The life of celebrities is beyond the comprehension of common man most of the times. Their lifestyle, daily routines, the screaming fans, tons of fan mails, fabulous parties, functions; the setting is so huge, colorful, and complex, all at the same time. Being a personal assistant to such a starlet earns one as much as $100,000 per year or more, plus a piece of that lavish lifestyle, something most people can only dream about.

For celebrities, their stardom or fame is sometimes a curse as well. They tend to be at the center of attention, of cameras, everywhere they go. But they are humane as well; they also need to shop for their daily chores, cook food, meet doctor or dentist periodically, go to the gym, meet directors and read/hear scripts, arrange datesand#226;and#128;and#166;it is an unending and daunting task and mostly not possible for a single person to handle everything daily. This is where they rely on personal assistant(s), to be with them as their shadows, do and get things done for them, handle the many phone calls and fan mails, arrange and schedule meetings, handle accounts, do all household and office management, schedule press interactions, and act as an all-in-one machine to which the celebrity can frequently delegate the weirdest things to. With such a person around, the celebrity can, to an extent, lead a semi private life, which otherwise wonand#226;and#128;and#153;t be possible given the amount of action centered on them. And for the aspiring private assistants, it is a lucrative job, chance to hobnob with the famous, trips abroad, parties, and meeting people, many of them.

So, how to kick start your journey to becoming a successful celebrity personal assistant?
Well, to begin with, find out yourself what type of a celebrity or star you want to serve. In other words, it is not film stars, actors and actresses, alone who need a personal assistant generally. Politicians, sports person, wealthy businessman, directors, famous book authors, motivational speakers, or simply anyone who is busy all the time and has enough money to pay for a personal assistantand#226;and#128;and#153;s monthly salary need one badly. They think they cannot order their life and work without a second personand#226;and#128;and#153;s help. So, it is quite a wide playing field, and for an aspiring personal assistant, the job is to choose the profession or type of person whom they want to associate themselves with. Itand#226;and#128;and#153;ll be better to choose a person whoand#226;and#128;and#153;s filed of activity you are familiar with or interested in. Thatand#226;and#128;and#153;ll make the job a lot easier for you, and celebrities also prefer such people in their staff.

But similar interests alone wonand#226;and#128;and#153;t make one a good celebrity personal assistant. An aspiring personal assistant to a celebrity has to auger well with their job, and this requires lots of skills as well as good mannerisms and above all, loads of common sense. Ideally, celebrities look for personal assistants who know a little bit of everything. They wonand#226;and#128;and#153;t expect their personal assistant to jumble for an answer when asked about sending an email or when it comes to transferring data from their palm pilot to a PC. Instead, what celebrities look for is an internet savvy, technologically competent person with good etiquette knowledge and an uncanny knack to organize and schedule the work, parties, meetings, and other social commitments and related things without much fuss always. Above all, since going to share such a close relationship with the celebrity, sort of being like a family person, the personal assistants are expected to be integral and display strength of character. After all, no celebrity would want their personal assistants, whom they pay for, to go and leak their private life to give-me-the-spoof type of magazines.
The bottom line and#226;and#128;and#147; aspiring personal assistants, build on their overall skills in advance!

So, where to go to learn these skills or what to do to make oneself and#226;and#128;and#152;celebrity personal assistant readyand#226;and#128;and#153;? Well, as of now, there is no special courses ear marked and#226;and#128;and#152;celebrity personal assistant trainingand#226;and#128;and#153; or and#226;and#128;and#152;personal assistant training courseand#226;and#128;and#153;. But, a part of the required skills can be learnt by enrolling for a computer basic course, something like household management courses (for butlers and household managers), and event planning courses offered by certain community colleges. As the job of a personal assistant is not a specialized one, but one needs lots of common sense and overall basic skills, a lot weighs on the ability and hard work of the person concerned.

However, if given a chance, no method is better than learning the tricks of the trade by doing the job itself. Well, being a and#226;and#128;and#152;fresherand#226;and#128;and#153; celebrity personal assistantand#226;and#128;and#153; could be a far fetched idea, but catching a client who is a and#226;and#128;and#152;non-celebrityand#226;and#128;and#153; and working with him/her for few months as a personal assistant gives a rare peep into the near daily lifestyle of a celebrity and the dimensions of the work itself. Most of the factors, such as work, working hours, organizing things etc, will be the same, minus the stress and dynamic nature of a celebrityand#226;and#128;and#153;s life and lifestyle. Well, on the last part, one mentally trained to be a personal assistant should manage or adjust to within some days after being in the job in the normal case. It is a job that requires a lot of attitude to succeed on a longer run.

