Skills not being used..I was promoted to an executive assistant in April of this year and I thought it was a good move. Unfortunately, my skills are still not being used to their full advantage. My boss all his own PowerPoint presentations and all of his own memos and such, atlhough I am fluent in both software packages. He also keeps his own calendar. This is just want he is used to doing, but in doing so there are skills that I cannot keep current. I am very bored at my job and feel somewhat scared about going elsewhere because I haven't actually done calendar management. How do I convince a prospective employer that I CAN do the job? Any suggestions from those of you who are executive assistants? Thank you!
Suck it up until at least next April. It is too soon to change jobs. In the meantime, look for other ways you can help your boss. Ask him if there are other things you can take off his plate. Can he do his powerpoints then give them to you to spiff up for him? Can you help with other kinds of projects? Make yourself useful in other ways.
Tess I work in a law firm and when I started there, the attorneys who I was supposed to work directly for preferred to input their own court hearings. There were two reasons for this:
The problem was, they sometimes didn't put the dates into the computer either and only remembered after the fact or would enter them remotely the night before when they woke in a cold sweat because they suddenly remembered they had a hearing. It only took me three phone calls from a Judge the second day that I was there to figure out that this was a screwed up system. So, this is what I did: I walked into their offices the next day and told them that I wanted their hard copy calendar books. I took those books and compared them to everything that was in the computer calendars. What wasn't entered, I entered and what was entered, I double checked and made corrections if neccesary. I then looked into the files of their cases and compared the upcoming dates on the documents the court sends us with the computer. After I did this, I told them each individually that I was hired to do their calendars and that, while I understand they had a person before me who didn't do such a great job at this function, I was different and that they needed to put some trust into me. If it didn't work out, then they could tell me and do it themselves. They never asked for me to stop scheduling their meetings, hearings, depositions or lives. So, bottom line is, you need to let your boss know that you are there to do a job and for him to do your job as well as his own isn't doing either of you a favor and is putting undue pressure on his shoulders. Tell him this about the Powerpoint also. There may be an even more valid reason for that. Since Powerpoint is used for presentations as well as information, your boss may simply be the type of person who needs to physically enter the presentation in order to comprehend the sunject at hand and matter content in order to do a good job during the actual presentation. | |
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