Secretary: A job path to run your own business

JAKARTA (JP): A secretary is not a boss, but he or she can become one, too. Having closely worked with executives is a major asset that secretaries can use to become bosses themselves. The path is there if they have the ambition, ability and effort to directly enter the business world as employers.

Entrepreneur Enny Hardjanto explained that secretaries learn to juggle a broad variety of jobs, just like managers. By virtue of the very role they play in business organizations, secretaries acquire managerial skills.

"However, few people realize this and consequently only a few secretaries are rewarded," Enny told a seminar on Strategies for Self Improvement, From Secretary to Director held last week.

Enny, who was formally a secretary, said that the job provides opportunities for improvement.

"She can just see her position as a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job or consider it as a stepping stone to a better career. If she considers the latter, she is ready for advancement."

Mien R. Uno, vice president of the Indonesian chapter of the Boston-based John Robert Powers school for career and personality development, agreed that there was a big opportunity for secretaries to improve their career.

"Secretaries are bionic women. They have to do everything for their bosses, including lying to journalists to avoid the press. But they build relations and establish networks. It is up to them what they want in their career," she said.

Enny, however, underlined that secretaries must have a strong will to change their profession.

"They must have the desire to change their profession," she said. "Some women are happy enough working as secretaries since they are never pushed to make any decision like most employers or company owners do," she said.

Desire, alone is not enough. Ambition, ability and effort are all required in the process of self-improvement, she said, adding that higher, formal education is not an absolute necessity.

She said everyone can learn by themselves. "Just read books, surf the Internet. The time is there to improve."

Enny, born in May 1949, said she started her career as a typist at the First Indonesian Convention Center. Within six months she became a secretary and then a supervisor in the same company.

Enny studied at a foreign medical school, making it impossible for her to work in as a physician when she returned to Indonesia. "I was overqualified to work as a nurse, paramedic or midwife at that time," she recalled.

"Then I joined pharmaceutical company Warner Lambert where I really changed from a pure scientist to a business-minded person."

In the fourth year, she moved to Unilever. She later joined Citibank to handle a new business, marketing credit cards.

Now Enny runs her own businesses: a direct marketing company, catering service and executive service provider.

"What is important in secretarial work is how to arrange your schedule and how to be able to cooperate. A secretary also has to understand her boss' personal matters. My secretary now understands my tastes in food, clothing and entertainment. So when I have to go abroad, she has a list of how to find foods and entertainment which meet my needs. She also prepares my clothes."

Enny's rule is "I'll do my best for my job and myself".

"One thing you have to remember when you become a boss: Don't be a workaholic. If you want to stay at office until late, don't ask your secretary to stay as well. It's not efficient. There are many other things to do tomorrow." (icn)