What Questions To Ask During A Virtual Assistant Interview
Hiring a virtual assistant is an exciting and daunting process that can sometimes be intimidating at first glance. When you are hiring anyone for any type of job there are always many questions that you need to ask them as well as yourself to make sure that they are the right fit for the position you want them to fill. Just because the assistant you are hiring is online and most of your interactions with them will be over the internet, it doesn’t mean that the hiring process for them should be any different than what the hiring process would be for a normal assistant you would employ in your office. We here at Byron make sure to thoroughly interview all of our assistants so we know that they have all the qualities that make up a good assistant, but if you are one of our clients who will be working with one of our assistants, it is extremely important for you to also feel secure in their abilities and that they can perform all of the tasks that you would want to task them with.
Asking some questions to a potential virtual assistant is an important and valuable way to get an idea on who they are as a person and an employee. There are a wide variety of questions that you can go over with them to get better idea on who they are as an individual and how well you will get along with them going forward. For short term assistants getting to know them on a personal level isn’t necessary since if you are hiring an assistant for a small project or task, the need to get to know them on a personal level isn’t as important as the task just getting done with as little wasted time as possible. It is always good to get to know your assistant and to be friendly, but asking any sort of interview question to a virtual assistant prior to a short term assignment isn’t an ideal approach. Asking questions to a virtual assistant should realistically only be done when you are planning on hiring this virtual assistant for an extended period of time where you will be working with them for an extended period of time. Here are a few sample questions for you to give yourself an Idea on if an assistant will be the right fit for you.
What is your preferred method of communication?
It’s important to know right away what ways are best to communicate with your virtual assistant. Sometimes an assistant or client will prefer to communicate via email and some other clients and assistants will prefer to communicate via outside messaging apps such as Slack or Whatsapp to better integrate with whatever system they have in place. We here at Byron have a built in messaging on all of our project pages so that you can always easily reach out to an assistant no matter what through our website. As long as you can easily communicate with your virtual assistant and know how to quickly share information and files, that is the most important factor when it comes to communication.
What are some of your hobbies outside of work?
It’s good to know what your virtual assistant is like and what their hobbies are outside of work. We all are people and have our own lives, so it’s important to know that your virtual assistant is keeping themselves happy and busy outside of their work that they are doing for you. You can also use this question to form a better relationship with them as maybe you will find out if you share something in common! It’s always good to get to know people you work with on a personal level, so you can not go wrong by asking this type of question when initially hiring a virtual assistant.
If you had multiple assignments that you needed to complete but limited time, how would you prioritize which assignments to complete first?
This question gives you an idea on how well your assistant can multitask projects and assignments as that is an extremely important skill for a virtual assistant to have. We here at Byron make sure that when we are hiring any virtual assistant that they have the ability to juggle and prioritize projects and assignments so that they aren’t biting off more than they can chew and that they can handle everything that is asked of them in a timely manner without a drop in quality.
When first initially communicating with your virtual assistant about the task you want them to do, it would be a good idea to come up with around 3 possible aspects of the project you will be asking them to complete and have them rank in what order they should complete them. This will be a good indicator for how they would think and understand what you are asking of them and will be a good way to get on the same page as them about the project.
What is your first course of action when your computer crashes while working on a project?
In my opinion this is one of the most important questions to ask your virtual assistant when you are first getting to know them because it will say a lot about how their train of thought goes down when there is a urgent issue happening in the middle of a working day. The answer will hopefully be something along the lines of ‘contact you immediately and explain the situation’ but that could not be the only right answer depending on the situation and what is currently happening at the time. Whatever their answer does end up being, it’s important to know how their thought process works when push comes to shove in a situation like that and if there is any issue with how they answer it is a good opportunity to get on the same page about how to handle such a situation if it does happen to go down.
What time will you normally be available to work/communicate?
Asking what days and times they are typically available are crucial bits of information to keep on file for when you are hiring a virtual assistant for a long term assignment. The appeal of a virtual assistant is that they can be reached essentially at any time online but knowing what times they will always be in front of their computer and working is important to know for going forward. For some tasks, maybe a consistent schedule isn’t needed as long as they check in on a normal basis with you about what they are doing but for other tasks where constant communication is important, this is a vital question to ask any virtual assistant.
What types of software are you the most familiar/comfortable working with?
Knowing what software you virtual assistant is using to get the job done is important to know for when you are having a virtual assistant do tasks that require creating or altering documents or presentations. This can be a quick question that you throw in along with other more important ones but if you are requiring a virtual assistant for any purpose where they are creating important documents for you, it is crucial that you know what type of software they are using so there are no issues with compatibility across software. This is a small question that can save you a lot of headaches going forward.
Asking questions of any nature is an important part of hiring an assistant for a long term project. It allows you to better get to know what they are all about and who they are as a person. It’s important to keep in mind that the person on the other end of the screen is a real person and that you should treat the process of hiring them as you would hiring an in person assistant. Lucky for you however, Byron makes the process of hiring assistants much easier than if you were to start from scratch. We are an affordable and resourceful company that strives to bring you the best quality virtual assistants so that the only questions that you will need to ask them are about their abilities related to the project at hand. Virtual assistants are an excellent resource to take advantage of for any person or business so always remember to ask any and all questions you may have in the beginning so you are guaranteed the best results with your virtual assistant.
