How to Become a Celebrity Personal Assistant

Getting Relevant Skills and Experience

Expect long hours and a hectic, sometimes stressful schedule. As a celebrity assistant, you’ll get to travel, rub elbows with the rich and famous, and have a fast-paced, exciting lifestyle. But remember that celebrity personal assistants put in long hours, sometimes for good pay and sometimes for a pittance. You’ll be close to the celebrity lifestyle but may not experience the glitz and glamour that comes with it. Your tasks will not always be glamorous, so be prepared to do anything your celebrity boss tells you to do--in whatever small amount of time they give you to do it! Your celebrity employer will want to be your first priority. Make sure you’re able sacrifice time with your family, pets or significant other before looking for a celebrity PA job.

Get experience in event-planning. Learn how to keep your cool under pressure and time limitations, and get comfortable with solving problems at the last minute. You don’t have to be a professional event planner to get practice organizing people and services. Arrange parties for your friends, social events at your job, or help plan a family reunion or wedding.

Be handy with a computer and smartphone. You may be managing your celebrity’s email account, social media, and personal calendar, so you’ll need to know your way around technology. The more tech skills you can offer them, like website management or graphic design for their lifestyle blog, the better. Create a personal website or blog for yourself, or volunteer to make one for a friend. Study popular celebrity social media accounts and start using similar tricks in your own. Practice sorting your emails into folders and creating neat, organized calendars.

Brush up on your people skills. Be able to handle anyone from the snootiest celeb to their social climber friends. Practice being patient, using good communication skills and dealing with anyone and everyone with a polite smile, whether that’s at work or with a not-so-favorite family member.

Land a relevant professional job. Work as an administrative assistant or in customer service and complete your tasks efficiently and with a positive attitude. Experience as a nanny or as a personal assistant to a non-celebrity will give you an idea of what the job requires and land you relevant references.

Brush up your resume. Include all the skills and experiences that a celebrity could want for their personal assistant. Emphasize your organization skills, customer service ability, and capability under tight deadlines.

Looking for Celebrity PA Positions

Decide what kind of celebrity you’d like to work for. Choose a field you’re interested in so you have more to offer your employer. You may not land in your dream field right away, but having a goal to strive for will be good motivation to work hard. For instance, if you’re interested in the music industry, look for a job with a professional musician. People more interested in the film world could look for actors or directors. If you love to read or write, try to pair up with a best-selling author. If sports are more your style, look for PA job with a professional athlete.

Move to an area popular with celebrities. Think about what field you’d ideally like to work in, and where those professionals tend to live. If you’re serious about finding a job as a celebrity PA, move there. Most potential clients won’t consider you as an applicant if you’re not local. In the United States, celebrity personal assistants in the entertainment industry often find work in Hollywood or New York City, but if you’d like to work for a wealthy tech entrepreneur, the California Bay Area might be a safer bet. In other parts of the world, aim for major cities and arts hubs.

Network as much as possible to make professional connections. Start talking to anyone you know who has a job related to the entertainment industry. Tell them you’re looking for a job as a celebrity personal assistant and ask if they know anyone you should talk to. Talk up your people skills and event-planning background. Celebrity personal assistant jobs are almost always grabbed by someone with an inside connection, so be patient and meet as many people as you can in the field.

Attend networking events in your area. Research entertainment industry networking conferences; they often take place in cities like Los Angeles or New York. If you’re in college, ask your career center about campus career fairs in your industry of choice.

Use a staffing agency when all else fails. If you just can’t find a job through your networking connections, take your resume to local staffing companies. This should be used as a last resort, as celebrities who have to use staffing agencies will often be difficult to work with; you may be accepting a job no one else would take. However, this can be a good way to get your foot in the door if you’re out of networking options and are willing to put up with a difficult celebrity client.

Landing a Celebrity Personal Assistant Job

Ace the interview. You may be speaking with a celebrity’s agent or their current personal assistant--or you could be talking to the celebrity themselves. Whomever you speak with, be polite and professional. Don’t be intimidated by your proximity to a celebrity, but don’t be too friendly either. You’ll be spending a lot of time with them as a personal assistant, so try to show that you’re a pleasant person to be around and that you’ll get your work done quickly and efficiently.

Be discreet and respect your celebrity’s privacy. Celebrity clients will demand discretion, so avoid saying things like, “My friends thought it was so cool I got to talk with you!” Show that you will help them keep their private lives private.

Join a professional association once you have a job. These organizations can offer you advice and professional support, as well as a large network for finding other PA jobs when you’re ready to move on. You typically won’t be able to become a member until you have a celebrity PA job, so apply after you’ve landed one. Note that an annual membership fee is usually required. Professional associations for celebrity personal assistants exist at both the local level, in places like Los Angeles and New York, and internationally.