We all graduate from college with dreams of landing the perfect job, which usually doesn’t include scheduling meetings and making Starbucks runs multiple times a day as an assistant. I’m here to tell you why that IS the best way to start your career and give you a real life example…ME!
Let me tell you about my dreams as I walked across the stage during college graduation…
I spent the summer before entering my senior year of college interning at a magazine in the Bay Area. This particular magazine focused on “living in the west” and was full of recipes, gardening tips, fun weekend getaway ideas, and more. I loved it and thought that this internship would help me land a job at a magazine in a big city with a fat paycheck. I could picture myself walking into a beautifully decorated office with big glass doors, carrying a brand new bag to hold my brand new laptop, wearing my brand new heels, and sipping on a latte. I’m sure you can guess that it didn’t really happen that way.
Now let me tell you about the reality of my career…
My first job was as an Office Coordinator for a small and well regarded attorney recruiting firm in DC. For three years I had this job. My daily duties included answering calls, receiving resumes and entering them into the database, ordering office supplies, and picking up lunch (occasionally). Was this glamorous? Not at all. Did I learn a lot? Absolutely. Not only did I pick up skills on how to work in an office environment, but I focused on being the best employee I could be. It’s not hard to order supplies and send out a meeting invite BUT it is hard to continuously show your boss that you can go above and beyond what is asked and expected of you with a smile on your face. When you can do this well, you gain trust from your employer. With trust comes more responsibility. With more responsibility comes more exposure to people, places, and more knowledge.
After three years at the recruiting firm, I felt it was time to move on to something more challenging. I became an Executive Assistant at a nonprofit that supports startup communities. Although it was a non-profit, it had a true startup feel to it, so it was pretty crazy. My boss was (and still is) an extremely busy guy who was the founding CTO of a little (ok, big) company you may have heard of called Priceline. As you can imagine, his schedule was hectic and chaotic requiring me to learn how to conquer his ever changing calendar. It also required me to anticipate things going awry and having an action plan to get things back in order. I regularly interacted with the offices of well-known entrepreneurs like Steve Case, Kevin Plank, and Reid Hoffman. The exposure I got from these types of people and knowledge was huge. Maybe I was just an Executive Assistant, but how many people do you know that have exchanged e-mails or even met people like this? Probably not a ton.
Being a good Executive Assistant, Admin, Office Coordinator - whatever your job title may be – is hard. Really, really hard. Your days fly by, you have no idea what to expect when you get up in the morning, and one small error can mean a whole meeting falling to pieces. Bottom line: establish a good relationship with your boss and become his or her trusted confidant. Think about different career paths by getting involved in various projects within your company. Be the girl that everyone wants to know and use that gatekeeping power wisely. The experience a person gains from this type of job truly does open a ton of doors and creates a unique experience that enables you to learn a ton which might just land you that dream job.
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