President Obama's Receptionist: The ROTUS | Online Executive and Admin Assistant Training

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There’s a POTUS & FLOTUS but ROTUS?

Submitted by Ethan on May 19, 2009 at 05:22 PM

You’ve probably heard of the abbreviations POTUS and FLOTUS (President of the United States and First Lady of the United States respectively) but have your heard of ROTUS?

ROTUS stands for Receptionist of the United States and currently, Darienne Page holds that position. That’s her on the phone to the right (photo credits: Doug Mills/NYT) and HERE’S a link to a profile of her via The New York Times.

Darienne is tasked with meeting any official visitor who comes in to have a meeting with the President or any senior staffer in the White House. She has had to chat “small talk” with the likes of everyone from Tiger Woods to Tony Blair all while making sure the waiting area for the West Wing runs smoothly. As a follow-up on our post about Reggie Love, the most powerful assistant in the world, I’m highlighting Darienne and her position for two specific reasons… and one of them is NOT her $36,000-a-year salary but rather in spite of it.

rotusobama Reason one: Even though the salary might not knock your socks off, having “The White House” on your resume will certainly knock your future employer’s socks off, not to mention a letter of recommendation from the President himself. The point is that assisting (and receptionists are a type of assistant) an organization that everyone knows of goes a long way… and when you combine that with the people you’ve met in that position, you become a very attractive candidate for a different company just by association.

Reason two: THE PERKS ARE HUGE! Darienne is tasked with giving out the President’s tickets to his box at the Kennedy Center. Did I mention Tiger Woods? AND she has placed herself at the nexus of history being made. I’d say those are very nice perks indeed… something to tell the grandkids.

So, if you’re young and don’t have any huge financial obligations, you might be given the opportunity to work for a very well known company or individual for not that much money and my advice is to take that position, run with it and shine.

UPDATE: Below is video of Darienne from NBC’s “Inside the Obama White House” documentary:

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