Are you a student and your studies are coming to an end or do you already have a little work experience but want to start all over again? Assistant positions seem to be an extremely good way to work your way up in a company. But what exactly are the requirements and tasks for such a position and what are the advantages and disadvantages?

Requirements for assistants

As an assistant you are above all one thing: the link between management and the departments below. This transferred power is not always easy to use. After all, there are often disagreements between these two parties, which may even be carried out over your back. This means that in an assistant position, above all, you must have a strong assertiveness. But other other soft skills are also extremely important in assistant positions:

  • reliability
  • Commitment & willingness to work
  • independent work and analytical thinking
  • high resilience
  • Organizational and planning talent
  • strong communication skills

Advantages and disadvantages of assistant positions

Many companies now assign assistant positions at board or management level, which usually also include a good starting salary.
Assistant positions primarily mean preparing decisions and collecting and evaluating important ones Data, as well as the taking of minutes and subsequent participation in important decision-making meetings. In addition, it also includes

  • the creation of analyzes
  • Planning and implementation of your own projects
  • Supervision and controlling of other projects
  • Support and advice on strategy issues
  • Participation in development processes
  • Planning appointments and trips

Of course, all of these responsibilities mean a lot of responsibility, with some advantages and disadvantages.

benefits

  • usually no work experience required
  • Getting to know the entire company
  • Opportunity to make many contacts
  • Insight into many different departments and areas
  • often good starting salaries
  • then good opportunities for advancement

disadvantage

  • above-average commitment
  • high work pressure
  • great responsibility
  • often a lot of overtime
  • time flexibility
  • intense observation and great competition

Conclusion

Assistant positions are an ideal way to learn and therefore represent an ideal career springboard for many. Given that, of course, the preparatory work for management is as harmonious as possible. After all, those who get along well with their superiors have an easier time climbing the career ladder.
But caution is of course also required, because as the extended arm of the powerful management team, you also like to stand between chairs and need talent to maneuver yourself out of such situations as tactfully as possible. So you have to be able to take your own position in this triangle without offending the other parties. If you fail to do this, your springboard can quickly turn into a career turnaround.
If you want to find out more about agility and digitization in companies, then read the following articles on these topics:

[dada] Image source: Pixabay.com

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Author

I blog about the influence of digitalization on our working world. For this purpose, I provide content from science in a practical way and show helpful tips from my everyday professional life. I am an executive in an SME and I wrote my doctoral thesis at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg at the Chair of IT Management.

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