I’m an Executive Virtual Assistant

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Everyone is always intrigued when I tell them I’m a Virtual Assistant (actually an Executive Virtual Assistant). “A what?” “What’s that?” “How did you find that job?” Those are the top three questions I get asked. 

I started working from home in 2012 before it was the “cool and in thing.” I came across the job on a work-at-home board and with some skepticism, submitted my resume. I was honestly surprised to hear back.

The company hires their assistants as independent contractors, which was helpful to me at the time because it gave me the freedom to work as much or as little as I wanted. I did that for about a year and then took a break from it for a few years to spend time with my newest daughter and open a daycare. After closing the daycare because of moving, I started back with the company, again as an independent contractor.

assistant

A position for a lead assistant opened, which meant that I could become an employee of the company. After going through the interview process, they decided they wanted to launch a separate department for executive assistants (EAs) and well here I am, now along with a trail of other EAs.

We have lots of different kinds of clients from start-up business owners to corporate presidents and from college students to teachers, lawyers, doctors, busy parents, and everything else in between. The process to submit a task is pretty simple. Clients use our platform to submit a task, it goes to a shared dashboard between us assistants. Whoever is available and capable of doing the task grabs it and completes it. There is usually a wide range of types of tasks available at any given time due to the diversity and backgrounds of our clients.

The most common types of tasks we do are: 

  • Travel arrangements
  • Pay bills
  • Research purchases
  • Make purchases
  • Keep calendar
  • Data entry (work/personal)
  • Event planning
  • Spreadsheet management
  • Social media management
  • Find service providers (handymen, cleaning company, new floors, etc.)
  • Editing/proofreading
  • Basic or deep research
  • Email management
  • Website edits/maintenance
  • Basic graphic design
  • PowerPoint presentations with provided content
  • Billing disputes
  • Work/business-related tasks
  • Administrative/clerical/receptionist tasks
  • Basic accounting/bookkeeping
  • Transcription

The above list is not all-inclusive but does give a general idea of what my day-to-day looks like. At my job, the main difference between a regular assistant and an Executive Assistant is that the client pays a premium for having one assistant instead of submitting a task and any working assistant can grab it.

I love working as a virtual Executive Assistant because I love the variety of tasks in comparison to the same repetitive job every day (no offense if that’s your thing!). This job also allows me to be there for and spend more time with my kids instead of having to send them to daycare.

Have you ever used a virtual assistant? What was your experience like? Would you ever use one? Comment below!

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