How to win that EA award you really want

So you’ve finally decided to pluck up the courage to enter that EA award you’ve been eyeing for a while. You’re confident that you’ve got the necessary experience, skills and accomplishments to present a winning case and you’ve studied what the previous winners have done to get to where they are.

What next?

Below are three tips to help ensure your application is given the best possible chance of success. These tips are taken from reading hundreds of entries as well as speaking with our judging panel on what criteria they look for.

1. Note the application’s criteria carefully

When applying for our Page Personnel EA of the Year award, our judges will be using the following criteria when deciding on who they consider to be a winning entry:

• Commercial impact – How your role has an impact on the bottom line and on employee engagement through the support you’ve provided to the business and your Executive.
• Your passion for the role and your profession. Show some examples of how you are seen as a role model in the EA space and an influencer in persuading others to consider a career in this field.
• Going above and beyond in the best interests of the business (e.g. our 2015 winner Linda Janson (EA to the CIO Virgin) was removing bags from planes when there was a baggage handler strike, in order to keep planes flying)!

2. Research what made the previous winners stand out

We’ve published two articles on our previous winners Megan Green and Larissa Auditore, noting their significant accomplishments and achievements that stood out for us. For example, Larissa had developed her company’s EA network, providing professional development and mentoring opportunities to her peers and those assistants starting out in the profession.

Megan meanwhile, had Introduced and implemented a mobile messaging app that provided a significant reduction in the overuse of emails and provided on-the-spot mobile communication.

Our previous finalist Nyssa Lambkin is a subject matter expert for her company’s [Ernst & Young] time sheeting and expense system, while Simone Koolloos was helping her CEO Christine Holgate juggle multiple executive roles and board memberships at the same time.  

3. Check your spelling and grammar

It may seem a trivial detail but you’d be surprised how easy it is to submit an application dotted with spelling and grammatical errors, particularly when doing so online. Whether you type out your entry in Word first or enter it straight onto our online form, ensure to double check for errors that are easily missed. Don’t simply rely on Word’s spell checker as it’s easy to miss correctly spelled words used in the wrong context.

Have a friend or colleague read out your submission, which also helps ensure that it reads well.  

We wish you all the best with your entry and look forward to reading it!

Ready to enter? Find out more here.