Hi, it’s Linh Podetti and welcome to Outsourcing Angel. In this video, I wanna share with you about the qualities we look for in a virtual assistant (VA). When interviewing for a VA, apart from the technical skills and the knowledge that we require them to have, for example we’re after a writer, obviously we want them to write really well, but apart from that, we actually look for their soft qualities. So what are these soft qualities that we really care about?
Number one is: Are they a fast learner? It’s really important that they learn fast because every client’s gonna be different, or the tasks would be different, or there would be different processes for them to follow. But what we need them to be able to do is to learn the task really fast and not take ages to understand a task. So how do we know that even from the interview stage? I sort of know that when I’m chatting to someone on Skype and it’s taking them time to even type back an answer. I’m thinking: one-are they distracted, two-they’re not very witty and fast to respond to my question, and then if I’m on the phone with them or on Skype call with them, I like to know that the conversation sort of flows and like I’m asking them questions, they answer me back. You can just tell by the way they responded that they are witty or fast.
The next soft quality that I’m after is that they show that they love to learn. How do I know during in the interview stage? When I mention them about the sort of task that they need to work on, I might mention some software or tools and if they’re unsure about it, they would say no worries I’m going to check it out. And even though they’re not hired yet, they actually tell me that they’re going to start researching on those tools or software. Surprisingly, even though they haven’t got a job yet, they would try to teach themselves those skills and software because they’re willing to learn, not just learning to get paid but learning for themselves. They wanna better improve themselves so that they could get another job with us.
The third quality that we’re after is that they do what they say. How do we know that even during the interview stage? Well if we ask them to turn up at 1 pm for a Skype interview and they turn up ten minutes before 1pm and say “I’m here, just letting you know that I’m ready to chat” we can already have the confidence that they are punctual, they say what they’re gonna do. Because surprisingly enough, we got VAs who say they would turn up but they don’t turn up or they might be five-ten minutes late so that really shows that they don’t do what they say. Another thing is maybe between the time we schedule the interview and the interview stage, we ask them to email some past work or resumes and they don’t send it through, and so you know that they are not doing what they promise they would do.
The fourth thing that we actually look for is: they are constantly updating us on information, on where they’re at. So when we hire them, we love to know that they say, “Okay I can check out your training materials”, “Hi Linh, just letting you know that I’m ready for the interview”, “Hi, is there anything I can look up on while I wait for the interview?” — They are constantly asking us questions how they can better improve their chance of getting job with us. Because they care about their job. They wanna constantly update us to let us know that they are on top of things.
So those are the four soft skills that we look for, and I know at the interview stage there’s not much that we can go on with because we haven’t worked with them yet. But those are the little key things that I look for when I’m interviewing them—the way they respond to questions… all of the four qualities that I mentioned, it gives me confidence to know once I hire them, they will be a superstar.
We’d love to hear what you guys think about the qualities that we shared, and share with us what qualities do you look for? Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time.
