worked as an assistant to the President of Russia on legal issues, in 1994-1996 - on national security issues, in 1996-1998 - assistant to the President of Russia. In 1998, he was appointed to the post of test cosmonaut at the Russian State Research and Testing Cosmonaut Training Center. Yu.A. Gagarin. Since 2000 - deputy commander of the cosmonaut corps for research and testing work. This is the first time that a civilian has been appointed to an administrative position in a military cosmonaut detachment, which is the CPC detachment. Since 2008 - Member of the Scientific Council under the Security Council of the Russian Federation.

M.E. Tarasova,
head of organizational and administrative service
ZAO NK Rusneftekhim

Hello dear readers. Vasily Blinov is in touch.

Today I want to start talking about the Internet profession of a personal assistant and tell you more about this opportunity to work remotely. From this article, you will find out what kind of profession it is, whether it is worth starting to master it, and also determine whether it suits you or is it better to do it.

All the material I collected about working as an assistant manager did not fit into one article, so I divided it into 4 parts:

1. What is an assistant manager and what does he do? (Are you here).

There are a lot of disputes on the Internet and not entirely clear information about the salary and the number of hours of work of a personal assistant, so I took this issue into a separate consideration, where we will logically reason about what and how much entrepreneurs are willing to pay.

If you have read the book up to this point, 7 professions for quick money on the Internet”and watched the video from the link from it, then you should already be more or less clear what the essence of the profession of a personal assistant to an entrepreneur is.

Friends, also if you have any questions after reading the article, you can ask me personally on social networks or it is better to write in the comments below so that other people can also get an answer to these questions.

Who is a personal business assistant?

I propose to recall the film "The Intern" in 2015 with Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway.

I'm not entirely familiar with this whole American system, but the point of the film is that the young founder of an online fashion store had to take on an internship as a personal assistant to a 70-year-old retiree.

In my opinion, this film just does very well reveals the work of an assistant to an entrepreneur.

Personal assistant is a friend, business partner, colleague, whose task is to take on part of the work and save the manager’s time for more important matters and personal life.

A slight difference in the film is that the intern did not know modern technology at all, and his work took place in the office.

On the other hand, this is a great example for beginners with no experience, you can also get a job as a personal assistant and learn everything yourself in the process.

I know that many people now have doubts, but who will hire a newcomer who can’t do anything? Yes, many people! I took a personal assistant to me, whom I train from scratch.

Why did I hire an assistant with no experience?

• Firstly, I have many simple tasks that take a lot of time, and anyone can handle them.
• Secondly, sometimes it's easier to teach a person than to retrain as I need.
• Third, while a person is studying, you can pay him a small amount.

In the next article, I will tell you in more detail what my personal assistant does, how much he earned at first, and how his salary has grown.

Who needs a remote personal assistant?

There are many areas of business on the Internet, which are mainly conducted remotely - these are various services, online stores, content sites, blogs, training centers, design agencies, etc. In each such business, there are people who manage or do everything themselves.

Let's look at a few examples of who you can get a personal assistant.

1. infobusinessmen are entrepreneurs who teach something through paid courses, online trainings, webinars, etc.
2. Owners of Internet services and shops. For example, I will take such a popular service for the sale, rent and purchase of various goods and services as Avito. Of course, this is too global an example; instead of personal assistants, there are leadership positions that are responsible for each of their areas. But if you take small services, of which there are already millions on the Internet, how many leaders are there who need assistants?
3. Bloggers, content creators is my personal example. To run a normal profitable project, blog, video blog, do you know how much you need to know and do? Even to run a simple video blog on YouTube, you need to be able to edit videos, engage in optimization, advertising, promotion on social networks, etc. At the initial stage, a personal assistant may not be required, but when the project grows, then you can’t do without it.
4. Professional freelancers and remote employees. When the customer base grows and you do not have time to fulfill orders, sooner or later you will also need a personal assistant. There may already be some specialized personal assistant, for example, a designer, programmer or advertising specialist.
5. Offline Entrepreneurs, whose business is located in some city, and advertising activities are carried out on the Internet. For example, social media accounts, advertising campaigns, websites, blogs, etc. He can also hire a personal assistant who will develop all this.

Even the personal assistants of some large Internet entrepreneurs can have a personal assistant.

Responsibilities and functions

I can divide the duties of an executive assistant into 3 categories:

1. Secretary - work with documentation, reports, mail, communication with clients, etc.
2. Project Manager - work with remote employees and freelancers.
3. Specialist - knowledge and experience in the business in which his employer is engaged.

All of them are interconnected, and as I said earlier, there are no specific job responsibilities that can be written out. Each entrepreneur has a number of tasks that he can hang on an assistant.

Key skills of an executive assistant

In fact, a personal assistant must have all the standard skills that any remote employee (freelancer) has, these are:

• Work with information and office programs.
• Competent Russian.
• Time management (managing your time and the time of the employer).
• Work in social networks.
• Administration of sites on popular platforms (WordPress, etc.).
• Copywriting and sales skills.
• Search and interaction with freelancers.

Also, a remote personal assistant may need knowledge and understanding, at least the basics, of additional Internet business tools:

• Formation and configuration of newsletters.
• Ability to edit simple videos.
• Editing of photos, pictures, creation of banners.
• Ability to make landings.
• Work in webinar rooms.
• Work with traffic and advertising services.
• Website analytics.

If you do not have some skills, then it's okay, learning them will not be difficult.

Is it necessary to have an education?

Getting a job as a personal assistant to an entrepreneur or manager in your city in some large organization, you would probably be asked about education and asked to provide documents.

