Being a personal assistant to a celebrity sounds exciting, doesn’t it?
Mingling with the stars, travelling to exotic destinations, spending your days with someone rich and famous. And yes, the job does have an element of excitement, and it’s a cool answer when someone asks what you do for a living, but working as a personal assistant for a celebrity isn’t all glitz and glamor.
It’s a very tough and demanding job, and when the novelty of working for a celeb wears off, you’re just working for another client, and quite possibly one who is extra demanding and hard to please.
Due to its obvious appeal, getting a job as a personal assistant with a celebrity is not easy. It’s competitive, and the celebrity is likely to have a high budget and can afford the very best.
They won’t be picking a rookie personal assistant straight out of college, they’ll be looking for someone with an excellent track record and a wealth of experience.
Is being a personal assistant for a celebrity right for you?
Getting a job as a personal assistant for a celebrity is not going to be easy, so before you dedicate yourself to pursuing this career, you should definitely put a lot of thought into the realities of the job, and whether or not it would truly suit you and your lifestyle.
Traveling overseas for work sounds like a lot of fun, but it can also be lonely, and of course, you’re there for work, it’s not your vacation. Are you able to just drop everything and take an extended trip abroad? Would you miss your own friends and family too much? Or do you have personal commitments that mean you can’t be that flexible?
Are you incredibly patient? Are you happy to be available 24/7? Are you good in a crisis and able to solve problems quickly and efficiently?
These are all the questions you should be asking yourself before you dive into a career as a celebrity personal assistant.
So now you’ve carefully weighed up the pros and cons and decided it’s still your dream job, let’s take a look at how you can make it happen!
Experience is vital
Perhaps the trickiest obstacle to overcome will be gaining relevant experience if you don’t have any.
A celebrity personal assistant is a position most people have to work their way up to, rather than something you can jump straight into.
But if this is your dream job, then it’s well worth putting in the effort to become the very best personal assistant and work towards your goal.
You should be applying for any personal assistant positions you can get. It will all be excellent experience and it will make your resume look impressive.
Of course, if your ultimate aim is to be a celebrity personal assistant, then giving priority to the more high-profile employers could be a good move.
If you’ve already worked for a prestigious client, it will certainly benefit you.
It takes a certain type of person to work with the wealthy and famous, and so this experience will prove to a potential celebrity employer that you already have what it takes. They’ll know you’re competent, discreet, and professional. All the skills that are key to being a good personal assistant, and essential for working as a personal assistant to a celebrity.
Have an impeccable reputation
Celebrities have enough to deal with keeping their own reputation squeaky clean without worrying about you bringing them into disrepute.
If you’ve ever been convicted of a crime, or you have other skeletons in your closet, sadly it’s time to put aside your dreams of being a celebrity personal assistant and work towards another career goal.
Many employers will search for you online and check out your social media.
If you work for a celebrity, then you may also have fans and the media delving into your past and looking for anything newsworthy.
Before you embark on this career you may want to check all your social media.
That silly photo of you drunk on your birthday, or the mean comment you posted about someone may be fine when shared among your friend group, but if you become the personal assistant to a high-profile celebrity, it becomes another matter entirely.
It could cause a lot of embarrassment down the line, but more likely, it would prevent you from getting the job in the first place.
Celebrities don’t need any more drama!
Get to work on your public profile now to ensure that when anyone searches for you in the future, there are only good things about you to find!
Improve your skills
Another great way to stand out from the other applicants is to be more capable than them.
While your experience is a very good indicator of your abilities, you can back this up by getting some skills and qualifications under your belt.
Certifications such as the Personal Assistant Certification offered here at the Personal Assistant Institute show your dedication to being the very best in your field and assure potential employers that you have what it takes to get the job done well.
With the work of a personal assistant being so very varied, there are always new directions in which you can take your studies to add to your abilities.
You can learn the latest office software, take courses in communication and public speaking or you could study accounting and office management.
You could branch out and learn some languages, opening up more opportunities to work with celebrity clients looking for a personal assistant who speaks their native language.
Create an outstanding resume
Learning these new skills, and passing qualifications, are all going to help your resume stand out from the crowd, and this is absolutely vital.
Your resume is make or break for your job application. It could be your passport to an amazing new career.
It doesn’t matter how fabulous you come across in an interview if you don’t get that far. Your resume needs to speak for you, so you can get to the next stage and speak for yourself at interview.
So highlight all your skills and experience. Make sure your resume is well laid out, giving all relevant information without being too lengthy. Use a font that is easy to read and ensure your most important and recent experience stands out.
It may help to use a resume template, and get some ideas for content online, but don’t copy any examples verbatim, or paste in AI-generated content. This can easily be detected and could well go against you.
Finally, check it over several times, and get other people to check it for you too.
With attention to detail being one of the major skills of a great personal assistant, failure to spot a spelling mistake is a fatal flaw in a resume when applying for a job as a personal assistant with a celebrity!