20 things you love about your job!
Why PAs are so brilliant
The secretary's starter kit
How many more are there like you?
What do PAs contribute to UK plc?
The training marathon!
Have you got the "X" factor?
Easy ways to boost your network
This issue we're celebrating! And what are we celebrating? Well, you, of course! April is the month when we focus on Professional Secretaries' Week, and your special day on Wednesday 27. So as well as giving you the usual package of information, contacts and advice, we're also having a bit of a hip hip hooray for the PA! Well, I ask you - if we at DeskDemon Express can't give you a big pat on the back once a year, who can?Sally Longson, DeskDemon's own careers editor, kicks us off with a reminder of why you love your job! So many elements of the PA and secretarial role are exciting, versatile and challenging - but sometimes you forget in the day-to-day hurly burly of it all. We thought we'd remind you, so Sally has come up with 20 reasons why your job is so brilliant.
And then we decided to ask you guys, what makes PAs so brilliant. It's not often we allow blatant trumpet-blowing in DeskDemon Express but just this once, we've encouraged it. There are some super answers from a wide range of readers, so don't miss them!
We all know how vital you are to your organisations, and we asked our resident PA spokesperson Lee Morrissey to give us her inimitable thoughts. She's come up trumps again, with a thought-provoking celebration of the PA's role in decision making. It goes way, way beyond circulating the agenda for the meeting...
We also try to pin down the support sector - and find it's rather slippery! Ian Boughton gets his sleuthing hat on, and tries to make sense of Government and other statistics, to establish how many of you there are, and where. Read how he gets on.
In this issue we've also tracked down some training courses which would suit those fairly new to the profession. We often focus on senior, experienced PAs in DeskDemon Express but this time Sara Goodwins has compiled an extremely useful list of training opportunities which will get new careers firmly on the road.
And training, of course, is a vital issue for today's PA. Everything changes constantly, so you need to keep up. That's where the concept of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is so important, and we've asked the greatest exponents of CPD in the support sector, IQPS, to explain why it should be on every PA's mind. A top read.
Another key factor to a successful career is networking - and we give you some thoughts not only on why it's so important, but on how to make the most of the opportunities you have.
We hope you enjoy this issue, and particularly our sincere attempt to whip up a bit of rah rah rah! You are brilliant, and you do a brilliant job, and we just don't want you to forget it!
Until the next time...