On the Internet, things are a little different.

For a modern Internet entrepreneur, it doesn’t matter how many courses you have taken, how many years you have studied in educational institutions, what matters here is the experience and the result of your work. The more unique your real skills, the more valuable you become as an employee, and your income will depend on this.

What qualities should one have?

Looking at the profession of a personal assistant to an employer, I can list several important personal qualities that a person applying for this position should have.

In the film "The Intern", which was discussed earlier, I really liked how the attitude of a person to work is shown. Human qualities always follow from the attitude to one's work and it is easy to determine them in a few weeks of joint work.

1. Interest in what the entrepreneur for whom you are getting a job as a personal assistant does.
2. Structured.
3. Self-discipline is one of the most important qualities when working remotely, when you have a free schedule.
4. Purposefulness.
5. Flexibility is the ability to change.
6. Sociability.
7. Responsibility.

Who is more likely to be hired for this job?

Again, based on the observations of my environment, among entrepreneurs who have their own team and personal assistants, in 90% of cases I see girls and women in these positions.

1. Moms on maternity leave.
2. Office workers.
3. Freelancers.

The exceptional factor here is that the male half fumbles more in technical matters and they are more taken as assistants, as specialists in some technical field.

In general, I would recommend to anyone who is just starting to work remotely and study some kind of Internet profession to get a job as a personal assistant to an entrepreneur or a professional freelancer working in this profession. Working with a person who already understands everything will give you the fastest possible result in mastering the necessary knowledge and skills.

Pros and cons of the profession

Summing up this part about the profession of a personal assistant to the head, I would like to consider what advantages and disadvantages it has. I'll start with the benefits:

1. Continuous development. Working directly with an entrepreneur and adopting his knowledge and experience is, in my opinion, the fattest plus of this profession.

2. Freedom of movement. By working remotely, you will have more time, you will not need to spend time on the road to the office, etc. You will be able to work while traveling, in different places of the world.

3. Comfortable and flexible work schedule. You yourself plan the working day in accordance with your desires and needs.

4. Good salary or extra income. Depends on employment and complexity of tasks.

Among the shortcomings, I can single out the fact that working as a personal assistant remotely, especially when full-time and multitasking, requires you to be constantly in touch with the employer, sometimes adjusting to his work schedule.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I will say that the demand for and prospects for the profession are quite high. When hiring an assistant, an entrepreneur buys, first of all, his personal time - our only limited resource. And he understands that without delegating a part of some tasks, his result will grow much more slowly. Therefore, in the remote work market, this profession is becoming more and more popular.

That's all I have today.

See you in the next articles about this interesting profession!

P.S. If you are thinking of working as a personal assistant to the manager, then write your opinion about this article in the comments, with what you agree and with what you do not.

A job description is a document that establishes the tasks performed by an employee, defines his job responsibilities and the limits of his
Although the development of job descriptions for each profession or position in the Russian Federation is not regulated by labor legislation, in the vast majority of employing organizations (both state-owned and private), this document is necessarily available.

The job description of an assistant manager contains a maximum of information

The expediency of preparing a job description is explained by the fact that in the event of a trial, without it it will be difficult to prove the employee’s failure to fulfill his (and their exhaustive list is established in the instruction document), because the employment contract with the employee in accordance with Part 2 of Article 57 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation contains only the position and its general labor function.

The job description allows the employer to:

1. Justify the refusal of the job seeker due to non-compliance with the requirements established in it
2. Clearly delineate responsibilities between individual employees
3. Evaluate performance both during and after the trial
4. To substantiate the inconsistency of the employee with the position he occupies (taking into account the results of the certification).

The presence of a job description is also useful for the employee himself, as it establishes the limits of his duties and responsibilities, and no one should perform functions that are not provided for by either the employment contract or job duties.

Development and instruction sections

When compiling instructions, they usually use the provisions of GOST R 6.30-2003 and the qualification directory for the positions of managers, specialists and other employees (approved by the Russian Ministry of Labor in 1998). The instruction in the form of a project is endorsed by the developers, agreed with the representative body of employees (if any), and approved by the head.

The instruction is put into effect from a certain date, and the employee must be familiarized with it against signature. It is advisable to give the employee a copy of this document (also against signature). According to established practice, the instructions include typical subsections:

1. General provisions
2. Job Responsibilities
3. Responsibility

It is important to remember that the instruction is not drawn up for any employee, but for a specific position / profession. Therefore, taking into account the specifics of a particular position, the instruction establishes the scope of duties that the employee will perform in this particular position.

Features of the job description of the assistant manager

Executive Assistant - Responsible Position

Assistant manager is a special position. The job function of an assistant manager is to build the work of his manager, both technically and organizationally.

Scheduling meetings and events, planning a working day, a week, a longer period, organizing trips and events, monitoring the execution of important documents - these are just a small part of the duties of a qualified assistant manager.

It is wrong to identify the positions and, accordingly, the duties performed by the secretary, assistant, office manager and assistant manager. If the first positions imply more auxiliary functions, then organizational and administrative functions are required from the assistant manager. It is no coincidence that the qualification directory refers this position to the category of managers.

Accordingly, the requirements set for an employee hired as an assistant manager are presented as for management: from the level of education to the qualifications and experience of previous work. Personal qualities are also very important.

Since neither the employment contract nor other documents contain a detailed statement of the competencies of the assistant manager, they must be reflected as accurately as possible in the job description. Features of the instruction for the position "Assistant to the head":

• Detailed terms of reference
• Drawing up instructions by analogy with the instructions of the head (excluding, of course, the function of direct management and making sole decisions)
• Accounting for the confidential nature of certain duties
• Increased liability for bad faith (taking into account the possible consequences of causing damage to the employer)
• Ability to perform functions delegated by the head additionally.

