What's your job about?
GOTAFE is the largest vocational education provider in regional Victoria. My manager is Travis Heeney who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the organisation. I manage his work along with my own. This means I manage Travis’ workload and daily activities such as scheduling meetings, diary management, Inbox management, filing, sorting and responding to emails, communicating with external organisations, attending meetings, taking minutes for meetings, creating agendas for meetings, creating presentations and communicating with staff.
What's your background?
I’ve worked at GOTAFE for four years. My first two years were spent as a school-based trainee in the Enrolment and Admission Department where I learned office skills such as printing, filing, customer service, system data entry, compliance and computer literacy. I attended the Fryers Street campus every Wednesday to complete my traineeship hours by working and learning the basics and systems with my mentor. The days on campus also helped me complete my Certificate III in Business (BSB30120) which was part of the traineeship. I selected 11 units for my course, all of which were completed using an online platform.
Some of the units were: organise schedules, develop keyboarding speed and accuracy, process account payable and receivable, process customer complaints and deliver and monitor a service to customers – just to name a few!
The main challenge was that my year 12 coordinators and teachers didn’t really understand my choice not to do my year 12 exams, and to complete a traineeship during my final year of school. I’m proud of standing by my choice as I think it’s important for students to know there’s not just one pathway to success.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Yes, I believe that anyone could do this job. Preferably have experience in the corporate sector.
Quick thinking, self-initiative, professional communication skills, professionalism, bubbly, team skills, confidence, able to task manage and prioritize tasks, computer literacy, simple office skills (printing, filing, customer service skills)
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The difference in daily tasks, there are tasks that reoccur but it’s always exciting when something new comes in, which is almost daily.
I do enjoy arranging meetings and liaising with other EA’s. This role allows you to create contacts that you wouldn’t have otherwise met.
Regular check-ins with Travis, when Travis and my inbox are low, completion of a project and moving on to the next are indicators that I’m doing the right thing.
What are the limitations of your job?
There is a fair bit of responsibility as you need to make sure that the calendar for the day, week and month runs smoothly, that you have sent an agenda and papers out on time. Ensuring that you are delegating tasks from the CEO to best utilise his work time is important.
With this role, you are always ‘on call’ from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm, sometimes after 5.00 pm, you may be required to attend a meeting or send out communications to staff.
The sky is the limit, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to be in this role.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student
If I was to pass on advice to someone else, my 3 pieces would be: