Become an Inner Circle Assistant

After attending various assistant workshops over the years it's mostly the same 'rah-rah, you can do it' info and encouragement. Depending on your job and the management much of her ideas won't fly. If you work for a BIG corp. much of the hierarchy is establshed and many pracitces and policies are in place that you can't change. If you have a boss who is human and not in lock-step with management then maybe you can advance but most companies will still see you only as an assistant. I don't know many assistants who manage some of the projects she mentioned in her book. I think it's the smaller companies that have you trying to find ways to manage a budget, etc. In my company our budgets are set by the finance dept. and we have big contracts in place for things like supplies and travel.I did pick up a few ideas but nothing ground-breaking. I'll try to incorporate them into my daily routine.

This is the rare book for assistants that doesn't dumb down the role and instead, gives great advice on how to improve your job and look at it from different perspectives and tap into your strengths to everyones benefit. If you're looking for advice on how to run a software program, this isn't for you but if you want to learn how to really get the most out of the resources you have and make the position one that is invaluable to the team, this is a great book. This book may be more beneficial for someone in a corporate environment at mid to upper level positions rather than a small company.

I was hoping to glean some new information from this book. Although I already consider myself an "inner circle" assistant, there is always something new to learn. I can say that I didn't get very much substance from the book (unless you count all the notes that I should put in my laptop case or write in my notebook that I have embossed with my initials--both suggested by Ms. Burge). There were large parts of it that I finally just skimmed because it was so boring.If you are an administrative professional who is in they early stages of your career, this may be a good book for you. If you've been in an upper-level administrative role for a period of time, I'd recommend skipping this book. The good thing for the author is that I bought her second book when I bought the first. Otherwise, I'm fairly certain I wouldn't have made another puchase. I hope my second review will be better.

I have the paperback version and it is dog-eared! Buy this book if you are interested in a career as an Administrative/Personal Assistant. This is my first purchase from Joan Burge's collection. She really knows the field of Office Administration.You will find encouragement, advice and wonderful examples of how to advance in your career.

I dont know if this book has valuable information or not. It is as boring and dry as a communion wafer so I didn't make it past page 50. I'm a 100% non-fiction girl, so when I say it's boring, you can trust me, its boring!