General requirements for an assistant manager

Often there are special requirements for the position of assistant manager

The section "General Provisions" may include, in addition to listing the requirements for experience and education, also the necessary skills, subordination and substitution procedure. The most common conditions are:

1. Higher education
2. Experience (usually at least 1 year, sometimes more)
3. Proficiency in foreign languages.
4. Business communication, writing and etiquette skills
5. Ownership of office equipment
6. Stress resistance

In addition, an employee in this position must know the local acts of the enterprise, get along with employees and management. As for foreign languages, it is worth demanding from knowledge only in cases where the assistant will use them practically in the course of performing his duties.

The incumbent of an assistant manager must be able to use and store confidential information.

Duties and Rights

Typically, the duties of an assistant manager include:

• Fulfillment of direct tasks of management
• Planning and coordinating the working time of the manager
• Control and organization of negotiations (both telephone and oral)
• Compilation and editing
• Document confidentiality and safety control

Functions such as copying, maintaining information databases, and other technical and auxiliary work are usually performed by a secretary (secretary-referent). For the successful work of the assistant manager, they are endowed with fairly broad rights:

1. Represent the interests of the organization in meetings and telephone conversations
2. Request any necessary information, documents from employees to fulfill the instructions of the head
3. Within the delegated authority to conduct correspondence and negotiations, endorse documents to resolve current issues.

Of course, each organization, taking into account the nature of its activities, supplements or modifies the list of rights granted to an employee.

Limits of Liability

Executive Assistant Job Description Avoids Litigation in the Future

When establishing liability, it is necessary to remember the norms of the law:

• For non-fulfillment of official duties - according to the Labor Code
• For - within the limits of administrative, civil and criminal legislation
• For - in accordance with the norms of the Labor and Civil Codes.

Having developed a job description for an assistant manager, taking into account the norms of the current legislation and the specifics of the activities of a particular organization, you can not only select the most suitable employee for such a responsible position, but also avoid possible litigation in the future.

Opinion of a legal expert:

Article 81, clause 3 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation contains the basis for terminating an employment contract at the initiative of the employer. It is related to the professional suitability of the employee. This basis must be confirmed by the results of certification. When compiling a job description for an assistant manager, it is necessary to spell out in detail all the qualification requirements for a specialist.

The working conditions of a person and his/her effectiveness may depend on the degree of detail and specification. Ultimately, the leader needs a real conscientious assistant. We should also draw the attention of our readers to the fact that a manager may have several assistants. They may have a specialization, in technical matters, in financial matters, etc.

There is a type of leaders who do not have deputies on the staff. He does everything himself, and a few assistants just help him with this. He makes all decisions alone. To draw up a high-quality job description for an assistant manager, it is necessary to involve the manager himself in the process. Otherwise, it will be just a piece of paper.

Video material will teach you how to become self-confident and pass a job interview:

) is an indispensable employee for the leader. He performs so many functions and has such great powers that in fact he becomes the second person in the company. It is almost impossible to fully formulate his job responsibilities. Selecting a personal assistant for a particular leader is a task from the “mission impossible” area, so it goes into the category of super complex.

My experience of working in a recruitment agency has formed a special look at this amazing profession.

LACK OF QUALIFIED PERSONAL ASSISTANTS ON THE HR MARKET

A personal assistant is a separate subspecies in the hierarchy of administrative specialties.

As a rule, job search sites post vacancies with a standard set of requirements - document flow and organizational work. Such jobs as twins are similar to each other, except for the size of the company and the scope of business. But in fact, there are a huge number of unspoken and specific requirements for the position. They are not included in the job description on websites, but it is these requirements that are decisive in the selection of candidates.

During a personal meeting with the employer and a substantive discussion of such vacancies, “marginal notes” appear - a long list of requirements that are not published in the vacancy, which determine the strategy for searching for a candidate for an RA vacancy. Here are examples of exotic requirements: manual counting speed; the presence of a sports category; the ability to count in the mind; experience in managing investment projects; knowledge of the legal framework; excellent knowledge of all premium brands; contact base of owners of elite restaurants. Habitual requirements: voice height (timbre), height, weight, clothing size, knowledge of languages, etc.

The leader also puts forward an additional list of requirements for the personal qualities of the assistant, which is perhaps the most voluminous. At the same time, formal requirements for professional skills and experience do not become less important.

So it turns out that there are only a few ideal candidates on the market and it is very difficult to select an RA for a manager.

But for each employer, the ideal of an assistant is different, but there is a constant - everyone needs a reliable, dedicated and responsible assistant who can take on all organizational and informational tasks, free the manager from wasting time and skillfully solve standard and non-standard problems.

THE DIFFERENCE OF A PERSONAL ASSISTANT FROM OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALS

Before identifying the differences, let's define the types of administrative positions. It is important to understand what kind of administrative professional we are talking about and what functions are assigned to him.

Business Assistant (BA) (personal assistant (PA), personal assistant)- necessary for the head or owner of large companies (both Russian and international). Reports only to his leader.

Person "close to the emperor", right hand, confidant, "deputy boss". Plans a work plan and schedule, a business calendar, a "link" with the outside world. Can be a guide, translator, nanny, home manager, weather forecast, search engine, travel agent, often does part of the work for the manager (the boss appropriates the result of work), has special knowledge / education in the field of business and the activities of the leader, knows how to make decisions independently .

