PA PROFILE
They all wanted to do their thing with Jade and the result was that our office would be crowded with camera crews and there’d be thousands of emails in my inbox. We also had to deal with all of the calls from the public. There were people calling with good wishes and sugges- tions for treatment and cures for her cancer. It starts out as sweet but wears thin when you deal with 100 of them every day. There were even people of various religions who claimed that they could cure Jade themselves, and we’d get bags of post every day with gifts and letters for her and her sons. We really did have to work long days.” Kate graduated from Reading University with a degree
in psychology but knew that she wanted to work in the media. She secured a week’s work experience at MCA and was invited to stay for a second week. The next peak on the rollercoaster came as a shock: “On my last day Max called a few people into his office. Then he called me in after them and I thought he was just going to offer me a third week. In a million years I never thought he’d do what he really did, which was ask me to be his PA!” Max’s last PA had already left the company and he
was still looking for a permanent replacement. It was a steep learning curve for Kate though. “I had so many questions about the job and so much to learn. Every day I get calls from people who claim to know Max or demand to be put straight through to him and I had to know who really did know him or should be put through. I had to learn the names of newspaper editors, for example. Max was brilliant though and didn’t expect miracles of me which gave me the chance to find my feet.”
It goes without saying that Kate’s relationship with
Max is based upon trust. Not only is she privy to celebri- ty secrets but her ability to keep confidences is key, espe- cially when the world’s press is sniffing around. “Max trusts me to know what I am doing and my
KATE ON MAX’S BAD HABITS... “There are two things that I find challenging. One is that he wants to help everyone and even if he can’t give an immediate answer he’ll think about it. The problem is that with his answer comes extra work. And then there’s the column he did for a magazine. As a professional journalist Max is a real per- fectionist so I changed his copy over and over as he made changes to it. It really did take all day.”
KATE ON HER TO DO LIST... “The first thing I’m going to do when I stop speaking to you is organise Max’s diary. He is coming in later today and I have to get meetings finalised and his desk organised. He’ll phone me a few times an hour when he’s not here so I really do need to stay on top of things. On the bottom of my to do list, though, is responding to those people who want to become celebrities.”
KATE ON WHAT THE JOB ENTAILS... “You have to be hard working, trustworthy, organised and understand all that comes with the job. You really do find yourself being more than a PA and you have to be prepared for that.”
KATE ON GETTING HER JOB... “I advise anyone who wants to do a job like this to apply for work experience. It worked for me. There’s a lot of competition though and we get ten requests a day from people who want to work here. Yet there are only so many weeks in a year or even desks in our office so we can’t accommodate all of them.”
KATE ON HER DESK DRAWERS... “Right now my top drawer contains sweet chilli sauce and mirrors. We seem to love spicy things in this office and we always have to make sure that we look good, especially if we meet celebrities or go somewhere glam for the evening.”
10 »
www.executivepa.com » Oct/Nov 2010
greatest skills have become my loyalty to him and my dis- cretion. I have so much personal information about our clients that I have to organise that in a way that makes him and them confident that they are being looked after. “Dealing with celebrities goes with the territory in this job and you have to learn to cope with them. Some come into the office wanting this, that and the other and some are just happy to chat. You would never do anything like ask them for a photo though. Celebrities come to you because they expect a certain type of treatment and that’s not what they want from the PA to Max Clifford.” That doesn’t mean there aren’t moments of glamour though. Simon Cowell has been one of Max’s clients and that gave Kate the chance to go to X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent events. There is one night that she remem- bers above all others though and it’s easy to see why. “The Royal Variety Performance was being held in London and I had been invited by the organisers on the day it was taking place. I had to run out in my lunch hour to buy a dress which was such a mad rush but I even got to go to the after-show party. It was the most amazing night I’ve ever had” declares Kate. Yet Kate also has to deal with those who would give
anything to go to the same event as Simon Cowell. The trick is in getting past Kate first and that’s no mean feat. “You wouldn’t believe the emails and calls we get from people who want Max to make them famous. They even do things like send their modelling shots to us in the hope that we can help them. Max just doesn’t work like that although being contacted by these people is an eye opener.” “It really is a wonderful job,” says Kate, “and working
here makes me feel as if I am part of a family. Everyone imagines that we have a huge office and lots of people but there are only nine of us. It means that when a story breaks we have to be on top of our game but, honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.” E
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48