Blog for Admin/ Executive Assistant

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Don't Settle for Less than What You Deserve!

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Admins, did you know?

You can submit RFPs (Request for Proposals) to hotels and large event spaces to get a quote AND a dedicated representative to help you with your search? For example, Marriott and Hyatt both have this service. If you're planning a large event like a conference, you can submit a RFP and the representative will send you a list of hotels that meet your budget, location, and other requirements! A HUGE TIME SAVER instead of you doing research on each individual hotel, the hotel chains will compare them for you! My representative would negotiate on my behalf (to the hotel) as well when I push back on budget/ perks. I used to plan a 120+ person conference for 3 days 2 nights using this service. Best of all, it's FREE to use AND you get Marriott/ Hyatt awards (points) and (usually) elite status to use for personal travel!

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Admins, did you know?

S.W.A.G. stands for "Something We All Get" Kinda cool, huh?

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Let’s Talk Money - Admin Real Talk

Minimum Wage: If you’re making minimum wage in an administrative role, you either have zero experience and no college degree, or no college degree and little relative experience.

Salary: If you’re salaried, you’re either working at a start up and they can’t afford overtime OR you’re making over $130k USD a year at an established company. 

Hourly (base rate): Entry Level (receptionists, office manager, office assistant, etc) - little to no experience = anywhere from floating around minimum wage to usually as high as $25/ hr. Mid Level (administrative assistants, lower level executive assistants, etc) - this is the level with the widest range, usually consists of hourly with overtime in the tech industry (again, $130k+ for salaried). For hourly, ranging anywhere from $30/hr - $55/hr for larger companies or late stage start ups. Smaller companies or early stage start ups will pay salary starting at $60k+, and starting at $90k+ for C-level support. Senior Level (Executive Assistant to “someone really senior”) - usually they are salaried to guarantee a higher wage, but I’ve met quite a few admins who don’t want a promotion because usually they will make less without the overtime. We’re looking at $150k+, and you can really go as high as high 200s and lower 300s base for those with overtime, and at a good company with good benefits and competitive compensation you’re looking at an additional $15k+ with equity and year end bonuses.

If we don’t talk about it, we’re the only one losing out on compensation. If you’re offered lower than the based $$$ I’ve described, especially in the tech space (ed-tech, fin tech, etc), ask for more because you deserve more! Well... at the very least, others are being paid more because you weren’t talking about it.

The data is from personal experience, talking with others, being a part of admin communities that talk about compensation, and aggressively looking at sites like Glassdoor and Comparably. Companies will tell you they are paying you a competitive salary, but WHO are they competing with? Ask them what percentile they are comparing themselves to, within their perspective industry.

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[Time Zones] PT & PDT & PST

Do you know the difference? There is a difference between the 3 of them so make sure you’re not using them interchangeably! I know I was for awhile...

PDT: Pacific Daylight (Savings) Time = UTC- 7:00

PST: Pacific Standard Time = UTC- 8:00 PT: Pacific Time (similar to when you say “local time”) 

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It's OK to mess up

admins everywhere

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FREE Team Resource for Different Occasions!

Are you looking for a free way to celebrate with your team? Here’s one that I found & tested with my teams...

OpenMe.Com

This website allows you to do send a group card for free! A group card is a card signed by a group of people. This website allows you to send a virtual card. On the card, every person (invited with a link) is allowed to create an account once, write a nice note & post a picture (if they wish). The service is free forever (according to the website). The upside, it’s free, it works, and people appreciate the team effort! You can also schedule send so it sends automatically on a specific day. The downside, the pictures are small and can be hard to see, and you have to time it correctly to have it send (if you’re trying to send it on a specific time). When I did a test run, I remember there was a time difference... maybe it was set to a specific timezone as the default? I don’t think anyone is managing the site anymore so it’s just sent automatically and that means no customer service/ support team. I mean it’s free, and it’s a great tool nonetheless. Go give it a shot!

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Does anyone else feel like interviewing is like you’re on a roller coaster ride???

When you find a role (roller coaster ride) you really like, you have your hopes up and it feels you’re on top of the world when you’re on the ride (interviewing). Once they reject you you feel like you’ve reached the end of the ride with the ride cut wayyy short. Then you’ll have to climb your way back up the mountain waiting in line behind endless amount of people and repeat the process every time you’re offered a chance to interview.

The downside is you don’t even know WHAT ride you’re waiting in line for half the time. The upside is, at least you have admission to get on the ride (even if it’s just 5 seconds).

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I had the honor to participate in a virtual escape room (called remote adventure) hosted by #AmazonPrimeVideo & #TheEscapeGame 🔥🔥🔥 for #TruthSeekers this past weekend and it was super fun!!!

I highly recommend playing a virtual escape game through The Escape Game!!!

Why?

1. They offer a variety of different escape room & team building options. They have virtual escape rooms for teams that are located in different locations AND physical escape rooms that is currently open during the pandemic. The physical rooms are per group so you’re not sharing a room with strangers. The setback is that the cost might be different and if you don’t have enough people it’ll be difficult to get out of certain rooms in time (I imagine, I love escape rooms).

We played the virtual escape room option with a live technician that was in the physical escape room!!! We guided our technician through the room and we made it out of the room in time! It was definitely a thrilling experience even though we weren’t physically in the room. 💕💕💕

2. Pricing varies. Their games can accommodate a lot of people and different budgets. Their most affordable option is also fun to play with just family and friends (1-4 players). I believe the pricing for the game we played is around $30-$40 per person ($30+tax per person for remote adventure, up to 8 person per game but they can accommodate up to groups of 500+, and $41.99 per person for a San Francisco location in-person 2-8 person private game), but I would check their website & inquire to be sure.