Secretary- is necessary for heads of any companies. Reports to all top managers. The functionality is simple: document management, meeting guests, tea / coffee, office life support, telephone conversations, correspondence processing, and performing simple instructions for management.

Requirements: age - about 23-30 years old, secondary specialized or higher education (depending on the level of the company), no work experience is acceptable, computer skills are required, experience with office equipment, high printing speed, knowledge of business etiquette, if necessary - knowledge of a foreign language . Personal qualities: responsibility, diligence, goodwill, ability to perform monotonous work.

Assistant Secretary- Required for a manager with a company staff of up to 50 people. Submits to the leader. Combining the functions of a secretary with partial functions of an assistant to the head. Carries out simple instructions of the head.

Requirements: higher or incomplete higher education, age - about 25-32 years old, high printing speed, ability to use office equipment, similar work experience from a year. Personal qualities: diligence, responsibility, discipline, ability to perform monotonous work.

Office Manager- necessary for medium-sized companies with a staff of 30 people. Reports to both the manager and top managers. Responsible for the logistics of the office, maintains primary documentation, can perform the functions of a secretary (meeting guests, calls, document flow).

Requirements: higher education, age - 25-35 years, similar work experience, organizational skills. Personal qualities: sociability, goodwill.

Receptionist- necessary for companies with a staff of 50 people, with a large number of visitors. Reports to the administrative director, assistant manager, office manager, management team. Performs technical tasks: meeting guests, tea / coffee, calls, interaction with couriers / drivers.

Requirements: good external data, age - 22-27 years, lack of work experience is acceptable, ability to use office equipment, PBX. Personal qualities: goodwill, sociability, stress resistance, smiling.

In the description of administrative positions, despite the similarity of duties, there is a main difference: the main task of the secretary is to manage the information flow, and the main task of the personal assistant is to manage the performance of the manager.

There are a number of distinguishing factors that will help you understand the classification of these positions:

Our advice

At the interview, always specify the scope of duties performed, the availability and volume of personal assignments, the schedule and salary level, because. some employers do not see any difference between the positions of "secretary" and "personal assistant".

WHAT SHOULD A PERSONAL ASSISTANT KNOW?

In order to correspond to the highest level of a leader as much as possible, PAs must have certain skills, qualities and abilities, a type of character and, perhaps most importantly, a special personality type. So what should the “man-orchestra”, this “universal soldier” and “multifunctional gadget” be able to do?

Professional skills:

• records management;
• time management;
• organization of work events;
• work as a deputy (functions of a second person);
• financial literacy;
• secretariat management;
• maintaining business contacts;
• travel support;
• work as a translator;
• management of the personal affairs of the head (personal accompaniment)

Let's consider them in more detail.

Records management:

• work with documents is the compilation of business letters, papers, statements, contracts, orders, various reports, etc., competent from all points of view;
• if necessary, editing letters and papers drawn up by the boss, issuing orders, preparing presentations and draft documents;
• work with mail: sorting the boss's mail by importance and urgency, knowing where to forward letters, to whom to answer what, from whom to ask gracefully and from whom to strictly demand.

Time management:

• scheduling and planning, prioritizing tasks, tracking schedules;
• fixing tasks and reminding the manager about them, informing about deadlines, meetings, trips and other business events;
• optimal organization of the working day of the head;
• planning your own working time.

Organization of working events:

• preparation of meetings, negotiations, meetings, presentations requiring the participation of the head;
• keeping minutes, sending notifications and invitation letters to event participants, providing information on the results of meetings;
• organization of business trips.

Work as a deputy (functions of the second person):

• possess not only basic professional knowledge and skills, but also possess certain knowledge in various fields;
• the ability to manage: organize employees (including the first persons of the company), influence the heads of departments and control the execution of tasks;
• supervise individual business projects;
• independently resolve some business issues (for example, about holding certain meetings);
• be a representative of the head at business events, express his position and answer questions;
• speak on behalf of the boss, be able to negotiate and bargain correctly;
• act decisively, do not be afraid to take responsibility.

Secretariat management:

• setting tasks for drivers, couriers, making purchases for events, combining the functions of an office manager;
• execution of agreements with suppliers, contacting the appropriate authority for prompt resolution of issues with the technical support of the work process;
• life support of the manager's office and reception.

Maintaining business contacts:

• be able to manage information flows (know who and when can be connected / skipped to the boss, who can be switched to another responsible person, and almost always make these decisions on their own);
• keep abreast of all events in the company;
• to protect the head from unnecessary contacts without prejudice to the image of the boss and the company;
• resolve any issues in the shortest possible time - and always with a positive result;
• congratulate the company's clients, keep in touch with them.

Travel support:

• organization of business and trips of the head (issuance of visas, booking of railway and air tickets, transfers, hotels);
• organization of the most complex logistics of flights, charters in both directions;
• personal acquaintance with the leaders of airlines;
• organization of travel: from purchasing tickets, ordering transfers, dinners to choosing gifts. Each trip is accompanied by a specific program, writing a "scenario" of the trip - from meetings and events to the exact time of dinner in a restaurant according to a specific menu;
• control of contractors and services in other countries;
• careful monitoring of prices for renting luxury cars, yachts, business jets, the ability to negotiate a discount.

Work as a translator:

• translation at business meetings;
• written translation of documents;
• conducting business correspondence in a foreign language.

