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.

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.

And there are those who want to move up the admin ladder and hit Senior Executive Admin.

I learned that one of the women here started out as a temp, was hired as an admin, then two years later took a patent paralegal course and some trademark classes, and was recently promoted to Senior Patent Paralegal, Trademark Administrator. Another woman came in as admin and then moved to Contracts. One of my old co-workers started out at as an admin and became a Drug Safety Associate as the job required it.

This could be unique to small, growing biotechs, though.

I come across an admin who has brains, ambition and a good attitude, I snag them for other roles as soon as I can.

Yeah, I've never had anyone like this as a mentor. I don't think I've ever had a mentor. I just mostly try to scrap by best I can. Mostly to not much success.

I don't know. I have always thought of myself as hard working, creative, smart, and good with people. Apparently, though...

Oh, wah. I'm getting myself into a funk. t tiny violin

Semi relatedly: I had to take the Meyer-Briggs AGAIN for theatre (we are having a team building day with HR) and I am still an INFP. This may explain my issue with my coworker as well as my inability to get ahead.

Nora- I cannot tell you how much I relate to your story. Even being encouraged to get a Master's I am reluctant, because I feel it will make me overqualified. But you up and moved to New Orleans. And, like me, you are probably not actually suited to office work, and it is going to be great for you there!

ETA: I have been actually told by supervisors that I should not work so hard or fast, because I would never fit in in University culture, where everything was slow, and not that well done!

Kat, when does your Vitamax arrive??

javachick, according to FedEx it's in Reno right now.

Well, the president of my division is a former World Languages editor, but I'm not sure that could happen these days when even our current Editor-in-Chief is actually from Sales (which is how my job became 50% market development). Le sigh.