5 Things to Think About Before Starting a Career as an Executive Assistant

7 min readJun 11, 2021

First, let’s get this out of the way — being an Executive Assistant is not a stepping stone to another career opportunity. It is a dynamic, interesting, impactful, and fulfilling career in its own right. While many people, myself included, kind of fell into the role of Executive Assistant, most stay by choice.

There are few other careers that give you such unprecedented access to top leaders, allow you to be at the table when major decisions are being made (and to be a part of those decisions), see just how businesses operate and scale, and learn the dos and don’ts of running major corporations first-hand. And all of this, without any specific educational requirements (though we’ll discuss later what knowledge and education is helpful).

Once I was actually exposed to and understood this career, I wish I had been told about it much earlier! It is a great career option for someone who is naturally curious, is learning-based and growth-minded, enjoys variety, thrives on challenges and change, is highly adaptable, organized and persistent, and likes being behind the scenes ensuring that everything is running smoothly. Having a general education and wide range of experiences is actually helpful in this role, as long as the individual has an underlining thread of organization, resourcefulness, detail orientation, and exceptional follow-through.

If you are great at, and enjoy, the following responsibilities, then a career as an Executive Assistant may be the right one for you.

Responsibilities of an Executive Assistant

Serving in a supportive leadership role
Maintaining detailed calendars, schedules, itineraries, and more and changing them on a minutes notice
Being connected, “on call”, and in the know much of the time
Preparing and managing meetings and events
Maintaining and managing the communication in and out of the office
Handling all day to day administrative and operational tasks
Ensure the office runs smoothly, including creating and implementing new systems
Being the point-person for Executives, leadership team members, and other staff members
Serving as the confidante and advisor to senior leaders, including being able to lead up and “manage” your Executive when needed
Able to solve complex problems on-the-fly
Leading projects

Click here for a more detailed Executive Assistant job description.

Before Launching Your Executive Assistant Career, Consider This:

1. Education & Experience

I am a big believer in experience trumping formal education. I would rather hire a candidate that has shown me their track record of success in previous administrative or personal assistant roles, than one who shows me a piece of paper.

That being said, I think a variety of educational backgrounds can be a great training ground for life as an Executive Assistant. Any liberal arts degree — particularly those that emphasize communication and critical thinking skills — are helpful. A business degree can also be beneficial, as it exposes you to many different areas that you may come across in your role as EA. Depending on the company and Executive, some Executive Assistant positions may require a more technical background or even a specialization in a particular subject area — say accounting or political science.

If you are just thinking about starting a career as an Executive Assistant, it may behoove you to think about what industry or company you want to work for to guide your educational choices. While the day to day of the role may look similar, a Executive Assistant role in government may require quite different knowledge than an EA role at a retail corporation.

The beauty of it all though is that all of this can be learned, whether through on-the-job exposure to the industry, a formal degree or certification, taking online courses, and reading books. Unlike many careers (say, as a CPA, a nurse, or Marketing Director), an Executive Assistant career can benefit from this wide and general knowledge. There isn’t necessarily just one specific education experience that works.

2. Career Path

Just like there is no one-size-fits-all education for becoming an Executive Assistant, the career path can be quite diverse too. Some people become an Executive Assistant from the get-go — fresh out of their last formal education. Others arrive at the position after serving as an office manager or administrative assistant — helping many people throughout the organization — before they arrive at serving only one or two senior leaders. Still others come to the position after years in other careers such as public relations, retail management, operations managers, or event planners.

Usually the underlining theme is the ability to organize chaos, communicate effectively, creatively problem solve, and just get things done. Those skills can come from anywhere!

As I said earlier, being an Executive Assistant is not necessarily a stepping stone to another career. I firmly believe it is an incredible career choice. However, for those who want to move on from a career as an EA, there are lots of great options. Executive Assistants are in a unique position to see all areas of an organization and often help out in one or more areas. This gives them the ability to see what areas they have an interest or real strength in. Executive Assistants can move on to virtually any role — from COO, to VP of Communications, to Director of Finance, to Chief of Staff. Some move into CEO roles or start their own companies.

3. Career Development & Continuing Education

As an Executive Assistant, it is critical to keep your skills up to date and constantly be learning about your industry, your company, technology, and the economy at large. In general, I think focusing on communication, leadership, and technology skills are a must for an Executive Assistant to stay in step or even one step ahead of their Executive. Best of all, those are skills that will serve an Executive Assistant no matter where they end up in the future.

Depending on your exact responsibilities and career trajectory, a more formal certification or degree may be the next step. Most often I see Project Management certifications or MBAs being added to Executive Assistant resumes. Though, in my opinion, they are not necessary to have a thriving and successful career as an Executive Assistant.

4. Income Potential

Executive Assistant salaries are incredibly polarized. You can have an EA at a small business earning $40,000/year and an EA at a large company or one working with an entrepreneur earning well over six figures with stock options, bonuses, and more. And there doesn’t seem to be any real rhyme or reason to the salary — except for what the Executive and company are willing to pay. The Executive Assistants in those two roles may be doing virtually the same thing. Now, within one company, there may be more metrics and structure to the salary levels. But when we are talking about companies nationwide, the salaries seem to be fairly subjective.

That being said, I think being an Executive Assistant has really great income potential, as long as you are clear on what you want, who you want to work for, what industry you’re interested in, are you willing to relocate, travel, etc. The opportunities are certainly out there — you just have to be clear on what you want.

5. Job Prospects

I think that the need for exceptional Executive Assistants will only continue to grow. As more and more small business owners and entrepreneurs enter the scene, they will be looking for a right-hand partner, a Force Multiplier, to work with them. The influencer economy is only just growing as well. Many influencers need that amazing EA behind the scenes to help them run their business. And, yes, large companies will still need incredible EAs who can manage the complexities of multiple time zones, frequent travel, new project ideas, tight deadlines, and demands from key stakeholders to help their CEOs and senior leaders thrive.

How I Started My Career As an Executive Assistant

I graduated from the State University of New York with a degree in English (Writing Concentration) and a minor in Business. After working throughout college in retail, I started my first job a few weeks after I graduated as a non-profit marketing and public relations assistant. I was at that gig for about a year and a half before I moved to live with my boyfriend (now husband) and had a brief stint working at the Department of Labor in a coordinator role while I was looking for something that was a better fit. When I was 23 or so, I was hired as the Executive Assistant to the Principal of a large public high school in a very rural area. There, I honed my administrative and executive support skills. A few years later we moved again to be in a more thriving part of the state.

When I was 25, Adam (who is still my Executive today!), found me on Craigslist. I was hired as a real estate marketing assistant. About three months later, his then Executive Assistant and I were called into Adam’s office and he told us that he thought we were in the wrong positions. He moved me into the Executive Assistant role helping run his real estate team, and his then EA moved into my marketing assistant role. I served as Adam’s Executive Assistant for about 5 years, had a hybrid EA/Chief of Staff role for a couple years, and then moved fully into the Chief of Staff role about 4 years ago.

I’ve been an assistant since I was fresh out of college, yet I always approached my roles as an emerging leader within the company. I believe in leading and assisting from day one. Yet, it wasn’t until I joined forces with Adam that I fully realized how I could harness my natural tendencies into a kickass career.

Are you thinking about starting a career as an Executive Assistant? What do you still need to know?

If you are an Executive Assistant, I would love to hear how you got your start. Email me at hello@founderandforcemultiplier.com or drop a note in the comments!