Management of the personal affairs of the head (personal support). A personal assistant is called “personal” for a reason: its functionality includes solving not only work tasks, but also personal assignments of the manager:

• it is necessary to navigate in different luxury service areas - from restaurants to gifts;
• if the leader has children - control the work of nannies / teachers / tutors, track visits to circles / sections / classes;
• organization of recreation - from recommendations of countries and places to daily control of food and movement (including the organization of trips on airplanes, business jets, yachts, steamships);
• organization of maintenance of country houses, interaction with service personnel;
• organization of medical events (registration for preventive examinations, organization of operations, research, treatment, control of the timely taking of prescribed medications);
• excellent knowledge of luxury brands and brands of clothing/shoes/accessories - haute couture, ready-to-wear, interaction with famous fashion designers and foreign fashion houses, work with personal measurements;
• knowledge of the best Russian sculptors, artists, antique dealers, since you often have to buy their work as a gift;
• organization of sports hobbies of the boss: equipment to order according to personal measurements, purchase of the latest collections of accessories;
• follow the opening of new restaurants, golf courses, sports car races, hippodrome schedules, key landmark events;
• organization of similar support for the boss's relatives, his parents, friends, partners, etc.

And here is how modestly the usual vacancy looks, which implies all the listed functions:

Responsibilities:

• administrative and organizational support for the activities of the head;
• direct participation in negotiations, business meetings, receptions, meetings, projects;
• conducting business correspondence (including in English), translation, oral and written;
• organization / provision of business and personal trips of the head;
• record keeping, document circulation and correspondence;
• collection and preparation of analytical, informational, reference and other materials for the head;
• bringing to the heads of departments of instructions, orders, instructions of the head, control of their execution just in time;
• execution of personal instructions of the head;
• business trips (accompanying the head during meetings and trips)

In fact, the functionality and number of tasks cannot be described and listed at the interview. Be prepared that unexpected tasks will “catch up” with you already in the process of work and will fall like sand.

And the manager will expect prompt and professional solutions from you.

Therefore, the willingness to work in an irregular mode, with an endless stream of information and with a lot of instructions, remaining the "shadow" of the boss, showing him

maximum devotion and loyalty is a combination of qualities of a special type of people. There are few of them, so they are highly valued, and deep immersion in the performance of duties, often to the detriment of personal interests, as a rule, is compensated by a decent salary.

The task catalog building system will help you avoid chaos and confusion. It is based on the rule of precedence:

1) instructions relating to business;

2) personal assignments of the boss;

3) various current affairs;

4) long-term plans.

If you received several tasks in an hour that are absolutely impossible to do at the same time, you need to inform the manager about the current situation and ask him to prioritize.

REQUIREMENTS FOR A PERSONAL ASSISTANT

Requirements for PA are formed from the tasks and scope of functional competencies that the manager determines: an assistant can be fully involved in the business, or can be hired solely to organize the personal space of the manager. For some, the presence of a specialized higher education is not important, others require, first of all, knowledge of languages, for some it is important what kind of coffee the assistant brews or how it looks.

But, despite the range and specifics of tasks in different companies, the key requirements always remain the same.

Requirements:

• higher education (full-time graduates with honors from the top five universities are always given preference);
• at least two years of experience in a similar position (experience in working with top officials is always desirable);
• fluent knowledge of the required language (often requires a native speaker level);
• Willingness to travel and work irregular hours;
• age (not indicated in vacancies, but is the most important requirement);
• personal qualities (each employer has his own wishes, the main ones: diligence, analytical mindset, communication skills, high performance, competent speech)

Grammatically correct speech. Practice shows that the most successful PAs are graduates of linguistic universities. Financial and legal education is also in demand, but it is important that the assistant is fluent in a foreign language and knows Russian well, has developed speech and a rich vocabulary.

High cultural level. A high cultural level is the most demanded quality of a personal assistant. You can quickly master the functionality, acquire the necessary skills, but culture is acquired from childhood and is formed over the years. For example, Moscow employers rarely choose candidates from other cities. They have a prejudice that the behavior of visiting girls, even with a good education, has a touch of provinciality, their speech has a special dialect, accent, irregular stresses, and representative functions for an assistant are extremely important, although there are many exceptions here.

How to combine an irregular work schedule with family and children is unclear. But if you have a successful practice of such a combination, then having a family is an advantage. Children must be over three years of age.

Age. There is a lot of subjectivity in the requirements for the age of a personal assistant. Some leaders proceed from aesthetic norms and give preference to youth. But most often we work with companies whose leaders consciously make a choice in favor of women of a more mature age.

Serious corporations are always associated with large financial transactions and great legal responsibility. In addition, customers are pleased with the image of the company's stability. In this sense, the long-legged beauty noticeably loses to a solid business woman who has experience in difficult and responsible situations, who knows how to professionally “take a punch”.

"Feel" the boss. Perhaps the most important factor. For successful work, full psychological compatibility with the leader is necessary. To do this, the assistant must at least have certain qualities.

“SHOULD WE DO A SURVEY?”

The main requirements for a personal assistant are loyalty and devotion. First of all - to the head, then to the company as a whole.

The assistant is in maximum proximity to the leader and his family, which means that he must be reliable, like a rock, persistent, like a scout during interrogation, caring, like a mother.

In order to find out what is most important for a leader in the personality of the RA, we conducted a survey. It was attended by 100 large companies, where the interviewees were 70% owners and 30% hired CEOs. We asked to answer the questions: “What qualities should a personal assistant have? What should be an effective assistant for you? The same questions were asked to personal assistants in order to take into account the views of both parties.

