Last week, Prof Martin Carroll’s executive assistant Delphine Gesché highlighted that it was Administrative Professionals Day on April 27 and so we wanted to add our thanks to all the amazing people at Unitec who keep the many wheels and cogs spinning!
“Of course, we are grateful every day for the incredible support our administrative professionals provide to the Unitec/MIT community. But it is nice to have a particular day to remind us to not take such wonderful support for granted (which reminds me – Mother’s Day is coming up!).
Sincerely, to everyone who provides admin support – in any of the many forms that takes – thank you very much.”
Prof Martin Carrol.
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We thought this would be a great opportunity for find out more about Delphine and what her role entails:
Tell us a little about your role – what do you do on a daily basis?
No two days are the same! My day almost always starts at 7:45am with a meeting with Martin Carroll to go through important emails and make sure that his diary is well organised. While my main tasks involve email and calendar management and secretarial support for various meetings (including, starting this week, Te Komiti Mātauranga), I also spend a lot of time building relationships with colleagues, supporting people wherever I can, and working behind the scenes to ensure that meetings run smoothly.
What do you enjoy about your job?
I really enjoy the relational aspect of this role. I love helping people, and I love a good challenge. My role is a wonderful combination of all these things.
What would you tell someone looking to work in a similar role?
Be curious! I have found that my desire to understand the industry that I work in and to get to know the people that I work with has been a massive help in this role. Another skill that seems to be a must is multi-tasking: if I plan to spend the next hour writing minutes, I can be sure that I will also be receiving two phone calls, replying to five urgent emails and setting up a couple of meetings at the same time. It takes some resilience, but it also makes the job fun and interesting, in my opinion!
Can you share any special events or moments in your time at Unitec/MIT?
I started my role in September, just as the lockdown started. As a result, I have only started meeting people in person over the past couple of weeks, which has been lovely. Another special moment for me was attending a pōhiri at the Marae at MIT last week – I look forward to my pōhiri here at Unitec, as I have heard how beautiful the Te Noho Kotahitanga Marae is!
Thanks Martin and Delphine!
Can we get a pay rise to reflect
Awesome work Delphine and all our other administrators – they do a massive amount of work that often goes unnoticed and are indeed an important cog in any organisation. Special shout out to our very own Dale Leyland in Creative Industries too.