Online Executive and Admin Assistant Training

The ProAssisting Training Program is now OPEN!

August 12, 2009 at 11:01 AM | (0) Comments

Enrollment now OPEN!

Stephanie and I are thrilled to announce the opening of the ProAssisting Training Program!

After a private beta member test period with over 140+ enrollees, our program is ready for use as all of the kinks and technical glitches have been worked out and fixed. We’re grateful for the time spent by our beta members for taking our training and giving us valuable feedback that will help us shape and expand our service in the months and years ahead.

So what are you waiting for?... head on over to the Enrollment page and sign up today!

UPDATE: If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll realize that our posting has slowed a bit and the reason for that is we are busy on the inside of our site working and communicating with our members BUT we’ve got some great content lined up for posts and will continue with our “at least” twice weekly posting next week. Stay tuned, you won’t want to miss ‘em.

All Posts, Stress Management,

What We Can’t Teach You - Blog Series Part 1

August 04, 2009 at 03:13 PM | (0) Comments

Your Work Ethic and Pride in Your Work.

strong work ethic

As the introduction to our blog series “What We Can’t Teach You” explained, there are a number of traits, characteristics and attributes that will affect your job performance that we can’t, nor anyone else for that matter, teach you.

The trait we’re going to take a look at today is your work ethic and having pride in the work you perform.

Unless you’re training and competing to be a Navy Seal (like the man in the picture to the right) or some other similar strict hierarchy program, we believe that you develop your work ethic through the observation of and example set by your parents. Having a sense of pride in your work then reinforces your work ethic by always wanting to strive for your best performance.

I developed my strong work ethic via all four of my parents as each was highly committed to and striving for the highest level of success in each of their chosen careers. Stephanie developed hers from watching her parents follow their own entrepreneurial spirit and the hard work it took them to fully succeed on those pursuits.

“Whoop dee freakin’ do” you might be thinking… especially if your parents didn’t exactly set the highest of bars when it came to their own work ethic. So the question then becomes, “If I’m not in the military and my parents weren’t good role models in the work ethic department, where does that leave me?”

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE

All Posts, Tales from the Trenches,

Breakin’ into Hollywood—Assistant Style

July 30, 2009 at 01:27 PM | (2) Comments

Instead of posting in our blog series, “What We Can’t Teach You” (WWCTY) today, there’s been a change of plans. Yesterday I came across a very interesting bit of information about what the newly combined William Morris Endeavor Entertainment agency, William Morris being my former employer BTW, is paying their assistants so I just couldn’t wait to post about this… and rest assured, we’ll continue the WWCTY series next week.

Every year, college and graduate school grads make their way to Hollywood in search of the Holy Grail—a career in “the biz”.

MBAs, Law Degrees, wanna-be agents/managers/writers/directors & any other fast talking/ambitious person with some chutzpah and love of everything in lights are all part of the mix and competing with each other for the limited number of executive assistant and administrative assistant positions that dot the map known as Los Angeles and New York. As you can imagine, the competition is fierce and thus the pay for these positions can be next to nothing (as you’ll see shortly) as any number of people with just as good or better qualifications are standing behind you to take the job that you don’t know if you can afford to take.

Welcome to Hollywood.

Nikki Finke of Deadlinehollywooddaily.com is one of the most keyed-in reporter/bloggers to cover “the biz” and in her recent scoop, she gets the goods on how the newly combined William Morris Agency and Endeavor are setting the pay scale for their assistants. Here’s the break down from her scoop:

So here’s what begins August 1st:
Under 1 year - $11/hour
1 - 2 years - $12/hr
2 - 3 years $13/hr
Over 3 years - $14/hr
The pay increases $1/hr for every year over 3 that the assistant is employed.
Any raises from the end-of-year reviews have been taken off the table.
Official hours are from 9-7 PM and a 50-hour work week is expected.

Whatcha think?... could YOU live on that in either LA or NYC WITHOUT help from Mom, Dad or a trust fund?

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE

All Posts, Tales from the Trenches,

Summer In The City… and what NOT to wear @ work!

July 28, 2009 at 03:13 PM | (3) Comments

Summer in the city…the season for vacationing bosses, happy hours, and summer Fridays. It is also the time of year when people tend to forget the office dress code and foray into questionable attire.

We’ve all been there. It’s 90 degrees and humid and you see that sundress calling your name from the closet. You ask yourself, “Can I get away with this today… my boss isn’t even in.” If you have to stop and ask yourself if it’s office appropriate, it isn’t.

I watched an episode of Mad Men (love it!) recently to which I really related. Joan (the redheaded office manager with the killer hourglass figure) had to confront Mr. Draper’s new secretary about her wardrobe. She marched over and in her most charming voice simply told her to cover up her “decolletage” because she had more to offer than that.

I have been an office manager for four years and part of my role is supervising two receptionists. I have been forced to have this same difficult conversation, but sadly couldn’t put it quite as succinctly as Joan. I had noticed the particular offender, whom is also a friend, wearing leggings one day. The next day she was in capris and flip flops. I wanted to scream, “This is an investment firm, not the beach!”

How could she wear that to work?

Instead, I pulled her into a conference room and reminded her how important her role is at our firm. She is the first face the investors see and the last voice they hear as they walk out the door wondering if they should trust us with their money. I told her it is time to step it up and act like the professional young woman that she really is—and the face of our firm. It was a tough conversation, made all the more difficult by our close friendship.

But she got it. And since that conversation, she has really stood out as the star employee that she is in her new sheath dresses and pumps. She is Mad Men worthy, 2009 style.

For more advice on what works and what doesn’t work in the wardrobe department FOR work, check out Yahoo’s recent article on what not to wear.