Here's what we got:

Absolute Devotion - 22%. The most important quality for leaders was loyalty. Loyalty, work for an idea, not for money, the ability to read the thoughts of the first person, determine the boss’s bad mood over the phone, ignore dissatisfaction in one’s address when accumulated irritation splashes out due to the irresponsibility of subordinates, dishonesty of partners, problems with relatives, bad weather, etc.

A distinctive feature of a loyal assistant is a sincere and unfailing willingness to help, even if the solution to this problem is not spelled out in the contract.

Therefore, managers, moving along a career path horizontally or vertically, often take with them a personal assistant with whom they have a special working relationship.

Performance - 20%. Responsibility, punctuality. What is important here is the precise execution of the task without initiative, initiative and personal opinion. Difficulty: there is only one attempt to hear and understand the task and a minimum of time to clearly do it; no one will repeat twice.

Intelligence - 19%. This is a proactive position and the ability to keep abreast, keep up a conversation with partners about the current political and economic situation in the country and the world, the ability to figure out how this or that technical innovation works, the ability to multitask, resourcefulness, quick response in atypical situations, ingenuity, ingenuity, analytical mindset.

The ability to store information - 13%. The degree of trust in a personal assistant, as a rule, is very high: he is trusted with payment cards and pin codes, various confidential information, assistants are involved in solving problems in the manager's personal life. The key to trust is the observance of subordination, the ability to listen, and the observance of confidentiality.

Contacts - 11%. Connections, base of the right people/organizations. Personal acquaintances with the managers of restaurants, yacht centers and airlines, hotels, funds, VIP clubs are important - this makes it possible to quickly and effectively solve the tasks of the boss.

Sociability - 8%. Mobility, efficiency, adaptability, the ability to find a common language with people of completely different status. A personal assistant is rightly considered a communication genius.

He can win the favor of almost any person, put a rude man in his place, resolve any conflict and at the same time remain a charming and respected person.

Workaholism - 5%. Ability to work actively in a non-standard mode.

Initiative - 2%. Initiative is a stable property of a person with a conscious and determined desire to introduce or transform something. The leaders noted that the assistant’s initiative interferes with the management process, brings discomfort to the boss, because if the assistant can organize his boss, defend his position in communication with him, be convincing and constructive, then it is not clear who is the boss here.

The task of an assistant is not the desire to become a successful business unit with ideas, but the desire to help the manager, clearly following orders and implementing his initiatives.

Appearance. For most managers, appearance is not fundamental - rather, on the contrary: they try to avoid bright, "decorative" assistants who will look comical in a serious business with respectable clients. Mentions of a "presentable" appearance are found in one ad out of ten. Most often, such vacancies come from small companies. In vacancies for personal assistants to owners in large companies, there is no mention of appearance.

We analyze the results of the survey of both parties.

Portrait of an assistant according to managers- a devoted, reasonable performer, moderately sociable, not talkative, hard-working.

Portrait of an assistant according to assistants- an initiative leader, with a bright appearance, a genius for communication and ideas.

The table shows that the answers of the assistants are fundamentally different from the vision of the leaders. This is the main problem of misunderstanding of candidates (and already working assistants) what the manager really wants from his assistant.

Taking as a basis the answers and wishes of managers from the survey and reinforcing this with our practice of working with job requirements, we are convinced that only professional skills are not enough to work as a personal assistant. In this position, high intelligence, education, life experience, the ability to quickly navigate in extreme situations, erudition, a sharp mind, a sense of humor, devotion and, with excellent communication skills with possession of extensive information, the ability to keep one's mouth shut, are valued.

Personal qualities of an assistant:

• the ability to obey, to feel the mood;
• the ability to anticipate the reaction of the leader;
• sociability;
• organizational skills;
• work in multitasking mode;
• resourcefulness, quick reaction;
• stress resistance;
• the ability to store information;
• erudition, knowledge of various fields;
• high efficiency;
• benevolence, smile;
• the desire to develop (self-development);
• diplomacy;
• accuracy;
• knowledge of etiquette

HOW TO GO INTERVIEW IN STAFFING AGENCIES?

When viewing vacancies, it is necessary to take into account not only job search sites, but also contact recruitment agencies, since not all vacancies are posted on the Internet.

Almost all large and medium-sized companies known on the market try not to advertise the search for an assistant, especially if the owner of the holding needs an assistant. If the reason for the vacancy is the replacement of an existing employee,

then the position becomes generally strictly confidential, and it is impossible to know about its existence. In such cases, the agency will contact you if your resume is in its database.

Interaction with a recruitment agency for a vacancy has a number of advantages:

• you will be told in detail about the company, the specifics of the business, the personality of the manager, and some additional requirements;
• free advice on how to behave at an interview with an employer;
• help you edit and format your resume;
• will give a number of recommendations on how to look at the meeting.

When starting contacts with a recruitment agency, remember that from the first minute of interaction you are already being assessed and you are already undergoing “secret” testing with might and main. Communicating with you by e-mail, the agency consultant makes the first conclusions about the correspondence and the style of presenting information. This also applies to telephone communication - the timbre of the voice, diction, friendliness, businesslikeness, speed of reaction matter. Before the first meeting, you pass a test for punctuality and composure.

It is necessary to be ready for the competition and remember that it is for these vacancies that a huge number of candidates are considered who meet the formal requirements: professional experience, education, age, marital status, appearance, performance, stress resistance, knowledge of foreign languages, etc.

Then the candidate is tested using various methods (tests, questionnaires, graphology, physiognomy, sign language). This is done in order to determine the personal qualities and type of temperament of the candidate, to identify qualities that are absolutely incompatible with this job and with this leader, to understand whether they can find a common language.

