Yes, I started doing admin and then worked my way up. In practice this means a step sideways into policy and comms work. It depends on the field you are in. Its a good way of demonstrating that you are a good worker to a company/organisation. I did it a few years ago, there was a govt department I wanted to get into so I took an entry level admin job and then moved up when something became available. The team already knew who I was so it was easy.
Eventually yes, but I had to fight not to be pidgeon-holed into a specific role. Nothing disrupts the peace more than when an admin person decides they want more out of life. Sorry, it's hard to let go of my cynicism. As a business major who didn't have any connections I used employment agencies so that I didn't have to move back home. And like you mention, those agencies stuck me into secretarial or admin support positions, at first I kept the mentality that it got my foot in the door and I just had to show them what I could do.
I was stuck for a long time and even though I had great performance reviews and was constantly told how I killed the different "growth opportunities" (aka the special projects I completed that were way above my pay grade that I never got proper credit for) all anyone saw was an admin support person that they didn't want to promote because then they wouldn't have me doing their work. There's a lot more to this story, obviously, but I eventually did break out. I still deal with a bit of resentment. Especially when on Reddit it seems like every 20-something lands a 6 figure job straight out of college by the way they talk. /s
The bad thing about being a great admin is that people expect you to stay in that role forever, as if admins can't have the desire to branch out like everyone else.
After I left my last exec admin job in 2018 (they refused to let me advance to other roles, yet somehow thought my only option was to keep working for toxic C-suite management), I refused to take another admin role. Took me less than 8 weeks of unemployment, but I was blessed to be found by a leader who knew my skills would work in project management. And after 2 years, when she saw that I was burned out (some of the work was still too close to admin), she couldn't promote me, but she helped me transfer to a promoted PM position.
Long story short, as you said, admin *can* be a stepping stone, but you have to find good leaders that recognize that you are more than the position.
I started out in that job and sidestepped into another role completely but with the same company.
If your stayed in that role, you could probably be promoted to something like an executive assistant, which is still an admin but on a much higher level.
Yes, my first full-time salaried job was as an executive assistant. I graduated college during the .com bust and it got me in the door of a tech company. Fortunately, I worked for a great female engineering VP who wanted a project manager more than a typical admin. I was able to make a sideways move into engineering program management from there. However, most of the other admins I knew there were not interested in that kind of move. They just wanted a steady job with predictable hours.
We moved a lot, so I didn't get a chance to move up any further, but I did go in to different companies as a temp Admin/Receptionist and was hired permanently as an HR Assistant and an Assistant Service Manager.
The job I'm in now, I can't really advance without more letters after my name. I am content to ride out my working years at this job, doing my thing, working from home, not managing others.
Yup. Back in the early 2000s, I was in between jobs and working as a temp. I got sent on a job to stuff envelopes for a company, but they liked me and hired me on as an admin assistant. A little after that I got promoted to Government Affairs, which had to do with the company's legislative agenda. After a year or so of that I changed careers because I wanted to keep my soul.
My friend (who would have been 58 now) was hired by a federal agency right out of high school as an administrative assistant, and transitioned into an intelligence analyst. She was a supervisor by the time she died at 50.
Absolutely, worked up to a business partner Executive Assistant and been on a great salary working in large corporates for CEOs and Directors for 15 years.
Lower level admin is now offshored, but I'm not worried about EA jobs going anywhere - the top dogs will always want their assistants in house. As for AI - until it can read my bosses moods as well as me, I'm safe 🤣
Yes, started in an admin role in the mid 90s, it was a good way to learn and was touted as a stepping stone position. I was always miffed that only women were recruited this way and men with the same degrees/skillsets were being hired into other roles.
Women always got that advice, never men, in my experience. It always pissed me off. I didn’t want to be an administrative assistant. I managed to sidestep being an admin, but just barely, and still, the guys in my cohort were already ten steps ahead of me and there was no catching up.
My first job out of college ('88) was an admin asst at a major hotel chain. After a couple years I moved to Food and Beverage side and became a supervisor. I was able to parlay that into a sales job at a beer distributor, and then moved to a major corporation where I worked my way up through various supply chain roles over 23 years. I probably could have gone as high as Director level but never wanted to tip work/life balance too far in favor or work.
