Online Executive and Admin Assistant Training

April 06, 2009 at 06:50 PM | (1) Comments

interns6979thumbnail I know, I know… ProAssisting is a blog and on-line learning environment for assistants… and it is but before one becomes an assistant, they usually have had some experience working as an intern.

Basically, we believe, interns and internships rock and that anyone in college (and even high school) should be interning during summer breaks and potentially during semesters when they have a break in their schedule.

But why? What’s the point? As an intern, you get real world work experience without the full responsibility of actually pulling down a paycheck from the company. Obviously, the flip side of that coin is that you aren’t making any money but as an intern you’re in the position to gain some valuable things that carry weight out in the real world:

If done well, you will get a letter of recommendation that you can show to future potential employers after you graduate.
You have a position to put on your resume that isn’t directly related to just your college AND you will have actionable items to list under that experience.
You will increase your network of contacts outside of your school which, if cultivated correctly, can lead to future job offers.
You will get a sense of what a 9-5 (usually more) position is like and the work ethic needed to succeed in that situation.

When reading over that list, keep the big picture in mind and realize that at this stage of your career, those things may even be more important than money.

Want help finding that intership?

The Intern Queen is Lauren Berger and she did 15 internships in her 4 years of college… yep, you read that right. Anyway, she started a blog to help others find interships and has also hooked up with the famed movie duo who brought us the web series Quarterlife to create an internship resource center through the Quarterlife brand found HERE. Needless to say, Lauren’s blog is a great resource for students looking for internships and her advice is spot on.

Another great resource can be found at: onedayoneinternship.com. This site features a different intership every day in addition to having a “past internship” section that you can search through to find past opportunities that you can contact about future opportunities before they are posted in public.

Lastly, if you’re a little nervous about stepping into that company as an intern, our training here at ProAssisting is a great place for anyone starting an internship to get the training needed to be THE Rock Star Intern. Interns are assistants in many respects and our training will help you shine from day one.

All Posts, Interpersonal Skills,

Under Promise + Over Deliver = Success

April 02, 2009 at 06:52 PM | (2) Comments

overdeliver If, as an assistant or intern, you are able to under promise but then over deliver on any task or project presented to you, you will be a success in your boss’ eyes.

This concept is simple at first glance but much harder to pull off in real-world work situations. You see, your boss always will ask for the world and you are there to give it to them… that’s just the way it is. When you have an assistant yourself, you’ll be the one getting the world but that discussion is for another post.

For now, we’ll explain our advice on how to under promise but then over deliver for your boss.

Following through on this equation, the first step is to communicate properly the obstacles that are in the way of getting what your boss wants… an example might be that the afternoon flight from NYC to LA is always booked in business and first class so getting one of those seats might be difficult when making a reservation two days before the trip. You need to communicate any facts like this to your boss so they realize that it will be an uphill climb to get that first class seat (or whatever it is that they’re asking for).

The second step is to find the first class seat. In the example above this could be accomplished by checking all three NYC airports for flights instead of just your boss’ preferred airport, La Guardia, AND you can have the flight agent search other airlines that your boss might prefer less but if there’s a first class seat, they’ll take it. When all else fails, you can take a look at your boss’ schedule to see if things can be moved around to accommodate an open first class seat at a less desirable time. Lastly, if you back is really against the wall, wait-list your boss in first AND business class on their preferred flight and keep your fingers crossed that one of those seats clear.

All of these tactics are a bit of outside the box thinking and that’s the whole point. The average assistant would not outline to their boss the difficulty of fulfilling their request and when they run into one road block in completing that task say that it’s not possible. You, on the other hand, set expectations properly and then use all of your skills and ideas to get the request filled.

Thanks to Network Performance Daily for the pic; they believe in under promising and over delivering in their customer satifaction so much that they wrote it on their wall… literally.

All Posts, Tricks of the Trade,

Reader Question: Asked & Answered

March 30, 2009 at 06:53 PM | (1) Comments

In the comments on another post, I told a reader that if she had any specific questions that she would like to bounce off of us to feel free. Well, she took us up on the offer and below you’ll find her questions and hopefully a satisfactory answer. If you have any questions you’d like answered, leave a comment or email us and we’ll get to it.

Cheryl B:

Sure, Ethan! I’ve got a big one for ya (or maybe not so big…but it’s big in my head). How do you sell yourself as an assistant to a company that currently has no assistant positions? Or simply sell the idea of an assistant to a company that is starting to expand and might not have a full grasp of how crazy things might get for them in the near future?

Thanks for the question, Cheryl. Having worked as an assistant in a 25 person company and the only assistant in the organization, this type of situation is unique in that as the sole assistant, you have to wear many different hats.

In my situation, I was the assistant to the CEO and by default, I also handled HR administration, office management, payroll/accounting, office tech & party planner in addition to all of the regular assisting duties for the CEO. So to answer your question, you could explain to this company that being an assistant in a start-up or small company can mean much much more and thus take various tasks off of other people’s plates to encourage growth and promote efficiency. If you are not afraid to get your hands dirty and explain to them other skills that you have that fall outside the normal definition of being an “assistant” (like knowing Quickbooks, etc.), they could more than justify making the hire and adding the position.

Lastly, I would also suggest that you “sell” the idea more as an office manager/assistant role instead of just a straight assistant role to more than justify the added expense of adding a new employee. Does that make sense? Thanks again for asking the question.

All Posts, Tricks of the Trade,

Your boss: Tough love, hot head or push over?

March 25, 2009 at 06:54 PM | (0) Comments

Bosses come in all shapes and sizes… does your boss treat you with tough love, are they a hot head or push over?

Everyone initially thinks that they want a push over for a boss but believe us, you don’t. Why? Because you won’t work as hard or get noticed for that promotion you want.

Do you want a hot head for a boss? In our view, it depends. If this boss has a reputation of being a hot head and you can survive working for them for an extended period of time, maybe even thrive, your reputation around the office will be that of ’saint’ for being able to put up with them. Which in turn will open more doors to promotion should you want to step through them.

In my opinion, I want a boss who gives tough love. Sure, the first six months can be brutal as you try to get up to speed and satisfy their demanding ways but boy, once you get that first compliement for a job well done, you’ll walk through fire for that boss. You see, a tough love boss is kinda in the middle between hot head and push over in that once you’ve proven yourself, the tough love boss will overlook a rare mistake and give you more freedom to pursue your own path within the organization. Plus, they keep you, and everyone else who works for them, on your toes.

Jerry Roberts of Careerjolt.com wrote a great guest post at Zenhabits on how to deal with a tough boss that’s worth checking out if you do have a tough boss or are considering working for one. However, if your boss is so unbearable that it is having negative effects on your personal life, maybe it’s time to tap your “See ya!” money and get out of there.