Personal Assistant
A personal assistant manages the diary, correspondence and daily admin of one executive, manager or business owner, protecting that person's time.
- Median salary
- $95,300
4.2%vs last year, before tax
- People employed
- 50,900
0.4%vs last year
- Projected growth
- −5.8%
to 2035
- AI exposure*
- Moderate
- automation risk
- Average hours
- 41/wk
+1h vs all jobs
- Shortage status
- Not in shortage
national
Personal assistants look after one person's calendar, inbox, travel and paperwork, working directly with the manager they support rather than for a wider team. Employers are most often professional services firms, government agencies and health services, where a manager's day is packed with meetings and deadlines. The nearest role is the executive assistant, and the two overlap heavily; what usually separates them is scope, since an executive assistant is more likely to take on board papers, budgets and project work as well.
How much do personal assistants earn?
The median full-time salary for a personal assistant is $95,300 per annum, before tax, up $20,000 since 2018.
Pay moves most with the seniority of the person you support and the sector you work in, because award coverage and enterprise agreements differ between government, health care and small business. Agency and labour hire placements usually pay an hourly loading in place of paid leave and job security. Part-time and school-hours roles are common, so the same title can cover very different weekly earnings.
What does a personal assistant do day to day?
The list below is what fills most weeks; the exact mix shifts with seniority and whatever stage the current work is at.
- Managing a manager's calendar in Outlook, moving meetings when priorities shift and protecting blocks of focus time
- Sorting the inbox and drafting replies, flagging what genuinely needs the manager to decide
- Booking travel and accommodation, then reworking itineraries when a flight or a meeting changes
- Taking minutes, writing up reports and formatting documents in Word and Excel, then following up the actions
- Processing expense claims and invoices and keeping small administrative budgets on track
What skills do personal assistants need?
Employers look for , backed by Microsoft Outlook fluency and strong written communication.
Specialist skills
Software and tools
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft Word
- Microsoft Excel
- Google Workspace
- Project management software
General skills
- Written communication
- Stakeholder management
- Time and deadline management
- Attention to detail
- Problem solving
- Customer service
Is the job growing?
About 50,900 people work as personal assistants in Australia, and employment is projected to decline 5.8% over the decade to 2035. That's a real decline, worth weighing carefully before training into the role.
How do you become a personal assistant?
Here's the path most personal assistants take, step by step.
- 1Finish Year 12 or a vocational qualification
There is no licensing requirement for this work. About 33% of people working as personal assistants hold Year 12 or below as their highest qualification, and a certificate III or IV in business or business administration is the other common way in, often studied while already working in an office.
- 2Get comfortable with the software
Outlook, Word and Excel are the daily tools, along with whichever booking, records or project system the employer uses. Short TAFE or online courses in business administration cover most of it, and typing speed and accuracy matter more here than in almost any other office role.
- 3Start in a related administration role
Reception work overlaps with this role at 86%, and administration officer, team assistant and secretary roles are also common starting points. Moving across usually needs no further study, just a record of handling a busy person's diary and correspondence accurately.
- 4Learn one industry properly
Personal assistants in law firms, hospitals, universities and financial services are paid on their knowledge of how that sector works as much as on their admin skills. Two or three years in one industry usually opens better roles than the same time spread across several.
- 5Add study if you want to move up
A diploma in business, project management or office administration supports a move into executive assistant, office manager or project coordinator work. Employers generally look at the study alongside your experience rather than instead of it.
Ready to apply as a personal assistant?
Whether you're working toward becoming a personal assistant or already are one and want a hand with the next step (sharpening your resume for ATS screening, tightening your cover letter, or knowing what you'll actually be asked at interview), here are examples grounded in this specific role, not generic templates.
What jobs can a personal assistant move to?
Moving into Project Coordinator typically comes with the biggest pay rise, worth $15,500 a year more on average.
| Move to | Typical pay change | Overlap | Retraining |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project Coordinator Personal assistants bring scheduling, stakeholder liaison and document control to project coordination, adding project methodology training to run small projects.Known move | +$15,500 | 42% | reskill |
| Executive Assistant Personal assistants step up to executive assistant, carrying executive diary, travel and correspondence support, with further training in discretion and stakeholder management. | +$0 | 42% | reskill |
| Office Manager Personal assistants bring diary, travel and correspondence coordination to office management, with further study in office and team management.Known move | −$5,300 | 33% | reskill |
| Legal Secretary Personal assistants move into legal secretary work, applying typing, diary and document skills to legal practices, with training in legal terminology and procedures.Known move | −$10,700 | 27% | reskill |
Moves are chosen from Jobs and Skills Australia's Data on Occupation Mobility, which follows income tax records between 2011-12 and 2020-21, together with entry requirements and skill overlap. A known move is one people were seen making in that data. Pay change compares median full-time pay for the two roles.
Who works as a personal assistant?
The typical personal assistant is 43 years old; 97% are women, 72% work full-time, and full-timers average 41 hours a week.
- 43
- Median age
- 97%
- Female share
- 72%
- Full-time
- +1h
- vs all-jobs avg
What's it like being a personal assistant?
