Emilie is PA and Office Manager at a multi-award winning digital content marketing agency that delivers strategic marketing and visual communications for sales lead generation. She began her career in marketing for various creative companies before streamlining her skills and strengths into a busy support focused role. We had a quick catch up and coffee and asked her about her experience!
- You work as a PA and Office Manager at a creative marketing company – what would you say is the best part of your role?
That’s a very hard question as there are so many good parts within my role! Being both a PA and office manager means the work I do is always really varied which I love. I am never doing the same thing day in, day out – which keeps the working week fresh and interesting. I am able to use my organisational skills when assisting the directors but also, as its a creative environment when it comes to the office manager part of my role, I am able to really think outside the box and run wild with my imagination on different things we can do for monthly events and to keep the team engaged and the work space an exciting one. I also love the fact I get to interact with so many people during the day, being it external clients coming in for meetings or the internal team – you really do become a recognised face!
- How do you manage your time working for 2 busy Directors as well as managing an entire office?
It’s not a quiet job role, that’s for sure! As an office manager there are always odd jobs that need to be done, but many are also things that need to be done every week, e.g. sundry orders. I do these every Friday afternoon, so I can check what is actually needed, this becomes a routine very quickly.
Splitting time across two directors may seem daunting, but the same way as above I split out the hours in the day across inboxes and make sure I always have a weekly catch up with both so I know if there are any important meetings/ events / client contact we are waiting from and what priorities should be. At the end of everyday I send both directors an email round up of important things that came into their inboxes, along with any questions I have had throughout the day, they then come back to me with answers in the evening so I am ready to go again the next morning. Directors can be in and out of the office a lot with little warning so I have found this is really helpful to keep to do lists moving forward.
I have found ‘Trello’ a really useful tool in helping me to manage my tasks, it allows you to make multiple to do lists and move tasks around when priorities change. As soon as someone asks me to do something, or something pops into my mind I need to do, I add it to one of my lists.
- Where are your favourite lunch/team drinks hotspots near your office?
Our office is in Shoreditch, which is a super bustly, arty area in London. The office are absolutely obsessed with pizza (!!) so the top lunch spots tend to be Pizza Pilgrims or Yard Sale! There are also loads of street food market stalls at both Shoreditch High Street station and Spitalfield’s market which is just a short walk away – both have so many yummy options.
Drink wise (where to start…!), we are regulars at the Ace Hotel where they often do 2 for 1 cocktails and also the Crown and Shuttle which has a great outside space in the summer. There are always new bars appearing in Shoreditch so we always try to give these a go too when we find them.
- What advice would you give for people looking to get into a creative role?
Totally be yourself, creative agencies are spaces that you can really let your character shine through. Having so many different characters is what makes these spaces to exciting and vibrant.
I would also say make sure you do your background research in to the company and their past/ current clients. There are sure to be some clients you have a real interest in and so it is great to be able to refer to these in interviews.
Lastly, I would say agency life is quite different from the corporate world. You are less of a cog in machine and your opinion and voice can really be heard giving you an opportunity to really be able to thrive in your role and company whilst being yourself.
If you are looking for a similar role or if you are looking to hire a talented PA/Office Manager do get in touch by calling us on 0203 866 8931 or email marion@talentyard.co.uk
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