Case studies: Personal assistant: Katherine

Katherine is a PA at the Japanese Embassy in London and her main responsibility is to provide three diplomats with administrative support.

Katherine is a PA at the Japanese Embassy in London and her main responsibility is to provide three diplomats with administrative support. This involves writing letters, arranging meetings, diary management, handling telephone calls, and replying to emails. In addition, she undertakes research projects and produces reports on her findings. She also regularly attends meetings and lectures on behalf of her diplomats and take notes for them.

Every morning her first job is to reply to any emails that have arrived through the night. She then collects clippings from British newspapers and produces summaries of any stories relevant to the diplomats’ areas of specialisation. Her specific topics are defence and the Middle East. She then supports the diplomats with any administrative assistance they require and continues with any research projects she has been given, as well as ongoing tasks such as arranging visits to the UK for visiting Japanese MPs and government officials.

During her university studies (Japanese and German), Katherine did some part-time work which gave her experience in an office environment and with administrative work. However, she believes that her degree subject and her knowledge of Japan were of particular interest to her current employers for this specific role. 'As well as having a knowledge of Japanese and Japan, I also need to be very well organised and efficient, and proficient with IT, and have excellent organisational and administrative skills,' she explains.

'I do enjoy my job', says Katherine, 'as it enables me to expand my knowledge of current affairs, in particular issues relating to the Middle East, and I have also learnt how an embassy works. I've not received much training specific to my role as a PA - it's mainly been around protocol. Most of my learning has been on the job.'

'If I were to offer some advice to a graduate thinking about working as a PA, I think I'd say that you need to think about whether an admin role is going to help you achieve your ultimate career goals and also, if it's a language-related post you're looking for, check how much you will be required to use your language skills in your day-to-day job.'