Her Story
About Magda
I've been working in my field for over 14 years across different industries, and I've been in the financial institutional sector for 5 years now. Currently, I'm an Executive Administrative Assistant at Goldman Sachs, a position I've held for 4 years. In this role, I support 5 MDs and 9 VPs, handling all their administrative needs. My day-to-day responsibilities are incredibly varied - I manage complex calendars, coordinate domestic and international travel logistics, prepare meetings in different locations, process expense reports almost daily, manage internal communications with stakeholders and clients, organize events at our headquarters in New York, and oversee budgets for the LATAM team and the East Coast team. My managers are spread across different locations including Chile, Brazil, Mexico, and the East Coast, so working across multiple time zones is one of my biggest challenges. Before Goldman Sachs, I worked at Godiva for almost 2 years as a marketing and financial intern, and I had earned an offer there, but unfortunately COVID caused them to close the division. Prior to that, I spent almost 4 years at Prestige Auto in Atlanta, Georgia, as an office manager, where I performed similar executive assistant duties but for the vehicle industry. What inspired me to get into this field was my background in hospitality - I love the logistics of everything like travel and events, and I really enjoy supporting people and making their lives easier. My educational background includes a bachelor's degree in marketing and international business that I earned in Colombia, a master's degree in hospitality management from FIU, and a CHIA certification which demonstrates expertise in revenue and the hospitality industry.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Magda
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say that study and prepare yourself is very important. So many times people think that the executive assistant doesn't need to have a previous degree, that there's no necessity to study for that. But honestly, if you want to get a job in a corporate and fast-paced industry, you have to have really good skills and different things, like in the system, and you have to be very on top of everything. When you do for yourself, like study things, to be proactive, you know, starting something, it helps you a lot to understand different things that are not that easy as people think about this role. It's not easy. A lot of people think, okay, you're an executive assistant, you just have to manage calendars, but no, it's not only to see the calendars of the people. It's a lot of things involved. For me, to have a degree in hospitality makes a really huge difference. So I recommend that to the people who want to get this kind of position, and more in the corporate environment, to prepare themselves very well before trying to get a position. Besides preparing yourself, I would say that the wish, the willing to help and to serve the people is something very important in this type of position, because you really enjoy, you know, in the hospitality industry they say white gloves, people that make a difference, because the executives always look for people that not only know the hard skills, they also have the soft skills, like to be very willing to help, to be very easygoing, keep calm in all the situations. That's also very important for this position.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
My managers are in different locations across the Latin team - in Chile, Brazil, Mexico - and also the East Coast. I'm based in West Palm Beach, Florida, so I don't have contact with them face-to-face daily, which is hard. It's a challenge because they are in different time zones, all of them. To do the logistics for all of them daily is kind of challenging because the clients are also in different locations, so the time zones is very challenging for me, because I support a lot of people. Also, to have daily, to organize my day with the priorities and to have everything highly organized is a challenge when you support that many people.
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