Profile on Fiona O' Neill, winner of the PA of the year in the medical & pharmaceutical industry

Fiona O’Neill who recently won the Medical & Pharmaceutical PA of the year awards run by PA-Assist.ie gives us a profile of her job and some career tips for those looking at a career as a PA.

Name:                                   Fiona O Neill

Title:                                     Business Support

Industry:                               Health Insurance

Size of Company                   900 employees +

Report to (title)              General Manager of Customer Services &

Individual Business

Day to Day Duties:

The Contact Centre in Vhi Healthcare handles over 3.45 million contacts per year through telephone, email, mail, website, text message and personal callers.   The Business Support role covers a wide range of duties and my primary job role is to support the departmental management team by co-ordinating meetings, presentations and running reports.   This supporting function also involves budget management, event management and co-ordinating employee satisfaction initiatives for a department of over 150 people.   This might be a cliché but every day is different.

How many years have you worked in this position?       

4.5 years

 Do you have a formal qualification?   If so what type?  

I hold a Diploma in Supervisory management, a Certificate in Event Management and I’m nearly finished year 2 of my Degree in Business Administration & Marketing.

 What was your biggest career break, and why?

Having access to a wide range of training and good mentoring opportunity have allowed me to expand and develop my skills   

What tips/advice would you give to someone interested in advancing their career as an office professional?

Asking for more responsibility signals to Management that you're no longer the average Joe or Jane who's just putting in time - instead you're demonstrating your initiative and how you care about the success of the company.

Learn something new.   Enrol yourself in training programs provided by your employer, or enrolling in classes in college.

 Out of 10, are you happy in your choice of career and if so why?

9/10

I truly believe I have found my niche.   I am happy with my choice of career as an office professional.

This position gives me the opportunity to dip into many different job roles across any organisation:

§          Finance through budget management

§          Marketing through event management

§          HR through employee satisfaction and morale

§          IT through working with system reports and maintaining/upgrading documents

§          Project management by the delivery of every task on time and within budget.

What are your top 3 favourite web sites?

www.pa-assist.ie             A great site for all office professionals

www.vhi.ie                    Has a wide range of health and lifestyle information

www.ccma.ie               The Contact Centre Management Association website has lots of industry information links

What shops would you buy most of your work outfits?

§          Savida – Dunnes Stores

§          Next

§          River Island