Behind every executive is one team member who keeps everything running smoothly, from handling materials to scheduling
and everything in between. Let's meet the person who's
at every executives right-hand: the executive assistant. Hi. I'm Brian. I'm Cheryl. Welcome with the office
of the Vancouver Canucks. Thanks. Come on in. Great. My name is Cheryl Loveseth. I'm an executive assistant, and I work for the Vancouver Canucks. An executive assistant,
their job is to support the executives, make sure that they have
what they need to do their job, round up information, book their meetings,
schedule their travel. Every EA role is different. It's team work with your boss. Depending on what the boss requires, they all have different requirements, so it really is about what kind of leader your boss is. So Cheryl, you work in an incredible industry. One of the best parts of being an executive assistant is that you get to work in so many different industries. Yes, that's right. Because you learn so much in the job, it all can relate to whatever business
that you're working in. Working on schedules, you're supporting your VP. It doesn't matter what business you work in, choose the one that you love because
you'll end up doing really well there. As an executive assistant
there is no such thing as a typical day. You have to be ready for anything that comes at you. My hours are between 8:30 and 5:00. I usually start my day when I get up in the morning. I look at my calendar and see
what I've got on my slate and also what my boss has on his slate, so I'm prepared when I come into
the office to get things going. I spend a lot of time in my email, sorting through, making sure that I'm taking care of the
priorities of both my boss and for me, and replying and following up
on things that I've asked for, making sure it's getting done. There's a lot of typing,
a lot of keyboarding, a lot of time on my phone. Because my phone is an extension
of my desk when I'm out and about, I need to be able to text and type
and communicate through Messenger and through all kinds of different
software and applications. So Cheryl, this seems like a lot
of things to be doing at once. Yeah, there's always a lot of things
going on at any given time and you need to be able
to respond quickly and react. Um, and often it might not be going
in the direction that you thought, but you have to be a let it go
and move on and respond quickly. It's really important. Yeah.
Yeah. As an executive assistant,
it never hurts to have some training in the business that you're working in. If you're an executive assistant
in a law firm, for instance, to have some of that information,
some kind of paralegal or legal training. If you're working for the.government,
to have some political training. There is administrative assistant schooling. And, certainly, computer skills are necessary. You have to be able to learn on the job and think on your feet and adapt. Because you learn so many different things in your role, you can move to any other position. You can move into chief operating officer. You can move into operations manager. There's lots that move into HR, as HR directors. Because you have knowledge of all
kinds of different areas of the business, you can move pretty well anywhere. So Cheryl, I can only imagine with this type of job you have access to a lot of sensitive information. Yes. Yeah, you do and it's really important that you keep it confidential at all times. There's a lot of sensitive information and it can create huge problems if that
information gets out in advance. It can create PR issues.
It can create HR issues. So, you have to make sure that no matter what, you're keeping it confidential. And also the relationship with your boss is all about, uh, trust and they have
to be able to trust you. So, if they can't trust you with information,
you can't do your job. Sure. Attention to detail is very, very important. So, proofreading, making sure
that there's no typos in documents because your job is to make sure that the material that your boss
is sending out is, um, error-free. Because so much of this job is relationship building, you need to be able to communicate well with people, make sure that they understand
what your instructions are, make sure that you're very clear with them, what they need to do,
what your boss is looking for. There are misconceptions about the job. Um, we're often thought of as secretaries, and that's really not what we do. We're like the right arm of our boss. We help them with their projects. We make sure it all gets done. We are often the person that is talking
to the VPs to gather information, so we're more than just a gate keeper. If I were to give advice to someone
who's just starting out in this role, is listen, learn, always do your best
and most of all, don't sweat the small stuff. Well, Cheryl, thank you so much for
taking the time out of your day. It was really great to have you here today.
Thank you so much, Brian. Take care.
Okay. Bye. Once again, I'm Brian for Career Trek, reminding either this career could be yours.
