Working as a PA

"Travailler comme assistante de direction"
French C1 writing exercise

Sophie talks about her career as a personal assistant.

Pay attention to the hints!

Some vocabulary you may want to look up before or during this exercise: "a personal assistant", "it'll soon be x years since...", "to apply for", "what it entails", "in hindsight", "a blessing in disguise", "to be deterred by", "a company's headquarters", "to be away on business", "a branch (business)", "to anticipate", "one's every need", "at any time of the day and night", "...that I have ever [done]", "to accumulate", "invaluable", "to set up a company".

Written by qualified French expert Céline Pickard PGCE, BA
Last updated: 2023-01-04

I’ll give you some sentences to translate into French

  • I’ll show you where you make mistakes
  • I’ll keep track of what you need to practise
  • Change my choices if you want
Start the exercise
How the test works
You’ll practise: Mode subjonctif, Le Subjonctif Présent, Verbe irrégulier

Here's a preview of the text for the writing challenge, when you're ready click the start button above:

It will soon be five years since I started my personal assistant career. Before I applied for my current position, I didn't know everything that this job entailed, and in hindsight, it was probably a blessing in disguise because I might have been deterred by the long hours. Whether my boss is at the company's headquarters or whether he's away on business at one of our foreign branches, I must be able to anticipate his every need, and he needs me to answer at any time of the day and night! This is the hardest job that I have ever had, but I'm accumulating invaluable knowledge that will be so useful when I finally set up my own company!

Clever stuff happening!