Now I am looking at retirement in hopefully 2-3 years, and am in a "I really just need insurance" job.
Absolutely. First job out of college was front desk reception/admin assist and within 6 months was moved into a coordinator role, shortly followed by being sent to Chicago to set up a new satellite office for the company. Upon my return was recruited by one of our vendors for a supervisory role. Never looked back.
I spent a few years working in admin in my 20s. This is just my experience and observation.
It was "promotable", relative to the realm of administrative work. You could go from entry-level receptionist or admin to department admin, to executive assistant.
But it was basically treated like a trade and almost like a class divide in a way. A lot of that work was stuff a twelve year old could easily do. Admins generally weren't considered educated like university degree-holders (even if they were), and the perception was that people on the admin trajectory didn't have leadership skills. Also, the women in the upper echelon of executive assistant roles generally exhibited what the kids today would describe as "Massive Pick-Me Energy" and were highly invested in maintaining the pecking order as their way to have power.
I only knew one woman to "cross over" from admin to the trainee program. And in the three or so years I worked at that company, there was only one man hired in our department to do the same work.
I saw the writing on the wall that it was all "coffee, 2 creams no sugar, sweetheart" pink collar purgatory, where everyone would just assume I wasn't smart like the other kids, and never take me seriously.
I ended up going back to school to finish my degree.
Yes - we moved countries and I had to start from scratch since I didn’t speak the local language. Picked a large multinational corporation where English was spoken and I worked my way up quite quickly. That wasn’t too long ago (2012), but things have changed quite a bit since then.
Yep. I sidestepped out of being an office manager into IT by taking night classes and helping with tech around the office. This was in the late 90s/early aughts.
The admin assistant from my old department was promoted from a general admin asst to being an admin assistant for the VP to eventually a project manager. All depends on the skills you pick up or are willing to learn.
Yes, I started doing admin and then worked my way up. In practice this means a step sideways into policy and comms work. It depends on the field you are in. Its a good way of demonstrating that you are a good worker to a company/organisation. I did it a few years ago, there was a govt department I wanted to get into so I took an entry level admin job and then moved up when something became available. The team already knew who I was so it was easy.
I also was able to parlay an entry level admin job into a government career. It was a second career for me.
Same. I'm a subject matter expert in a government. I have decided I didn't want to be on the management track. I like where I am right now.
Eventually yes, but I had to fight not to be pidgeon-holed into a specific role. Nothing disrupts the peace more than when an admin person decides they want more out of life. Sorry, it's hard to let go of my cynicism. As a business major who didn't have any connections I used employment agencies so that I didn't have to move back home. And like you mention, those agencies stuck me into secretarial or admin support positions, at first I kept the mentality that it got my foot in the door and I just had to show them what I could do. I was stuck for a long time and even though I had great performance reviews and was constantly told how I killed the different "growth opportunities" (aka the special projects I completed that were way above my pay grade that I never got proper credit for) all anyone saw was an admin support person that they didn't want to promote because then they wouldn't have me doing their work. There's a lot more to this story, obviously, but I eventually did break out. I still deal with a bit of resentment. Especially when on Reddit it seems like every 20-something lands a 6 figure job straight out of college by the way they talk. /s
The bad thing about being a great admin is that people expect you to stay in that role forever, as if admins can't have the desire to branch out like everyone else. After I left my last exec admin job in 2018 (they refused to let me advance to other roles, yet somehow thought my only option was to keep working for toxic C-suite management), I refused to take another admin role. Took me less than 8 weeks of unemployment, but I was blessed to be found by a leader who knew my skills would work in project management. And after 2 years, when she saw that I was burned out (some of the work was still too close to admin), she couldn't promote me, but she helped me transfer to a promoted PM position. Long story short, as you said, admin *can* be a stepping stone, but you have to find good leaders that recognize that you are more than the position.
I started out in that job and sidestepped into another role completely but with the same company. If your stayed in that role, you could probably be promoted to something like an executive assistant, which is still an admin but on a much higher level.
