PA and Secretary Community - Deskdemon.com

How important are titles to you?  Do you have a title that you think accurately describes your position?  In the future we will see less "traditional" titles such as PA, Administrative  or Executive Assistant and more specific titles that will still fall under the "administrative professional"  job group.  What would you like your title to be other then what is currently is?

My job title over the last ten years has migrated from PA to Unit Secretary/Purchasing Officer to Unit Administrator/Purchasing Officer and finally to Executive Assistant.  I work for the Head of Division and also provide support to the Divisional Management Team.

This reflects the changes in the organisation where I work, we have now gone full circle as far as the operational structure is concerned and all the so-called changes for the better have proved not to be better than the original structure.  I am now sharing an office with several other administrative staff whom I used to work with when I started out.

I've been everything from Secretary, to Project Administrator, to PA, to Group Secretary....it varies depending on the type of company you work for, how long they have been established, if it's public or private sector and how they are structured.  I'm quite happy with PA.

I've had many interesting titles from Technical Administrator to Customer Care Liaison. My current title is a very simple and clear Executive Assistant.

Usually my titles have reflected the broad range of responsibilities I have had. Because I have so many unusual skills and such a variety of experience, my bosses have often created new titles for me to work around existing salary range limitations.

Marie

My current title is Senior Adminstrative Assistant. The term that I don't like is "the admins". Notes emails etc, signed this way drives me crazy. I, however, do not have a replacement title to suggest. I'm interested to read other titles out there.
Lisa

Mine is Administrative Assistant/Finance.  Only becuase I support the Accounting Staff, and not just one person like a lot of people think.  Because I report to the CFO, they think I only work for him, and it gets confusing that way sometimes.  But really, I'm to support the Accounting Staff, and Information Services.

Diamondlady
Peer Moderator

I also have had many titles.  I have gone from Secretay, Office Manager to Administrative Assisstant and now Mortgage Administrative Assistant.  Titles is some sense are needed to help the outsiders know who to contact or who to communicate with.  We are the keepers of the door.  In time I think our titles will become more specific and have more creative technical jargon terminology.

Happy New Years Guys,
I'm a Newbie,
currently working as a receptionist for a advertisment agency,
but I do way more stuff than answer the phones,I guess that's why my salary is higher than usual,I work for 3 comapnies here,and not only answer the phones,sort mail,but I also sit in on meeting,coordinate travel,book conferences,and order supplies,so this is more like an office manger position in it self.
What would I like my title to be office coordinator/office manager because I've been doing it for years anyways.

Welcome!

I have been bearing the title "Secretary" and I think this is O.K. for me.  There was a move to redesign me as Admin Assistant but I advised that I should continue to retain the title "Secretary" it helps defrenciate my job with that of the clerks

This is the first time I've posted here, but I've been pondering job titles lately and after reading all the messages I felt I had to post and say hello.

I've had numerous job titles.  Senior Secretary, Bid Support Coordinator and PA are the most recent.  I had it changed from Bid Support Coordinator because I found it was too restrictive and my job is much more varied than it would indicate.  PA is my favourite.

I was just curious as to what you all think the difference is between say Senior Secretary and PA, typical responsibilities for each role and/or interesting things that you do in these roles.

Best wishes
Littlescoot

The company I work for (local authority) seems to fit the job title to the seniority of who you work for.

Director has a PA (and sometimes a Senior Secretary and/or Secretary)
Asst Director has a PA or Secretary
Head of Dept has a Secretary
Manager sometimes has a Secretary

It is often who you work for that defines the title, not what you actually do - the job descriptions at each level are fairly similar, but dependent on the capabilities of the person in the role, depends on what they actually do.  Some lower grade managers actually have someone who carries out a PA role, altho they're called Secretary because that's the job description and what the expectation is.

----------------------------------

My title is Executive Assistant, which is new for me, as I spent all my years before this as an administrative assistant.  I like the title, but I find it confuses people.  Most people after I tell them my title say, "So what do you do?"  It feels pompous to say "everything", but that's the closest I can get without listing everything item by item.  Our whole company is a staff of 8, so aside from assisting the Executive Director, I am basically the accounting department, HR department, and a helper in all the other departments....How does one some that up concisely?  Guru of All Things Administrative?  Haha, think my boss would go for that?

My current job title is School Administrative Assistant.  It's more of a PA role to the Head of School - I don't think that the title accurately reflects the work that my co-workers and I undertake in a typical day.

Previously I've been an NVQ Administrator, Personal Assistant and Purchase Administrator.

