My first years of employment were not anything that directly gave me experience in my chosen field, but they helped me develop a lot of professional skills and a basic idea of how the working world works.

Exactly this.

You know, I was thinking that it is unusual for a person to work themselves up from admin to something else at my uni, but I forgot that I had several years working in theatre before that, so I was not a shiny new grad with possibilities, I was lucky to get a job as an admin, what with my experience being in theatre and retail.

In higher education, I have had a lot of problems climbing out of the admin assistant field- there's a stigma there. I was at MIT for 6 years and promotions were not happening. Even with a Masters degree.

I feel somewhat toolish for giving up a soul sucking yet well paying job without something in hand, because that goes against everything I have believed, but... the soul sucking had reached a tipping point. Also, I had some unexpected money come into my life, which sort of helped make up my mind.

Also, NEW ORLEANS BAYBEE!!!

Yeah, Nora, I do think it matters what industry you're in. I could see academia is being very different.

I have to say that the anecdotal evidence I have at my University of people "working their way up" are either people who started in the early 70's or men. THey don't leave a man with a title of "secretary" or "admin assistant" for long.

THey don't leave a man with a title of "secretary" or "admin assistant" for long.

Yes.

Oh, and, for example, "Academic Counselor," "Admissions Counselor" and "FInancial Aid Counselor" are all them same level/grade as "Admin Asst" and both require the same qualifications, so you have to know to go into one of those if you eventually want to be a higher level staff member.

I guess I only have anecdotal evidence to go on, but when I come across an admin who has brains, ambition and a good attitude, I snag them for other roles as soon as I can. There are also people in that role who really love their role as is, and I leave them be. I've come across a few who relish the 9-5 it gives them; they want to be able to leave their jobs at the office.

One of my direct reports, who is now a senior manager, started here as a publishing assistant.

Well, in acedemia, I think the faculty staff divide, which is huge, encourages a professional/support staff divide as well Since all the ataff feels looked down upon by the faculty, then the upper staff members want to make sure they can look down upon the support staff.

At least here.

But I have/had brains, ambition and a good attitude (and I was praised for it) but it took me 10 years to reach the Admin Assistant Level, and both of those upgrades were essentially blackmail.

(And the male student I hired as a student, who we took on as a Secretary II when he graduated became one level higher than I in 6 months.)

My first job out of college was as an editorial assistant. Loved the editorial part, hated the admin stuff. My second job here at this company was an admin asst., which I really didn't like because my boss was a micromanager who had an obsession with having hard copy of just about everything that went through the department, so I spent at least half of my day standing at the copier and then watched the papers stack up on her two desks. Also, she didn't trust the writers to track their own PTO, so I had to. PITA and a stupid thing for me to do, since they were all JDs who should have known to keep track of their own damn vacation time.