Interview with Sara-Lea Nicholls

1. What does a typical day look like for you?

Managing someone’s professional life is a really important role My day usually starts around 5am, that gets me into the office for 7.30am and I make the most of this time to have a cup of tea while I sort everything out. This means booking meeting rooms, answering emails and getting prepared for the day before my boss arrives.
 
Managing someone’s professional life is a really important role and you have to have a good understanding of their job and their business in order to perform well. To make things happen I have to be assertive (but still nice!) and I think it’s really important to have a good sense of humour and make sure people feel valued.

2. What are the main skills required for your role?

Good communication and organisation skills are essential for the role of a PA, and so is demonstrating discretion and being personable. You have to be willing to muck in as a PA; don’t ever think any job is beneath you because it’s not in your job description.

3. What are the most rewarding and challenging parts of your role?

I find my role rewarding because I can go home every day having done a good job. There isn’t really a part of it that I find difficult because I enjoy it; I never really think “I can’t do that.”

4. Why did you choose to use Page Personnel Secretarial & Business Support in your job search?

When I was job searching I actually registered with a few agencies, but Page Personnel was the only one I felt had actually taken the time to read my CV and this impressed me. So many agencies will call you back and it’s so obvious they haven’t read your CV and just want to put you forward for any role.

5. How did you find your experience with us?

I’ve always found Page Personnel very good – and I’ve been both a client and a candidate so I’ve built up good relationships with some of the consultants. I’ve found Page good from a candidate perspective because they’ve never been patronising but have always listened to what I want. The same goes for the client side; they’ve always delivered what I’ve needed.

6. What advice would you give someone looking for a role like yours?

Be prepared to say “yes”; in a PA role you’ll be expected to carry out various tasks every day that aren’t necessarily in your job description but are still important. You must be able to work as part of a team and step up to anything.

Favourites

What are you reading/watching at the moment?

My boss has actually given me a book to read called Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps which is very humorous and I’m currently watching Elementary and The Following.
 

What are your favourite websites to use?

I use the Daily Mail website everyday and I’m a big fan of Net-a-Porter; I’m a shoe fiend!