PA jobs in Oxford
The role of Personal Assistant or PA is an important one. Experienced PAs, or good administrators with the right skills and personal attributes to take the next step up, are often in high demand. This is particularly true in the city of Oxford and across Oxfordshire where our permanent and temporary recruitment teams deal with an exciting range of PA job vacancies.
Typically, a PA will provide support to a senior manager, director or partner – although increasingly, a PA is expected to support several individuals or a team.
Depending on the organisation, a PA may be assigned to the managing director or one or more C-suite executives. In these scenarios, the PA role becomes more of an Executive Assistant role and although they often demand enhanced levels of responsibility and should rank differently from a skills and salary perspective, the reality is that these two job titles are sometimes confused or used interchangeably.
It also depends hugely on the sector in which the PA job is advertised. A PA in a large corporate organisation may fulfil very different duties to a PA working within a medical practice with responsibility for supporting a team of clinical consultants, for example.
Ultimately it’s the job description rather than the job title that matters so consider all PA jobs and EA jobs carefully to identify the ones that play to your strengths and interests.
PA skills
The PA role is a responsible and trusted one which usually blends an interesting mix of activities, and therefore skills. If you are currently working as a PA or have previously worked in this position, you’ll know exactly what is required of you.
If, however, you are looking for a new opportunity and exploring the PA role for the first time, you might like to consider whether you have the personal attributes that employers are looking for.
The following questions may be helpful:
- Are you loyal, trustworthy and discrete?
- Do you enjoy multi-tasking and juggling a busy and deadline-driven workload?
- Can you respond calmly to competing demands?
- Are you highly organised and efficient?
- Do you pay attention to detail?
- Are you self-motivated and able to work autonomously?
- Do you feel comfortable engaging with people at all levels?
- Can you express yourself well, verbally and in writing?
If you’ve answered yes to most of these questions, then a PA job may be the right one for you.
Technical PA skills
When it comes to hard skills, a fundamental requirement of the PA role is IT literacy. The range of IT skills required will vary, but you will almost certainly need to have an excellent working knowledge of Microsoft Excel and a range of other software packages. It is common for a PA to be asked to navigate financial spreadsheets and accounts, put together presentations and compile reports. Audio typing, shorthand or the ability to take accurate notes will also be required.
Specialist PA and EA training courses are available for people looking to develop their skills and all good employers will offer personal and professional development opportunities.
PA roles
Most PA jobs are administrative but roles vary enormously depending on the sector and the size of the organisation. A smaller employer, for example, may require their PA to assist with HR, financial or marketing duties, while a large, well-resourced employer, may give their PA a much narrower focus. Whatever the scope, you will almost certainly be exposed to confidential or sensitive information so discretion is key.
The role of PA and EA is wide-ranging but broadly speaking, you can expect to carry out all or some of the duties listed below:
- In-box management, including reading, responding and filing emails
- Answering calls and enquiries
- Managing diaries
- Organising events
- Making travel arrangements
- Preparing reports and presentations
- All aspect of meeting administration, from arranging the catering and preparing papers to taking detailed notes and writing up minutes
- Liaising across teams and business functions
- Research and intelligence gathering
- Helping to drive administrative and operational efficiencies
- Stationery stock taking and purchasing
- Supporting marketing, communications, finance, HR, quality control and other areas
- Collaborating on internal or external-facing projects
Admin jobs
If you are interested in working in any other administration role, on either a temporary or permanent basis, and at any level ranging from administrative assistant to office manager, please visit our Admin Jobs page.
Apply for PA roles or EA roles in Oxford or Oxfordshire
Allen Associates is widely regarded as the number one recruiter in Oxfordshire for business support roles, including PA, EA and administrator roles. We work with ambitious employers of all sizes and across all industry sectors and often have the pick of PA jobs in Oxford and surrounding market towns and business parks.
Our consultants have significant experience of successfully placing people in PA and EA roles so please reach out to them if you have any queries. Whether you are interested in finding out more about it as a potential career path, would like to discuss whether your skills and experience are transferrable, or are simply looking to apply your PA experience to a fabulous new opportunity, we would love to hear from you.