Do you dream of becoming a celebrity assistant to the stars but don’t have any experience?
While securing such a position can seem like a difficult goal to achieve when your resume isn’t brimming over with relevant posts in the industry, it’s certainly not impossible.
If it’s a career you have your heart set on, a little determination and a lot of persistence can go a long way.
Make that resume shine
Your first chance to impress is with your resume.
It needs to stand out from the crowd for all the right reasons. When you don’t have an impressive job history that speaks for itself, you need to do everything you can to make your resume remarkable, despite your lack of experience.
Let’s take a look at some tips for building a brilliant resume that will help you compete with the more experienced applicants…
First things first, work on your education
Any short courses you have taken that relate to being a celebrity personal assistant should be included on your resume.
Unit Seven of our personal assistant certification course is called “Celebrity Assistant Essentials”, and is designed for anyone who wants to earn their certification and is also considering specializing in becoming a celebrity personal assistant.
So, if you have completed this course, you can add to your resume that you are a Certified Personal Assistant Professional (CPAP) and have completed training specific to becoming a celebrity assistant.
Think about your previous work experience
Just because you’ve never been a personal assistant before doesn’t necessarily mean that all your experience is invalid.
There are many facets to the work of a celebrity assistant, so there’s a good chance that there’s something in your work history that is in some way relevant to the jobs you’re now hoping to apply for.
So think about every role you’ve ever worked in and about how it could relate to the skills you need to be a good celebrity assistant.
Have you ever worked in an office? There’s a whole heap of abilities you’ll have learned there that are directly transferable to the work of a celebrity assistant.
Communication skills, organizational skills, the ability to efficiently use a range of software, organize calendars, arrange events, book travel… the list goes on.
Perhaps you’ve worked in the medical or legal fields, then you have experience dealing with confidential information.
Worked in a bank? Then you have financial and accounting skills.
Everything could be valid, and when you have no specific celebrity assistant experience, it’s time to really make the most of any skills you do have and feature them prominently in your resume.
Don’t overlook any work you’ve done as a volunteer, as a favor to a friend or family member, or as part of a hobby group.
Just because you weren’t paid for it, doesn’t mean it wasn’t valuable experience!
Highlight all your skills
In addition, think about the skills you’ve achieved outside of your employment history.
This could be more information that could bulk out an otherwise slender resume.
Do you speak any other languages? Perhaps you have great IT skills, or you’re a pro at booking travel. Maybe you’ve organized several events in the past and are an amazing party planner.
All these abilities could make you especially useful to a celebrity in need of an assistant.
Work on your resume layout
The very first impression your potential employer will have of you is that very initial glance at your resume.
Does it look neat and tidy? Is it clearly laid out? Have you used a font that is easy to read? Is your resume too brief or too lengthy? Does it look fresh and modern or dated and dreary?
Read it through and be honest with yourself. Does it sound generic, as if you’ve cut and pasted a sample resume from the internet?
Be sure it’s 100% perfect before you send it
There will be a great deal of competition for every celebrity assistant position you apply for.
When it comes to the important skills for the job, attention to detail is right up there at the top, and so, as criteria for narrowing down the applicants during the selection process, it’s not unusual for accuracy in the resume to be critical.
Any errors in spelling or grammar and that resume could be thrown straight into the trash. We always recommend using Grammarly or similar.
In this industry, you have to be spot-on in everything you do, and so a resume with issues is a big red flag.
If yours is 100% perfect, it could set your application above that of someone with years of experience, purely because their application had a typo.
It pays to be perfect, so double and triple-check your resume and cover letter, and then get someone else to check it too.
Be outstanding at the interview
A celebrity assistant works very closely with their employer.
You’re likely to be in their home, accompanying them on their work trips and even their family vacations.
You’ll be close to their partner and their children, and they’ll be in touch with you pretty much constantly.
So above all, they need to like you.
They need to feel at ease with you and be able to trust you.
So you need to show all these traits at interview. You need to come across as friendly, but not overbearing, you need to be caring, yet professional, efficient and organized. You need to be easy to deal with, yet discreet.
To be successful in this industry, this should be instinctive to you, this must be your natural personality, and so all you need to do is be yourself.
Don’t be overwhelmed by the thought of working for a celebrity. Remember they are just people after all.
Research some commonly asked interview questions and think about how you’d answer them, so you’re not left lost for words by an awkward or unexpected question.
You could even ask a friend to give you a mock interview so you can practice your skills.
In the meantime – gain experience
Securing a job as a celebrity assistant can be hard, but if you’re truly determined, you will get there in the end.
While you’re searching for your dream job, why not apply for other personal assistant positions, so you will have that experience to put on your resume and talk about in your cover letter?
While you may be lucky and get a job as a celebrity personal assistant without it, having experience will certainly put you at a huge advantage.
If it’s your dream to work as a celebrity assistant, putting in a couple of years building up your skills as a personal assistant in other areas will definitely benefit you in the long run.