3. Format. We had a host AND a technician for our group of 5. The host is there the entire time with us just in case we run into any problems. The technician is in the physical escape room and we tell her what to touch, where to look, and what to do. It definitely made the experience more immersive and very memorable. I was so excited towards the end I was telling (practically screaming!) our technician to run out of there before she gets caught. I knew there wasn’t anyone that was actually after us but I was that absorbed into the game by the end. 

They start off with a video getting us ready with the background information of the game, instead of a host just reading it to us. At the very end, there was even a “win” video.

I was skeptical about virtual escape games but after this one, I’m excited to try as many as I can. Go try it today, you won’t regret it!

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안녕! I’ve been learning Korean in my free time now that WFH has become the new norm.

How are you taking advantage of your remote work day? 😊

Being adaptable to change and making the best use of my days keeps me motivated and excited about the challenges ahead.

What keeps you motivated and excited when you’re required to “work from home”?

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Quick Tip: Zoom Link & GCal

Normal tip: There is a GCal “add Video Conferencing” option where you can sign into Zoom and add your “randomly assigned” or “personal” meeting ID to every meeting. Instead of creating a zoom link in your zoom account then copy & paste it in the calendar invites every time. Ta-da! Advanced tip: Install the “Zoom for GSuite” add-on while you’re in GCal so you can edit advanced details of your zoom link. With the add-on, you can create a waiting room, create passcode, mute participates upon entry, and so forth BEFORE you create the meeting AND you won’t have to use the “Zoom Scheduler” chrome extension that’s only available on a signed-in chrome browser. What’s a Zoom Scheduler? What do you need it for? That’s another tip for another day :)

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3 Virtual Team Building Ideas

It’s really tough during COVID-19 for teams to stay connected and feel connected. While it may be hard to come up with new ideas for team building during your already-very-busy day, here are 3 ideas from me! If enough people like this post, maybe I’ll post one with FREE team building ideas :)

1. The Escape Game- Virtual Team Building

Why? Remote Adventures consists of a real game host AND a game guide. The game host will be on zoom with your team just like you have a host when you go to an in-person escape room. While you’ll be directing a game guide that is live streaming from the physical environment and by searching 360 images. *YOUTUBE VIDEO featuring remote adventures. Size: Good for teams of 2 - several hundred “The Escape Game Unlocked is an all-digital escape room style mystery game. Team up to solve puzzles, uncover clues and complete a mission. Play in small groups (1-4) and compete with other groups. An Unlocked event is a great virtual team outing for teams of 1 – 1 million! In Volume 1 of Unlocked, The Heist: Chasing Hahn, your team will work to stop an infamous art thief before another masterpiece goes missing.” *Here’s a YOUTUBE VIDEO featuring TEG Unlocked Pricing: TEG’s regular in-house games are between $32.99 - $37.99 per session per person. I have not quoted their virtual team building experiences but these large team sessions usually have a minimum and then priced per person after you’ve hit the minimum $.

2. Jackbox Games

All of Jackbox Games’s game are easy-to-play.

Why? “Players join by simply using the web browser on their smartphone – no app needed! Each pack contains a variety of different games that might ask you to draw weird doodles, write the best inside joke, or answer hilarious trivia questions. There are hours of laughs in every pack! Available on just about every platform except the smart fridge, The Jackbox Party Packs are ready to take your get-together to the next level. Or at least to the level right below that one.”

Here are two games I recommend for team building and large groups: Quiplash is really popular and you can find celebrities online playing them. The game is pretty simple, you’re given an odd prompt and you give your best answer. Then other players and the audience vote on the best one. It’s fun to play and funny to watch because some answers get so bizarre! Depending on the version, you can have up to 10,000 people in the audience. *Here’s a Quiplash 2 example

Fibbage is also really popular and is excellent for large teams. Fibbage is especially awesome for trivia lovers! It asks obscure trivia questions while each player is asked to give an answer and then choose an answer they think is the correct one. The objective is to get other players to choose your fake answer AND then you choose the correct one. It’s really fun because you learn a lot (from the real obscure trivia answers) while you’re able to be creative and come up with obscure answers to fool others! *Here’s a Fibbage XL example

Pricing: Their party packs vary between $12.49 to $64.99. You can also purchase game individually, price vary between $4.99 - $20.99 so I highly recommend purchasing the packs instead.

3. Paint The Town - Pet Portraits

I have yet to try this out but it looks like a reallyyyyy good idea. First, you get each of your teammates to purchase a kit and have it delivered to their homes. Then you schedule a video call to paint them together. The sketch takes time to do, so plan ahead! They recommend ordering at least 10 days before your event date.

Each kit comes with a detail sketch of your pet upon purchase and sending in your pet photos. Kits are $30 each. Then at $25 per person with a minimum of 5 people for a private session for two hours, you can have an interactive instructor on Zoom to guide you. If you have a budget constraints or have less than 5 people, ask for a recorded tutorial. There are other painting options on their websites if painting pets are not your team’s thing. Regular painting sessions are $20 per person, and with a larger group they do offer discounts. That’s all for now, stay safe everyone!

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Losing your job because of COVID-19 sucks, but this is where the real test begins. Will you succumb to fear and instability, or will you come out stronger and better?

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Know your worth

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We can not control the environment, all we can do is control how we react to it.

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Who else is losing track of their weekends???

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Here’s my recent trip to Bangkok! I was able to go because my company has an unlimited/ flexible vacation policy!