I've always worked in the Public Sector, primarily in Education.  The title PA tends to be given only to those working directly with senior management i.e. Campus Director, Vice Principal, Chief Executive.

Matt Griffin AffIQPS, LIAV

Well, I've moved on away from my Admin roots... my new title is Veteran's Service Representative, but my job is to handle a step in the process of processing veteran's claims for benefits.  I like it in that I use a lot of my admin skills, but don't have to schedule anyone, keep up with anyone's schedule, go to meetings, plan meetings, sort mail (for anyone other than me and the occassional stint at sorting for our team), or some of the other "upkeep" that we admins do for those we support.  But I write letters to the veterans informing them of the benefits that we are (or are not) going to pay them, so my writing skills are utilized, as are my computer skills.  Organizational skills are a premium in this job, since we're constantly swamped with claims and needing to catch up as quickly as possible, as the veterans seem to be dying before we get some of their claims processed -- never a good place to be in.

I've found my perfect place to be, where attention to detail is a great benefit, the ability to read manuals and policies and decipher them and remember them (often by complete reference) is an asset not to belittle, and I get a lot of personal satisfaction without a lot of the stress I had before.  Ultimately, a very happy place for me!

CountriGal
Peer Moderator

Good for you Countrigal!  I am so happy to hear that you have found your place.  I well remember your posts during your previous position and how very unhappy you were.  Very glad to hear that you are in a place where you are using your skills and those skills are appreciated.  Congrats!!

It's not a big deal, but no, I do not think my title accurately and completely describes my position. My title is "Freight Clerk" - in my opinion, "clerk" implies that I process and keep track of paperwork, which is indeed part of my job, but I also coordinate container loads and do a lot of customer service type of work. I think "Freight Coordinator" would be a better description.

I guess I don't care that much--no matter what fancy title you give me, I'm still a secretary.  And if you were going to incorporate all the stuff I do, the title would be way too long!

I've probably had every title in the book from accounting to admin.  I prefer executive secretary as my current title but it's executive assistant.  One admin position I held should have been project administrator (new construction for a very large bank) but they pay scale was for admin and they knew they were getting a bargin.  I did every thing from project scheduling, Sarbanes Oxley compliance,minority vendor certificates, filing, accounts payable, due diligence on leases, not to mention be added to the "expert" list for the software we were using to help the project managers.
Basically at this point the title is irrelevant because each company defines the job description uniquely for each admin position.

I think that whilst a job title shouldn't matter, I do believe that there are still some people out there who treat people on what they're called. I'm PA to a CEO and I've had an admin assistant from our other office call me and ask me to help her arrange something because the external person's PA isn't being very cooperative and could I give it a go and see if I can get a response. As soon as I've called up and said who I am, that PA has bent over backwards to be helpful.
It's left a bad taste in your mouth when you realise people behave like it and it makes you wonder if you want to be that helpful in return.
I'm called a PA by my boss, but his partner calls me his EA. I think it's more each company has a different idea of job titles but in reality it's the same job.
I wonder at times if some companies use Admin in the title to try and avoid paying as much as they would if it said PA or EA.
I'm perfectly happy to be called a PA as that's what I believe I am.

Job titles in administrative support are not protected titles and therefore the responsibilities and pay can be quite fluid.  I have seen Executive Assistant posts advertised at £15K, with low level responsibilities, and anything up to £50K, with responsibility for running huge chunks of a company.

Treating people on the basis of what they are called is, in my opinion, quite dreadful and appallingly stupid. A good rule to adopt is never to be rude to PAs, EAs, secretaries, receptionists or security staff.  These people are gate keepers (quite literally so, in the last case).  I always make a point of cultivating other people's support staff, especially outside my own company, and have been able to acquire all sorts of information and favours over the years.  Taking time for a couple of minutes of chit-chat can pay enormous dividends.  

If I am in a fix about X situation I know I can call upon ABC to help. That sounds positively Machiavellian, but networking is important.

Raindance

Hey Raindance!

I totally agree with your Good Rule - and it's one I've used over the (too many to mention) years.  Add to that the guys in the Post Room and someone in Accounts Payable and you've got The List of everyone who can make your life easier and therefore operate more efficiently.  Like me, I'm sure you've had people be amazed that you managed to get Mr A to do something because "he's never done that for me"!

As for Job Titles, yes, it really does make a difference to how people perceive you.  It shouldn't, but some people react much more positively and helpfully to PA rather than Secretary.  Also, and this is daft (!), I've found people to react more positively to the words "Personal Assistant" than they would to "PA"...

It's a funny old world!