Next step up from Admin Assistant
Discussion
Completely depends on the context of the place you're working in surely? You can be an 'admin assistant' anywhere. Future job prospects will depend on what sector you're in i'd have thought? i.e Admin assistant at the UKBA, future job prospects would be senior caseworker, Admin assistant at a car manufacturer would be something completely different.
An admin assistant might not be the same thing as an assistant administrator!
I was a divisional manager in my last big company job and I had an admin assistant. She assisted me with my admin. She could have probably done my job - indeed we had one division where the manager was on long-term sick and his admin, for all intents and purposes, ran the division.
I know one guy who started off in an admin job and ended up running the whole European operation, although he did get found out when he got to that level and he didn't last very long.
I was a divisional manager in my last big company job and I had an admin assistant. She assisted me with my admin. She could have probably done my job - indeed we had one division where the manager was on long-term sick and his admin, for all intents and purposes, ran the division.
I know one guy who started off in an admin job and ended up running the whole European operation, although he did get found out when he got to that level and he didn't last very long.
crofty1984 said:
If you were in an interview for an admin-type job, and got asked the "where do you want to be in 5 years?" question - what position could you feasibly be in?
If you get that job and are keen to progress, where do you progress to? It's not really my area.
SWMBO went from an Admin Assistant role, to the Finance Directors PA. With a step between which I think was PA to <insert department>.If you get that job and are keen to progress, where do you progress to? It's not really my area.
That only took 3 years though....
Too many people only think within the context of the job for this type of question.
Answer: After having worked for 5 years hopefully having enough to put down a deposit on my own place.
Answer: Married to my boyfriend/girlfriend.
Answer: Paid off student loan and moved into a bigger flat / house.
Any other "life" type answers you can think of.
What does this say ?
It says you are thinking long term, are planning a stable future and are unlikely to quit the job in six months.
You might intend to quit the job in six months but a least these type of answers give the impression that you will not.
Answer: After having worked for 5 years hopefully having enough to put down a deposit on my own place.
Answer: Married to my boyfriend/girlfriend.
Answer: Paid off student loan and moved into a bigger flat / house.
Any other "life" type answers you can think of.
What does this say ?
It says you are thinking long term, are planning a stable future and are unlikely to quit the job in six months.
You might intend to quit the job in six months but a least these type of answers give the impression that you will not.
If you ignore all the 'amusing' and chauvinistic answers given so far, the question would probably be in what direction the applicant wanted to progress in and had competency in. The job title of admin assistant could cover a variety of things from secretarial to accounting to marketing to office management, depending on what the company does.
If it's a friend/relative of the OP, I'd probably get them to consider what they're interested in doing or good at doing, or if there's a work skill they want to develop and work from there.
If it's a specific industry they want to work in then they might need to give some thought to how working in that industry will pan out for them. To give you a personal example, I was interested in cars so I ended up working in F1 from leaving school at 16, but as I hadn't given any thought whatsoever to progression within that industry, I quickly realised that as a woman in F1 without an engineering qualification my career was very limited and at best I would end up as a PA to someone.
Hope that helps and please feel free to drop me an email if need be - I worked as an admin assistant for a few years!
If it's a friend/relative of the OP, I'd probably get them to consider what they're interested in doing or good at doing, or if there's a work skill they want to develop and work from there.
If it's a specific industry they want to work in then they might need to give some thought to how working in that industry will pan out for them. To give you a personal example, I was interested in cars so I ended up working in F1 from leaving school at 16, but as I hadn't given any thought whatsoever to progression within that industry, I quickly realised that as a woman in F1 without an engineering qualification my career was very limited and at best I would end up as a PA to someone.
Hope that helps and please feel free to drop me an email if need be - I worked as an admin assistant for a few years!
over_the_hill said:
Too many people only think within the context of the job for this type of question.
Answer: After having worked for 5 years hopefully having enough to put down a deposit on my own place.
Answer: Married to my boyfriend/girlfriend.
Answer: Paid off student loan and moved into a bigger flat / house.
Any other "life" type answers you can think of.
What does this say ?
It says you are thinking long term, are planning a stable future and are unlikely to quit the job in six months.
You might intend to quit the job in six months but a least these type of answers give the impression that you will not.
