Q:
A: Don't bother with temp agencies unless you want a temporary job. As a temp you can expect on average and considered a reasonable amount of $14-16 as an Exec Asst and $12-16 as an Admin Asst. Go with a recruiter. Many big companies in Vancouver don't have a set HR dept. and rely on recruiters to help them with their hiring. As an Exec. Asst. you will be most likely required to have at least 3 years experience for most companies and can expect $20/hour to start out with full benefits. If you have under 3 years then settle into a nice Admin Asst. job. Most Admin jobs will require 1 year experience. If you go for Admin Asst. don't take less than $16/hour or $32K salary with benefits. Shop around a bit too. I did and chose a really great company. I was offered 6 jobs in 10 days and chose the one I wanted. I had 8 months prior experience as a receptionist and started out with $35K, full benefits, immediate 2 weeks paid vacation and all stat holidays off and no more than 2 hours overtime a month. You're lucky, this is an Admin market! So many companies looking for talented employees and so few to go around. Don't worry about the training wage. No respectable company will offer you training wage as this is a career, not a job. That and the fact that you will most likely be on salary anyway and not wage. The recruiter I went through was Drake. They have temp positions too but are more geared towards permanent placements.