131–140 of 244 posts
Go through a staffing agency. They will manage background checks and can introduce you to many people across a variety of skill sets.
I hired one early this year through a "virtual assistant" company in the UK (Virtalent), as I don't need enough help for a full time person to be sensible, and they did a nice job of matchmaking. I had an initial call with one of their folks who spent some time going through with me what I'd want done, and then they set me up with someone pre-screened who I had an intro call with and liked. I'd previously tried Fancy…
> custom menu with a high-end restaurant Can you please expand on this?
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It seems like you want one person to be willing and eager to fill the role several employees, including half of your own. Or a genie.
A personal friend is this form of executive assistant. I think that's effectively exactly what they signed up for - a very wealthy couple pays them to do whatever needs to be done. Delegating everything explicitly seems like it would significantly reduce the value of an assistant. My understanding is once the trust is built in these kind of roles, the assistant is a professional/personal boundary crossing extension o…
There are people in this world who are very good at empathizing and very good at organizing, and those people can make a ton of money as what used to be known as being a majordomo.
I’ve had an EA for three years dedicated to me (before that in my career it was always shared). They are definitely a super power, but only if you trust them. They really have to have a lot of context to do things you’d normally be doing. Without that trust you aren’t going to be getting the full potential out of the role. I’ll give one example. My EA is aware that I have a desire to take some time off through the re…
The main function of EAs for people that aren't all that important is to make them feel more important. "I'll have my EA contact your EA to set up a date for a five minute phone call".
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If you think about it, this feels like the assistant version of a good developer. From a good senior developer I expect initiative. I expect them to have a high level view of the system while still working on the 'in the weeds' stuff. They proactively create a ticket for later to do that refactoring they think is really needed but we don't have time for right now and they ninja it in on Friday afternoon because they…
It seems like you want one person to be willing and eager to fill the role several employees, including half of your own. Or a genie.
I respectfully disagree with your assessment though. I work with many such individuals and it's exactly how I got where I am today. By being one of those guys that care. I love working with these guys. It's a pleasure to do so. I really love that I'm at a company right now where we have a lot of these kinds of individuals working together.
Yes I have a label of "manager" on my forehead. All that means is that I have to do some stuff most guys would rather not deal with and that's fine. It means I code less. That's fine. I enjoy the mix. They code more and I enjoy seeing them make decisions by themselves, create tasks to make visible what they are doing and why, so that I can defend them against upper management easily. I can shield them and I do so with pleasure.
On the other hand there are developers that I need to basically do the work for. What's the point of doing 80% of the work myself and then transferring over to them to spend 80% of the time for a task to do 20% of the work? At that point I'd rather not have that person on the team and do the work myself.
And to tie this back to the exec assistant topic: if the CEO has to do 80% of the work, what's the point of the executive assistant?
I’ve had an EA for three years dedicated to me (before that in my career it was always shared). They are definitely a super power, but only if you trust them. They really have to have a lot of context to do things you’d normally be doing. Without that trust you aren’t going to be getting the full potential out of the role. I’ll give one example. My EA is aware that I have a desire to take some time off through the re…
If it takes great effort to bestow this institutional knowledge on the EA, is it buying you that much of your time back? You already know the algorithm for when free time can be most easily made. Just a matter of flipping through the calendar for a brief, few moments, versus the hours spent with the EA getting them up to speed on these nuances.
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>No one's livelihood should depend on having to read the room like a geisha. Why not? Isn't that most jobs? Seems to me a lot of jobs require you to "read the room" in one way or another. If some work doesn't need that, then a machine should just do it since that's what human excel at.
People who expect EAs to read minds are watching too many movies with butlers or pepper pots like secretaries. Imagine asking your EA why they didn't do something you expected them to do without being explicit about what you want.
One thing I took to heart was that the best personal assistants weren't looking to use the opportunity get elsewhere. What you want is someone who wants to stay in that role, because as a lot of other comments here point out, it takes a lot of time for the person to learn enough about you to become truly useful rather than a time suck or a liability. I.e. you want someone who just wants "a job" and doesn't necessarily want to move on from it. If they want to use this job as a rung on the ladder on the way to where they really want to be, they'll be gone before they're super useful.
Meaning: you must pay them quite well, and not work them too terribly hard. Remember that this is someone who works to live. Give them firm boundaries and time off. Make them feel valued; you get out what you put in in this regard.
This should of course go without saying, and for any employee, not just a personal assistant. But it seems to apply extra here.
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Hey!! Thanks for noticing the Glassdoor reviews we work really hard to make sure assistants are happy and focus on highest possible retention:) I bootstrapped ChatterBoss for past 5 years after being a personal assistant/chief of staff myself. If you have any questions about working with VA’s happy to answer, whether you go with us or end up somewhere else: https://calendly.com/chatterbossapp/chatterboss-valerie-trap…
Cool website. The site appears to be EA-focused. Do you also have a PA-focused product for things like help scheduling my personal flights, workouts, managing my calendar, doing random research for restaurants, collecting all my tax documents, etc.?