These answers say to me that you are either not interested in the job or all you care about is money. I wouldn't be very impressed if a candidate came out with those responses. I would also phrase the question in a way that made it obvious they we were talking about career aspirations. Answer: After having worked for 5 years hopefully having enough to put down a deposit on my own place.
Answer: Married to my boyfriend/girlfriend.
Answer: Paid off student loan and moved into a bigger flat / house.
Any other "life" type answers you can think of.
What does this say ?
It says you are thinking long term, are planning a stable future and are unlikely to quit the job in six months.
You might intend to quit the job in six months but a least these type of answers give the impression that you will not.
bga said:
These answers say to me that you are either not interested in the job or all you care about is money. I wouldn't be very impressed if a candidate came out with those responses. I would also phrase the question in a way that made it obvious they we were talking about career aspirations.
+1 They are asking because they want to know what you're looking for long term in a job. I.E: Are you using as a stop-gap or is this job going to give you a step in the right direction to where you want to go. For example, if you're a team leader you may want to move into management after some time if the opportunity arises.
If you give an answer that shows me the next logical career step from what you're applying to it means you'll probably work hard to achieve it; thus it will benefit everyone.
They don't care if you want a big house, nice holidays, etc.
bga said:
over_the_hill said:
Too many people only think within the context of the job for this type of question.
Answer: After having worked for 5 years hopefully having enough to put down a deposit on my own place.
Answer: Married to my boyfriend/girlfriend.
Answer: Paid off student loan and moved into a bigger flat / house.
Any other "life" type answers you can think of.
What does this say ?
It says you are thinking long term, are planning a stable future and are unlikely to quit the job in six months.
You might intend to quit the job in six months but a least these type of answers give the impression that you will not.
These answers say to me that you are either not interested in the job or all you care about is money. I wouldn't be very impressed if a candidate came out with those responses. I would also phrase the question in a way that made it obvious they we were talking about career aspirations. Answer: After having worked for 5 years hopefully having enough to put down a deposit on my own place.
Answer: Married to my boyfriend/girlfriend.
Answer: Paid off student loan and moved into a bigger flat / house.
Any other "life" type answers you can think of.
What does this say ?
It says you are thinking long term, are planning a stable future and are unlikely to quit the job in six months.
You might intend to quit the job in six months but a least these type of answers give the impression that you will not.
Its a lovely and sensible question to ask yourself in terms of your own future development - yet in interview its too much of an invitation to suck up to the interviewer, give a nice generic answer you think the interviewer would like to hear.
Look lets cut out the pretence - most people going for jobs - and id say this is considerably more the case in admin type roles rather then say Paramedic and Farming type roles - work for money. (the Paramedic and the Farmer have to want to do the job - its the only way you can get along with both jobs imo).
No this isn't what an employer wants to hear - but surely if someone comes straight out and admits to wanting to own a house - then surely the honesty and integrity of such an answer deserves some merit.
That doesn't make it the right answer - unfortunately the right answer - is to link your ambitions in the next 5 years to the role you are doing now - showing supposed ambition in an expected manner for an admin assistant
.The problem with this however is that its a bit too limiting - and i think its no harm for the company to also hear a bit about wider ambitions - particularly if they involve things that would benefit the company.
But focus mainly on talking about developing yourself (and selling what you can bring to the job) in a way that would actually benefit the company in the long run.
So to sum up - in the next 5 years can you see yourself developing your skills in a way that would benefit the company. Are there new skills that you would like to learn that would benefit the company.
Remember while the question is an absolute crap question - it does present an opportunity i think to sell yourself by discussing what you can bring to the company over the next 5 years in terms of skills development and adding value to what you do.
Particularly in larger companies where (for example) theres HR departments etc where openings may come about for office staff who go and do training in HR. But even in smaller companies - theres potential opportunities in the long run to perhaps go from admin assistant to bringing in new skills.
For example in a small company - it may be possible to combine the Admin role - but bring value to the role by developing extra skills in areas such as health and safety and HR as well.
I know of people doing this kind of thing successfully in small companies - where there isn't the work to justify having 3 seperate people for admin, health and safety and HR. Getting the pay to increase satisfactually - to compensate for extra responsibility is the challenge.
Also you need to think about the extra workload you would be taking on - so not a perfect solution
Sir Fergie
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