Whether you’re a temp PA seeking your next role or are looking to step up in your permanent PA job, chances are that you want to keep on improving in your PA career. A quick exercise to help you do this is conducting a personal SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis helps you avoid becoming stagnant, stay motivated, and keep climbing up the career ladder. As a top London PA recruitment agency, we love to help people improve their careers, so here’s our guide to the personal SWOT.
What is a personal SWOT analysis?
You might have been asked to do a SWOT analysis as part of your appraisal process in PA jobs, but this time, you’ll be doing the analysis by yourself, not with your boss. Rather than considering your performance in your current job and how you help the business, you’ll be thinking about your entire career and future career goals.
How do you conduct a personal SWOT analysis?
It’s best to choose a time when you’re feeling relaxed and motivated—not when you’ve just got home from an exhausting day of running around the office. Sit down with a notepad and write the headings “Strengths”, “Weaknesses”, “Opportunities”, and “Threats” in a grid. Before you start, commit to being entirely honest with yourself, as a SWOT analysis requires a true reflection of your situation and yourself. If you struggle with this, a great trick is being objective and looking at yourself from somebody else’s perspective when answering the questions.
What questions should you ask?
Start by asking yourself what your strengths are, not just in your current role, but in any PA job or for the step up to an EA job. What you are good at? What do you excel at? What are you the best at? This might be natural talents such as your top-notch organisation and planning skills, or things you’ve worked hard on, such as your ability to deliver a great presentation to clients.
Then consider your weaknesses. What could you be better at? What do you struggle with? What do you hate doing? This might be related to your current PA job, such as planning visas in plenty of time, or things you need for your step up to EA jobs, such as such as liaising confidently with CEOs.
Next, look at your opportunities. What external influences may help your career improve? For example, a growing industry, a flourishing economy, or advances in technology? You may be able to use software to sync diaries, track your time spent on tasks, or help you focus on those critical tasks.
Last, look at your threats. What external factors might harm your career prospects? For example, a lack of jobs in your location, a lot of competition in your industry, or possible redundancies in your company? Knowing these threats helps you to plan ahead and consider your options.
What do you do with this information?
Knowledge is power, as they say. Use this information to create an action plan. For each part of the grid, list how you can improve on your strengths and get even better, work on improving your areas of weakness, take advantage of opportunities, and make a back-up plan to avoid threats. Then start doing it—small steps, every day.
If you’d like more top tips on how to improve in your PA career or are looking for temporary or permanent PA jobs in London and further afield, get in touch with the team at Love Success PA recruitment agency today.
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