Page 21 - James Caan - Get the Job you Really Want

You can almost double the chief executive’s salary. So, how can
you – as a potential P A – justify your cost if you are hired?
All you have to do is demonstrate how you can make that
chief executive more e≤cient, because every single minute of
every day of a chief executive’s time is extremely valuable. Every

minute, every hour that you can save is invaluable.
If I was interviewing a P A and asked a candidate why I should
hire them, the answer I would love to hear is: ‘James, one of

the reasons I think you should hire me is because my organiza-
tion skills are immaculate. I am going to be totally focused on
making sure that I can save you time. I can take away as much
of the burden of administration as possible, supervise the
planning, coordinate you better. I will make sure I get you to

appointments on time, because I am going to check exactly how
long it takes you to get to your appointment and precisely how
long you need to be there.’

For example, twice a day my P A goes through all the emails
I receive, creates a digest from them – the highlights of my
emails – and prints that out for me. From that list, I can say,
‘Let me have a look at this or that email.’ Rather than reading
a hundred, I may read only five. That alone saves me a good

two hours a day. I believe that in every job you should be able
to demonstrate how you add value. If in any capacity you can
tell the employer how you save money, how you add value,

that makes a big di≠erence during a phase when everybody is
very cost-conscious. This mood of cost-cutting is a change of
mentality that will outlast the next upswing in the economy.
Once companies get into the habit of being lean and mean, of

9 positivity