15

Jan

Executive Assistant Job Description – Everything you want to know

Executive Assistant Job Description – Everything you want to know

Every business or organization owner needs an executive assistant who supports his organization’s staff and performs various duties, which reduces workload.

It includes various activities that I will discuss in other sections. The executive assistant usually works in the office environment, and their work depends on the particular organization.

 

Who is an Executive Assistant?

Executive Assistants are different from Personal Assistants. and they are the professional ones who have experience in project management and administrative tasks. They work with the senior staff and schedule and manage their various tasks.

Their duties depend on the type of organization. A senior executive handles various important tasks that directly affect the success of the organization. An executive assistant is part of high-level administration.

What does an Executive Assistant do?

 The list of tasks an executive assistant does:

  • An executive assistant provides you with administrative assistance like accepting phone calls, scheduling meetings and appointments, reviewing business reports, manage travels, and setting daily schedules.
  • An executive assistant usually required to hold a degree of bachelor’s in business management or an MBA. The executives will expect you to create a statistical report of market research, so there must be a better understanding of your field as it directly impacts the organization’s success.
  • Executive assistance sometimes works as a trainer for lower-level assistance for business needs. He/she supervise the other assistance and help them in completing their tasks. Executive assistance leads them and trains them according to the executive needs.
  • The executive assistant is responsible for managing the various meetings, phone calls, appointments. They schedule things accordingly and fulfil these requirements; one should know the goals and objectives of the company.
  • An executive assistant is also responsible for creating presentations, reports, and maintaining the database and finding a way to improve the current system.  

Why should I become an Executive Assistant?

Working with the senior staff, handling their various high-level tasks, supervising the junior assistant, and being part of the company’s every task is one the greatest achievement.

There are plenty of reasons to become an executive assistant. The thing is every day, and you will get new challenges that make you an expert in your field.

Other reasons are:

  1. You will have knowledge of every field in the company as you will be in touch with everyone, learning new things, performing new activities.
  2. An executive assistant takes part in senior-level administrative meetings and also puts their point of view regarding business growth and making the best strategies for the market.
  3. Being an executive office, you will be skilled in better time management as one of their roles includes scheduling different events, meetings, and appointments, and the challenging thing is to prioritize the events accordingly. Sometimes you have to fit the different meetings and events in a very short time frame.
  4. They know everything about the company, and this job is suitable for those who have the curiosity to know every work happening around them and want to know about it.
  5. If you can face challenges every day or every single minute. Then this job is best for you. You should have good problem-solving skills and good management skills. The problems may be – how to fit all the meetings in a very small time, how to arrange events accordingly, generating reports in a very short time and making strategies, etc.

What is the best part of being an executive officer?

As I discussed many benefits of being an EA, it is a challenging job that needs a piece of mind to face everyday challenges. Apart from this, the best part of being an executive assistant is you will gain experience and learn different things in every field.

As you will interact with everyone in the company, manage them, supervise them, know people better, and can execute decisions.

This job is no longer just about scheduling meetings, taking calls, arranging events, or managing travels. You will guide and support your CEO in their decisions, suggests your plans and strategies, even sometimes you will decide on behalf of them, and handles the project independently.

You will become a professional and understand the complexity of business and work as a business partner with your executive.

Executive assistant salary?

How much salary do you expect of an EA? Let’s talk about the average salary of an EA in India; it’s 605k rupees per year. The salary may vary depending on the major factors and conditions like: 

  • Education: Some organization asks for an MBA degree or just a bachelor’s degree. This all depends on the company’s size and needs.
  • Certification course: Salary may vary if you have done some certificate course in this specific field. 
  • Additional skills: Additional skills include time management, project management skill, and other interpersonal skills.
  • Experienced years: If you are a fresher, then the salary may be less. You need at least 4-5 years of experience for a good salary.
  • Locations: Salary differs from city to city. If you are working in an organization located in Mumbai, Maharashtra, then your average salary should be 21.7 % more than the national average. The lowest salaries can be found in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh and Chennai.
  • Organization growth: Salary differs according to the growth of the organization in the market and also your efforts on how you are creating strategies to increase the growth.

Where can I find an Executive Assistant job?

Hiring the best EA is quite difficult, and you cannot take risks in this job because they are not just assistants, they are more than that. There are many ways to find an executive assistant:

  • You can create a unique job requirement. Update your job descriptions and list the requirement points in them because this job is not all about taking calls and all that. The EA should have good interpersonal skills, problem-solving skills, leadership, management skills, etc.
  • You can take advice from the specialist. Recruiters have a wide range of options and have a good network, so it becomes easy, and they help you to choose the right one faster.
  • If you are giving an executive assistant job to a person who is an administrative assistant previously, then think twice! Both are different, their basic tasks are different, and an executive assistant needs more problem solving and management skills.
  • If you are interviewing the candidate in-person, then choose your question wisely, go through their resume twice.
  • You can upload your requirements on popular websites like – LinkedIn, KillerLaunch, Indeed, Naukri, MonsterIndia. This becomes easy to find an executive assistant.

Difference between Executive Assistant and Personal Assistant

There is a basic difference between executive assistant and personal assistant:

Executive Assistant

Personal Assistant

1

The task of an executive assistant is to handle higher-level business decisions.

The tasks of a personal assistant may include receiving phone calls, scheduling meetings and appointments, calendar management, research, etc

2

The executive assistant can take part in the project management and can take a major decision on behalf of the CEO

In the case of PA, they are the close assistant and help the executive to achieve their goals.

3

The salary of EA is higher

The salary of PA is lower than the EA

4

Make strategies, analyze annual reports, and find the best solutions for the business.

Often do personal tasks like ordering gifts, booking holidays, handle family matters, and office management.

Conclusion

Are you thinking about becoming an executive assistant? Your hard work, dedication, and skills can take you there. This is the dream job of many people, and it might be they are working on this.

This position is worthy if you have management skills, problem-solving skills, and have dedication and curiosity to learn new things in life. This is a challenging job and gives a lot of experience. All you need to think about the company’s benefit and growth.