Jane Snee, 32, is executive PA to Sara Watts, a director at Data Media and Research in Sheffield. Jane landed the job after hearing of the vacancy while working for the company next door. She was interested because it involved marketing — an area she knew nothing about but which she thought would offer her career progression.

Jane says: “I phoned someone I’d seen around who worked at the company and asked him to lunch, which gave me the opportunity to ask about the organisation and what it did. I then spent a weekend researching, and put together a presentation to take to the interview.”

Sara says: “Jane was the most prepared candidate I have ever interviewed. It was also obvious that she had an ability to take on new ideas – which is what we are all about.” The company started as an online car resource but now uses its huge database for various marketing initiatives. For example, between 50,000 and 80,000 people who read its horoscopes online each day are sent targeted advertisements and offers.

Jane spends half of her time researching new ideas and half doing traditional PA work. She adds: “I love my work and regard every day as it if was a job interview.”

Sarah Darwin, 26, is the PA to Tony O’Shea, director of Imtech Process, and works in the Dwr Cymru Welsh Water offices in Ewloe in Flintshire, 15 miles from her home in Chester. Tony, who is responsible for a £250 million contract looking after Welsh Water installations, put Sarah forward for PA of the Year without her knowledge, saying that she continually goes beyond his company’s expectations.

Sarah says: “It was embarrassing to read the nice things he said about me.” She has taken responsibility for her employer’s charity, WaterAid, which supplies fresh water in the poorest parts of the world. She regularly talks to groups about its work and recently won a two-week working visit to India to see some of its projects. She spends two evenings a week, and at least four weekends a year and two weeks of her holiday, as a volunteer district commander for the Army Cadet Force.

Sarah says: “I work with 13 to 18-year-olds, teaching them life skills rather than army discipline. I joined at 11 and learnt the importance of independence and being part of a team. Going to India was challenging and inspiring. You cannot believe such poverty, even when it is in front of you.”

Antoinette de Lisser, 37, is executive assistant to Trevor Beattie, who founded Beattie McGuin-ness Bungay, the London advertising and PR agency, in 2005. The pair had previously worked together. Seeking a new challenge, Trevor took Antoinette with him from their previous agency, an established business where he was chairman. The new agency has grown from four to 63 staff, and last year won 12 of 15 pitches.

Trevor says that none of this would have been possible without Antoinette, whose nickname, Legend, appears in her e-mail address. “She gave up a job in a major company with 300 employees for me,” he says. “I couldn’t be without her.”

Antoinette often has to face challenges for her boss. She once jetted to Miami to get a British girl out of jail, she queued six hours to get Bill Clinton’s autograph in Monica Lewinsky’s autobiography and she took a cold call one evening from the Duchess of York, wanting to rebrand herself. Antoinette says: “There’s a new challenge every day. Trevor mostly calls me Ant or Legend. But if he uses my full name, I know he’s up to something. He’s a legend himself in the industry and it would go against the grain ever to let him down.”

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