As a result, we manage to select only a few out of hundreds of applicants, but, despite the length and bias of the selection in the agency, you will have a number of the same biased meetings with the employer.

As a rule, by transferring a vacancy for a personal assistant, the employer relieves himself of all the difficult and painstaking work of screening candidates for professional competencies, and leaves for himself an important, final function - selection for their psycho-emotional compatibility with the manager.

Even if you already have a lot of job search experience, remember that you need to prepare in advance for each new interview:

• you need to study all available information about the company and the leader, read interviews, speeches, articles of the future boss and draw conclusions for yourself;
• prepare a short story about yourself (a story about the family and about the activities / activities of the parents should also be ready - this is an indicator of a person’s life values);
• success depends on self-presentation skills.

Advertise yourself with all the necessary attributes of marketing advertising. No need to paint your merits and list functions (all this is already in the resume). Tell us about what benefits you can bring to the manager, talk about victories at your previous place of work, what high-profile people you interacted with, what large-scale events you organized - confirm your professionalism and achievements with facts;

• it is necessary to briefly formulate the reasons for leaving the previous place of work. You will also need to explain why you want to become an assistant to this particular leader;
• be sure to conduct interviews on competencies, i.e. you will be asked to describe real cases from your practice in which you showed your qualities and miracles of ingenuity. You need to remember in advance all the difficult situations, remember a few good examples. Prepare honest examples of failures. They may also be asked about, and here it is important to show that you corrected the mistake yourself;
• the absolute probability that you will be given a situational interview (by case studies). You will be offered and described a situation similar to those that may arise in practice, respectively, it will be necessary to find the right way out and solution. Here are case examples:

Exercise 1. Your boss is on his way to the airport, time is limited, and all of a sudden he finds he has lost his cell phone. Before that, there were a number of meetings, and he does not know exactly where he left it, and theft is not ruled out. The boss calls you from the car, from the phone of his driver, and says that he is waiting for important calls within the next 30 minutes, but there is no phone. Your actions?

Task 2. It is necessary to rent a Porsche for trips in Italy. How can you save?

Task 3. On the instructions of the boss, you are driving your car to an urgent meeting with an important partner and in a hurry violate the rules of the road. You are stopped by the traffic police, take your license and call the traffic police. Before the meeting there is a minimum of time. Your actions?

Target: checking for reaction speed (how quickly the personal assistant is able to switch to the next step), methods for solving the problem (on your own, asking for help on a personal level, connecting other people, etc.).

At the moment of solving this problem, a model of behavior in a difficult situation is manifested - the priority of actions is determined (either solving your problem, or getting to a meeting on time), the degree of conflict (I will demand, I will scandalize, prove), the tendency to redirect responsibility (I will call the boss / partner and explain situation, I’ll say that I can’t do anything), creativity, originality of the proposed solutions, the number of alternative solutions (versioning thinking), the availability of the necessary skills and experience in solving such situations.

Task 4. You are on an assignment from your boss to a partner you do not know to give him a gift (which the boss himself brought to the office in a large, beautiful box). You have the address of the company, the phone number of the partner for whom the gift is intended, the designated time for the box to be delivered, and the boss's confirmation that the partner is there and waiting.

Upon arrival, you will find out that the partner has just left for an urgent meeting and it is not known when he will return.

You don't have much time and you can't wait. The following options are available to choose from:

• leave with a gift for the next task;
• call the boss and get instructions on what to do next;
• give a gift to the secretary with a request to transfer it to the partner immediately, upon his return;
• offer your own solutions.

Target: determination of the most desirable model of behavior within the framework of the proposed vacancy. Qualities that are absolutely unacceptable for a future boss are revealed.

Provocation 1. At the end of the interview, the candidate is asked the question: "Rate me as an interviewer on a scale of 1 to 10."

Target: such a proposal often causes confusion. After all, it is one thing to evaluate the advice of a service operator of some company over the phone, and quite another to look a person in the eye and tell him that he did not do very well. So, a personal assistant is tested for courage and loyalty.

Provocation 2. What is 17% of 258,450? Response time - 3 seconds.

Target: checking stress resistance, erudition, ingenuity, monitoring the actions of a personal assistant. Under conditions of stress, interviews and limited time, personal assistants get lost (“Why should I count? I'm not an accountant!”), They immediately give up (“I can’t do the math so quickly”).

• you need to think over the form of clothing, tk. the assistant must have an impeccable sense of style. It is necessary to look well-groomed, neat, because the assistant is the face of the company, the link between the manager and business partners, customers and employees.

Success in a career is only 30% dependent on professional skills. The decisive 70% is the ability to communicate with people in a friendly and constructive way.

An internal decision to hire an employee is made in the first 40 seconds of communication (the forty-second rule). This is the very first impression that everyone is warned about. And do not think that the first impression is a beautiful styling, a neat manicure and a stylish knee-length skirt. All this, of course, is important. But even two seconds is enough for an experienced recruiter to see you from shoes to hair roots. There are 38 important moments left to make the most of and will determine your success.

"HOW TO KNOW IF I'M SUITABLE FOR THIS POSITION?"

Whether or not to send your resume to a tempting vacancy - everyone decides for himself.

But if you partially “do not fall” under the stated requirements, it is advisable to send a resume and spend time only if there is compliance with the key requirements for the position.

Let's highlight the most fundamental points of "compliance", which the employer is unlikely to turn a blind eye to.

Experience. In most cases, having some experience is critical. By specifying in the requirements the duration of work in a similar position, the employer is counting on a certain level of qualification acquired by the candidate. An assistant who has been working for two years will not have enough experience to perform the required tasks qualitatively.

