By Maria Papazekou, Senior Consultant, Business Support Specialty at Randstad Hellas.
As a recruiter who specializes in Business Support roles, I am entrusted with the task of sourcing, recruiting, and supplying my clients with Administrative Assistants. What is an Administrative Assistant? According to Wikipedia, "Administrative assistants perform clerical duties in nearly every industry. Some administrative assistants, like those in the legal industry, may be more specialized than others. Most administrative assistant duties revolve around managing and distributing information within an office. Some common tasks might includes answering phones, taking memos and maintaining files, sending and receiving correspondence, and greeting clients and customers."
Most people who read this description, see the words "administrative",and "assistant" and lose focus of the most important word that describes an Admin Assistant, which is "manages"! The work of an Administrative Assistant, consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication, or organizational skills. In order to support management, one therefore must also be, a Manager! The great thing about Administrative Support positions, be it Receptionist, Executive Assistant, or Personal Assistant, is that it affords you the opportunity to do your best using a multitude of skills, while at the same time being exposed to multiple facets of the business, including HR, Marketing, PR, and Accounting, and having a front seat view of what goes into managing a business. And when doing your best also produces tangible results for management, it won't go unnoticed. As Lorena Brascia Ingram, Senior Editor of Thrive Global, states in her article "Why Taking an Executive Assistant Job Was the Best Career Decision I Ever Made," when you go the extra mile and make the most of each opportunity, you set yourself up for success.
So next time you overlook that Admin Assistant position because you want to focus on a job where you will need to employ your best skills, such as: organization skills, reliability, strong work ethic, productivity, professionalism, problem-solving and critical thinking skills, project management, teamwork and multi-tasking skills, that will give you development and leadership opportunities, maybe you would like to reconsider?
With over 18 years of experience, Maria has extensive recruitment and project management experience across the board for positions ranging from entry level to upper management. Maria has been with Randstad since 2008, where since 2010 she specializes in roles within Business Support, HR and Legal profiles, including but not limited to roles such as: Executive Assistant, Personal Assistant, Front desk support, Administrative Assistant, Human Resources (all levels), Legal Secretary, Attorney and Paralegal, and Sales Support. She is a 1998 graduate of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science with an emphasis on Economics. She is a native speaker of English and fluent in Greek, as well as has working knowledge in Spanish and Italian.