The job runs on someone else's timetable, so the week mixes routine work with whatever lands unexpectedly. The pressure comes from being the person who has to notice, and a good day is one where the manager's schedule held and nothing was dropped. It suits someone who likes being close to how decisions get made, keeps track of details without being asked, and stays calm in a busy office.
What people like
- You see how decisions get made. Sitting in on meetings, reading drafts before they are finished and hearing the options being weighed up gives you a view of the business that most people at your level do not get.
- One relationship instead of a hundred. You learn how one person likes to work, and that knowledge makes the job faster and less stressful over time.
- Problems get solved by the end of the day. A double-booked morning, a cancelled flight or a report that needs reformatting are all fixable within hours, which suits people who like visible results.
- The skills transfer. Diary management, correspondence and stakeholder handling are needed in every industry, so a personal assistant can change sectors without starting from scratch.
What people find hard
- Your day depends on someone else's. A meeting that runs late or a decision made at 4pm can rewrite the afternoon, so plans you made in the morning often do not survive.
- Interruptions are the work. Long stretches of concentration are rare, and people who need quiet blocks to think find the constant switching hard.
- You carry the blame for the small things. A missed appointment or a wrongly booked room reflects on you, while the meetings that go well are usually credited to the manager.
- The role absorbs whatever no one else does. Personal assistants often end up with the tasks that do not fit anywhere else, and drawing a line around the job takes deliberate effort.
Based on our synthesis of professional-body surveys and public accounts of the role, not first-person verified reviews.
Which industries employ personal assistants?
Professional, Scientific and Technical Services employs the largest share of personal assistants, followed by Public Administration and Safety.
Top employing industries
- 1Professional, Scientific and Technical Services
- 2Public Administration and Safety
- 3Health Care and Social Assistance
Ranked by employment share; the source doesn't publish an exact percentage per industry.
| Year 12 or below | 33% | |
|---|---|---|
| Diploma / Advanced Diploma | 21.4% | |
| Bachelor degree | 16.9% | |
| Certificate III/IV | 16.6% | |
| Postgraduate | 4.8% |
Will AI replace personal assistants?
Diary management, inbox triage and travel booking are the parts most exposed, since scheduling assistants, email sorting and booking platforms are already built into the software many offices use. The role as a whole sits at moderate exposure rather than high, because it depends on knowing one person's preferences, handling confidential material and fixing problems the software cannot see coming.
Share of typical working time by exposure level
- Diary and meeting schedulingScheduling tools already find slots across time zones and clear obvious clashes, but deciding whose meeting matters more still comes down to the assistant and the manager.30%high
- Inbox triage and routine correspondenceSorting software and drafting assistants handle standard replies and invitations well; the judgement about what the manager needs to read personally stays with a person.25%high
- Confidential matters and problems on the dayWorking out why a meeting moved, who needs to hear about it before they hear it another way, and what to do while the manager is unreachable is relationship work that tools do not do.25%low
- Travel booking, expense claims and invoice processingBooking engines and expense apps cover the search, the receipt matching and the coding, while rerouting a trip around a cancelled flight on a Friday afternoon is still a phone call and a decision.20%moderate
Common questions about becoming a personal assistant
Straight answers to the questions people ask most.
How much does a personal assistant earn in Australia?
Personal assistants earn a median of $95,300 per year before tax, for full-time work. Pay moves with the seniority of the person you support, the sector, and whether you are employed directly or placed through a labour hire agency, which often pays an hourly loading instead of paid leave.
How do you become a personal assistant?
There is no single qualification, and most people enter through an office role such as receptionist, administration officer or team assistant. From there, a record of managing a busy diary, accurate typing and confidence with Outlook, Word and Excel is what gets you hired. A certificate III or IV in business administration helps if you are starting without office experience.
Are personal assistants in demand?
Personal assistants are currently not in shortage, and employment is projected to decline 5.8% over the decade to 2035. Most openings therefore come from people leaving the role rather than from new positions being created, so experience and a strong reference from a previous manager carry more weight than they would in a growing occupation.
Will AI replace personal assistants?
Not entirely, but it already handles parts of the job: scheduling tools resolve diary clashes, inbox assistants sort and draft routine replies, and travel platforms rebook flights. What stays with the assistant is knowing which requests matter, handling confidential material and dealing with problems the software cannot predict, which is why the exposure here is moderate rather than high.
What is the difference between a personal assistant and an executive assistant?
The work overlaps a lot, and some employers use the two titles for the same job. An executive assistant usually supports a more senior person and takes on a wider scope such as board papers, budget tracking and project support, while a personal assistant stays closer to one person's daily diary and correspondence.
Where can a personal assistant move next?
Executive assistant work shares the diary, travel and correspondence load, and pay there is about the same. Project coordination uses the same scheduling and stakeholder skills once you add some project methodology training, and pays $15,500 more. Office management is a third option, where pay is $5,300 less and the work shifts towards systems and supervising staff.
Related roles
- Office Manager
- Project Coordinator
- Executive Assistant
- Legal Secretary
- Administration Officer
- Receptionist
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