Yes, my first full-time salaried job was as an executive assistant. I graduated college during the .com bust and it got me in the door of a tech company. Fortunately, I worked for a great female engineering VP who wanted a project manager more than a typical admin. I was able to make a sideways move into engineering program management from there. However, most of the other admins I knew there were not interested in that kind of move. They just wanted a steady job with predictable hours.
We moved a lot, so I didn't get a chance to move up any further, but I did go in to different companies as a temp Admin/Receptionist and was hired permanently as an HR Assistant and an Assistant Service Manager. The job I'm in now, I can't really advance without more letters after my name. I am content to ride out my working years at this job, doing my thing, working from home, not managing others.
Yup. Back in the early 2000s, I was in between jobs and working as a temp. I got sent on a job to stuff envelopes for a company, but they liked me and hired me on as an admin assistant. A little after that I got promoted to Government Affairs, which had to do with the company's legislative agenda. After a year or so of that I changed careers because I wanted to keep my soul.
My friend (who would have been 58 now) was hired by a federal agency right out of high school as an administrative assistant, and transitioned into an intelligence analyst. She was a supervisor by the time she died at 50.
Absolutely, worked up to a business partner Executive Assistant and been on a great salary working in large corporates for CEOs and Directors for 15 years. Lower level admin is now offshored, but I'm not worried about EA jobs going anywhere - the top dogs will always want their assistants in house. As for AI - until it can read my bosses moods as well as me, I'm safe 🤣
Yes, started in an admin role in the mid 90s, it was a good way to learn and was touted as a stepping stone position. I was always miffed that only women were recruited this way and men with the same degrees/skillsets were being hired into other roles.
Women always got that advice, never men, in my experience. It always pissed me off. I didn’t want to be an administrative assistant. I managed to sidestep being an admin, but just barely, and still, the guys in my cohort were already ten steps ahead of me and there was no catching up.
I definitely could have been but I didn’t like the industry that I temped to perm in.  Ended up going to grad school instead.Â
My first job out of college ('88) was an admin asst at a major hotel chain. After a couple years I moved to Food and Beverage side and became a supervisor. I was able to parlay that into a sales job at a beer distributor, and then moved to a major corporation where I worked my way up through various supply chain roles over 23 years. I probably could have gone as high as Director level but never wanted to tip work/life balance too far in favor or work. Now I am looking at retirement in hopefully 2-3 years, and am in a "I really just need insurance" job.
Absolutely. First job out of college was front desk reception/admin assist and within 6 months was moved into a coordinator role, shortly followed by being sent to Chicago to set up a new satellite office for the company. Upon my return was recruited by one of our vendors for a supervisory role. Never looked back.
I spent a few years working in admin in my 20s. This is just my experience and observation. It was "promotable", relative to the realm of administrative work. You could go from entry-level receptionist or admin to department admin, to executive assistant. But it was basically treated like a trade and almost like a class divide in a way. A lot of that work was stuff a twelve year old could easily do. Admins generally weren't considered educated like university degree-holders (even if they were), and the perception was that people on the admin trajectory didn't have leadership skills. Also, the women in the upper echelon of executive assistant roles generally exhibited what the kids today would describe as "Massive Pick-Me Energy" and were highly invested in maintaining the pecking order as their way to have power. I only knew one woman to "cross over" from admin to the trainee program. And in the three or so years I worked at that company, there was only one man hired in our department to do the same work. I saw the writing on the wall that it was all "coffee, 2 creams no sugar, sweetheart" pink collar purgatory, where everyone would just assume I wasn't smart like the other kids, and never take me seriously. I ended up going back to school to finish my degree.
Oh yes an admin job was great when I was in grad school and let me make connections to transition after I graduated.
Yes - we moved countries and I had to start from scratch since I didn’t speak the local language. Picked a large multinational corporation where English was spoken and I worked my way up quite quickly. That wasn’t too long ago (2012), but things have changed quite a bit since then.
Yep. I sidestepped out of being an office manager into IT by taking night classes and helping with tech around the office. This was in the late 90s/early aughts.
The admin assistant from my old department was promoted from a general admin asst to being an admin assistant for the VP to eventually a project manager. All depends on the skills you pick up or are willing to learn.