There is a greater chance of interest in your resume if the work experience is less than required, but received in larger companies. It is also worth emphasizing your achievements, the quality of the tasks in complex projects.

Sphere. Knowledge of certain business specifics can be a strict requirement if a personal assistant is expected to participate in various company projects. When clarifying the functionality, it will be clear whether this is just a wish, which is based on the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe ideal candidate. They may consider candidates from similar structures - but experience in a similar field will be an indisputable advantage.

Company size. The organizational structure, the number of management levels, interaction with departments, areas, divisions, the presence of merger and diversification processes of the company, the level of suppliers, customers and the market of competitors, areas of presence, turnover, profit, company staff are factors that determine the quality and experience of communications of a personal assistant , his understanding of business processes, the level of involvement in the company's activities. This determines the professionalism of the assistant.

Therefore, as a rule, large companies are looking for an assistant from the same large business, otherwise the employee will not be effective.

Knowledge of languages. In the case when the position involves working in an international company or a lot of communication with foreign colleagues or partners, English for an assistant is the main tool of work. If the knowledge of the language does not reach the free level, you should not try, the first test will immediately confirm the fact of wasted time.

Age. The moment is delicate and delicate. As you know, employers were forbidden to indicate the age of candidates in the description of vacancies (clause 6, article 25 of the Law of the Russian Federation of April 19, 1991 No. 1032-1 “On Employment in the Russian Federation”; as amended on December 29, 2015). Despite the legislative prohibition, this requirement is key and decisive, and if the manager is determined to hire a young attractive girl,

it is unlikely that he will agree to accept a woman of pre-retirement age. Unfortunately, age is the most common unofficial reason for rejection. How do you know if you are the right age? First of all, you need to be more careful: it is often clear from the text and words-hints in a vacancy which age group it is designed for.

There is a pattern: a young leader chooses a young assistant for himself. A mature boss with a wife and children chooses a mature assistant. A mature leader without a wife, as a rule, does not care about the age of the assistant. Examine the corporate website of the company: most often there is information that will help you roughly understand the age preferences of managers. In your resume, on the contrary, the date of birth should be indicated and a photograph should be posted in a strict business style.

DEMAND. SALARY. PERSPECTIVES

The need for a personal assistant may arise:

• when two or more levels of subordination appear in the company;
• if the manager has a need to maintain a large number of contacts outside the company.

But the realities of the market are such that no leader can do without a personal assistant. And the more serious the business and the larger the tasks of the company, the stronger the need for a personal assistant (businessmen are well aware of the importance of this person both for the head and for the entire corporation).

Depending on the level of requirements and the variety of tasks, assistants are paid different amounts of money:

• $ 1500-2000 - standard duties of a secretary and combining the functions of an office manager;
• $2000-3000 - in addition to the above: travel support, administrative support, execution of individual personal assignments;
• $ 3000-5000 - in addition to the above: business project management, implementation of changes, management of the personal affairs of the boss in full, management and control of the affairs of all partners;
• $5000-6000 and more - in addition to the above: professional sports training skills, the presence of a category in martial arts and shooting, personal accompaniment of the boss at all meetings.

There is no career advancement as a personal assistant. This is really the highest rung of the administrative ladder. Yes, and the head will not let go anywhere - the boss values ​​\u200b\u200ba sensible personal assistant more than top managers. But there is an interesting way, if there is a desire to develop within this position - by improving your professional competencies and skills as much as possible, expanding the range of responsibilities (appearing in the ratings of the best personal assistants), you will know and be able to do more, respectively, your income and status will be higher.

Communication skills with top officials of various companies, organizational skills, experience with business documentation and the ability to analyze the situation will be useful to a personal assistant in the field of marketing. HR and a lawyer are a couple more career options, but additional education, specialized courses and a tough parting with the boss will be required, because the manager will not let go of a valuable assistant.

The most ambitious improve their management skills (if they have the ability) and plan for their further development the chair of the deputy head, but these are isolated cases when the boss allows his assistant to officially take this top position.

Answers

Exercise 1. Immediately redirect to yourself, then, when important calls go through, block the boss's number and get a new SIM card, but at the same time search for the lost phone.

Task 2. Renting a Porsche for trips around Italy for a day is €2,500, but the same Porsche can be rented for the same money in Germany for a week. The boss's driver goes to Germany, picks up a car there and delivers it to the boss in Italy. In Italy, the chef rides for a week, then leaves the car, and the driver flies out and drives it back. The result is enormous savings.

Task 3. Several solutions.

Task 4. The choice of the first option: in fact, the task was not completed, and this choice characterizes the inability to act in unexpected circumstances.

Choice of the second option: there is a desire to complete the assigned task under any circumstances, but there is no ingenuity and ingenuity. There is also a tendency to redirect responsibility.

Choosing the third option: there is a desire to fulfill the order, but the consequences are not calculated, because the gift is intended specifically for the partner, not to mention possible confidentiality.

Provocation 1. The answer (flattery, compliments, a little criticism, honesty) will determine how well the assistant will work with a particular boss, given his psychological type and management style, because often even a little criticism of the boss is unacceptable.

Provocation 2. The main thing when answering such questions is not to refuse to give an instant answer, not to be silent, calculating in your mind and suffering for several minutes. Can:

• take a sheet of paper and calculate the percentage;
• take a mobile phone and calculate on a calculator;
• start thinking out loud that 50% is about 130,000, 25% is about 65,000, and 17% is about 50,000. No one needs an exact answer, your reaction, your way of thinking and resourcefulness in any situation are important.