We have been through the basic four important steps for becoming a celebrity personal assistant. These are finding the right person, developing oneand#226;and#128;and#153;s skills so as to match that of a personal assistant, learn the skills that you think might be missing in you, and if possible, manage an on the job training in the form of an assistant to a non celebrity.

But this is only half the race for much more may be needed before one could finally become the CPA or celebrity personal assistant. In other words, in order to implement the newly acquired skill sets and the carefully tailored mindset, plus the experience, there should be the job offer at hand. That is, start searching for a celebrity personal assistant job straightaway. There are many ways by which one could do this effectively.

One is networking hard. Let others and#226;and#128;and#147; your acquaintances, friends, relatives, and even strangers and#226;and#128;and#147; know that you are an aspiring celebrity personal assistant and is seriously searching for a job of similar profile. Another effective technique is to somehow and#226;and#128;and#147; though through legal ways only and#226;and#128;and#147; meet the celebrities in person as though in a professional way by becoming a part time production assistant or any similar job on a movie set. Once develop the freedom to convey some words apart from the pleasantries, you can let them know about your ambition and skills you have acquired for the same. Who knows, right at that moment, they might be looking to recruit a personal assistant or some of their celebrity friends may be doing the same and would have asked this person to refer any fitting candidate coming his/her way. If it is the latter case, a reference from the celebrity personality wonand#226;and#128;and#153;t be such a bad idea, and in fact, it increases oneand#226;and#128;and#153;s chances for the job.

Yes, meeting a celebrity by first getting oneself recruited as an employee in a movie set is definitely innovative. But always such ideas may not work for such situations require other factors as well to fall in place at the same time. Therefore, it is also a very practical idea to search the addresses/contact information of celebrities and get in touch with their publicist, agent or even their current personal assistant. Sometimes, they might not need one for the time being. But when an opening arises, there is reasonable chance that they might browse back through your resume, and who knows, you might get a call as well.

Finally, take time everyday to scan the news papers. There could be an ad requesting applications from aspiring personal assistants for some celebrityand#226;and#128;and#153;s office.

Now, having built the path to the celebrity door step, next comes the biggest hurdle, the screening and#226;and#128;and#147; most done by the celebrity agent or outgoing personal assistant sometimes and#226;and#128;and#147; and sometimes the main interview. Here, for those who have done the homework well, need to a bit cautious in avoiding typical mistakes that is viewed as sort of negative by the interviewer. In some ways, itand#226;and#128;and#153;s like any other job interview; attitude counts a lot.

The typical mistakes that people tend to make include being over zealous or trying too hard to crack the interview or to do something weird in order to somehow manage a reference to the celebrity. It is important that one talks the right things at the right moments. A well written and planned script, read a couple of times in advance, would help to talk few lines that makes sense in the context and sound professional at the same time. Better, avoid divulging too much personal information about oneself, sounding too eager to get the job, or mention that you are dreaming about launching a showbiz career after securing the private secretary job. Instead, itand#226;and#128;and#153;ll be a good idea to market your skills and talents for thatand#226;and#128;and#153;ll win you few brownie points when it matters the most at a later time.

From the foregoing, it is quite obvious that the visibility one manages amongst the celebrities is very crucial or decisive in oneand#226;and#128;and#153;s future success in securing the job. One way to maximize the visibility is to join a number of agencies that recruit CPAs. In fact, most celebrity personal assistants who had made the cut will agree to this old method. There are a dozen of agencies out there that are deemed to be quite effective in marketing CPAs. Theyand#226;and#128;and#153;ll guide you as to whom you should contact or which amongst their clients are currently in lookout for a trained and professional celebrity personal assistant.

In fact, becoming a celebrity personal assistant is a long drawn out effort, sometimes taking months before hitting gold. According to experienced CPAs like Jonathan Holiff, who had been worked for many years with more than one celebrity, it is not about oneand#226;and#128;and#153;s skills and temperament, but the success of the job has lots to do with the personality match as well. In other words, the CPA and the celebrity must be able to go together smoothly. There should be this element of understanding and mutual comfort levels working always between both the people. Holiff goes on the mention that hence it may take sometime before one would actually find the right person whom he/she want to work under really. In other words, according to Holiff, it is not just about cracking the first interview, but also about choosing the right celebrity or personality.

For CPAs, there is room for improvement always. There are lots of professional organizations out there that assist CPAs with further training and extending them a helping hand when it comes to finding new heights in career development. However, only CPAs can join these organizations. So seek out a job as the first step. Add a Comment Back to All Articles