JDQ Radar showing the typical personality type demands made in a career as a PA.
Key: darker areas indicate high demand, lighter ones less demand. That is, if your personality type is a darker area, then this career matches your personality.
Below you will find comments by people in this career. They were asked to rate their job (out of 6) and what they liked or did not like about their job. Their comments are sorted by the rating they assigned. The actual job title they gave is in brackets with, if provided, the personality type they declared.
Rating 6/6
I like it because you have to think, come up with your own strategy of doing things, build relationships with internal and external clients daily (talk to people). (Personal Assistant - ENFJ)
i like the resposibility, working with others and sense of achievement i dislike the filing. (Assistant PA - ESFJ)
I like working and helping my students. Love working and learning from my boss. (secretary)
Rating 5/6
unorganised people (Executive Assistant - ENFJ)
Taking meeting notes. (Administrative Specialist - ESFJ)
No control over workload and very little over priorities (PA - ESFP)
Like: Feel that I’m making a difference Dislike: No real prospects in terms of promotion and career development (Departmental Secretary for a religious charity)
Aren’t directly making a difference, too repetitive (Insurance agent assistant)
uncertainty of career path (PA)
The routineness of it. Not a lot of room for creativity. (Personal Assistant)
Rating 4/6
I like the variety of knowledge (secretary - ENFP)
No Challenges (Area PA - ESFJ)
No job satisfaction and interaction with management and no communication (Personal assistant - ESFJ)
I like organising and meeting deadlines. I dislike not being able to get people to follow procedures. (Executive Personal Assistant - INTJ)
phone calls (administrative assistant)
Rating 3/6
I like the variety of work to complete. I dislike interacting with the people. (legal secretary - ENFP)
Routine (Personal Assistant - ENTJ)
I dislike routine and monotony. I dislike being in an office by myself. I also dislike doing peoples work for them. (Personal Assistant to Director - ENTJ)
I have to follow set rules; not enough creativity or passion. (legal assistant - INFP)
Not creative enough, not structured enough, treated as less than - not given opportunity to explore new solutions/ideas. I like helping others and I like organizing. (Executive Secretary - INTJ)
Like getting things done, helping people, making things happen. Dislike heavy workload, surprises, unrealistic deadlines, lack of help. (pa - ISFJ)
Don’t like sitting at a desk all day Not enough people interaction Not challenging (Legal Assistant - ISFP)
I’m bored (Administrative Assistant)
Like: broking, negotiating, people seeking advice from me, corporate functions, responsibility, helping clients upon enquiry. Dislike: data entry, repition, mass volumes of work, long hours, printing, maticulous nature of work, high standards i.e. not one spelling mistake is accepted. (Junior Insurance Broker)
No real responsibilities But I manage my own time and am flexible in my work (Secretary)
Rating 2/6
No upper mobility; nothing new to learn; stagnant; boring; don’t feel appreciated or apart of team; (Office Automation Clerk - ENFP)
Treated disrespectually, and bogged down in administration. Love making appointments and talking to people - has a reasonable amount of technical challenging work, problem solving which is good. (Personal Assistant to Accountant - ENTP)
- Boring - Lack of a sense of urgency in tasks - Not doing anything to help people (tangibly) - Inactive (Assistant to the Executive Director and Board of Trustees at a Non-Profit - ESFP)
Being bored and not having anything to do. (Team Assistant - ESTP)
It’s repetive. (Assistant Admin Tec - INFJ)
Boring, need to learn and be involved in the creative process.... (Assistant to a film producer - INFJ)
Often I find the work I do is not meaningful to me. The larger purpose is important. (Administrative Associate - INFP)
Dislike desk based role and the mundane work (Personal assistant - INTJ)
It is boring and monotonous. I am not considered important (people don’t talk to me and frequently leave me out of group activities). I dislike being on display in an open plan office. I am not challenged by what I do, and I am suspicious of my employers intentions towards me. I feel hopeless as every time I start a new job I can never seem to keep up the same level of discipline. (Secretary - ISFJ)
i dislike sitting behind a computer all day long (reception - ISFP)
Being deskbound with too little variety. (Secretary to Senior Director - ISFP)
I dislike how monotonous the job is. I do about the same thing every day for the entire day. I also dislike the social pressures in an office because I am not good at holding a conversation or helping people with questions that I do not have clear answers to. (Student Worker - Administrative Assistant, doing errands - ISTJ)
dislike the routine of it, dislike not being respected more or allowed to make decisions like being in a nice, organized office with other professionals (administrative assistant)
no support, noone to delegate work to multiply effecitveness (assistant to managing partner of law firm)
The mundane work and inflexible hourse (Legal Secretary)
It’s tedious and monotonous. (P.A)
Rating 1/6
It’s incredibly boring and provides no challenge. (Secretary - INFJ)
It is boring, under-challenging and I am treated like an idiot (Administrative Assistant - INFP)
does not require any professional qualification and is repetitive and predictable (administrator)
i dislike that my job keeps me staring at a computer and does not allow me to do other things besides sit at a desk. (clerical)
working for someone else. having no creative outlet. monotonous. (PA)
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