Virtual Assistant Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a virtual assistant. Feel free to use our job description template to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a virtual assistant.
Who is a Virtual Assistant?
A virtual assistant is a person who provides professional, technical, and creative assistance to people online. They are generally self-employed and work on a freelance basis. They are independent contractors, which means they can work whenever they want, from anywhere in the world. Here’s what a virtual personal assistant does. They provide professional, technical, and creative assistance through the Internet.
Their work is usually not supervised and is often unpaid. The work of a virtual assistant is a great way to get paid for your time and expertise. A virtual personal assistant can add a personal touch to any task. A virtual personal assistant can send birthday cards and thank-you notes. They can manage your personal life as well, making arrangements to pick up and drop off your children at school. They also have specialized skills and niche knowledge, which can be very beneficial for you or your business.
Virtual assistants are the best people to hire if you want to avoid dealing with repetitive work. You should consider their background and experience before hiring them. If they have a background in your field, they can provide valuable insights and knowledge. They also have the necessary skills and knowledge to help you grow your business. You can hire a virtual assistant for your business or your personal needs. Once you have hired a virtual assistant, you can relax and focus on building your brand and growing your business.
A virtual personal assistant is indispensable for busy people. They can schedule appointments with clients and handle the logistics of sending gifts. They can even maintain your calendar for you, so you don’t have to. These services will save you valuable time. Besides, you’ll be able to spend more time growing your business. Your VA can take care of the work for you. This way, you can focus on the more important things – such as working on new products and services.
Virtual Assistant Job Description
Below are the virtual assistant job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a virtual assistant job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
A Virtual Assistant is accountable for offering remote assistance to business monitoring professionals. Their duties consist of carrying out studies and also organizing data, interacting with clients or customers on their company’s part as well as performing extra clerical responsibilities like updating schedules or arranging files.
Most common tasks that virtual assistants can perform:
- Organizing contacts and phone calls
- Editing and proofreading articles or texts.
- Providing accounting and tax advice.
- Designing graphics and logos
- Translating different languages
- Marketing and social media management.
- Managing web pages totally or partially
- Managing the company’s electronic mail
- Servicing different system software
- Researching the internet for different information sources
- Maintaining and updating the company’s databases.
- Organizing schedules, reservations, trips, and events.
Other tasks performed as a virtual assistant are:
- Preparing and sending invoices.
- Receiving invoices from collaborators and clients
- Sending budgets and monitoring them.
- Searching for suppliers and budget comparisons.
- Follow-up of customers, especially with the intention of building loyalty.
- Controlling of stocks
- Managing the email tray
- Keeping files up to date.
- Commissioning of specific tasks by phone, videoconference, or chat. This would be like having a secretary to dictate but in another location.
These are the tasks that any virtual assistant can perform in a traditional business. A virtual assistant can also perform some of these tasks from home.
A virtual assistant can also work as a personal assistant for a particular employer. In this kind of setting, the responsibility of a virtual assistant include:
- Planning and management of different agenda
- Planning trips, meetings, and events.
- Searching for information to detect the best professionals to collaborate with.
Professionals who usually have virtual assistants are online business entrepreneurs, so they may also require their assistants to have basic knowledge of online marketing. An entrepreneur can ask his virtual assistant to write articles for his blog, send newsletters and posts on social networks.
Qualifications
The amount of education and experience an employer requires will vary depending on the complexity of the job and the need. While minimal work experience is often preferred, if you’ve received the proper training to fulfill all potential assignments, don’t let a lack of experience keep you from applying.
The basic requirements that are typically listed include:
- Demonstrable experience as a virtual assistant or in a relevant position
- Knowledge of using current technologies such as desktop sharing, cloud services, and VoIP
- Experience with word processing and spreadsheet software (e.g. MS Office)
- Knowledge of calendars and scheduling on the Internet (eg, Google Calendar)
- Excellent communication skills by phone, email, or instant messaging
- Excellent time management capabilities
- Great organizational capabilities
- Secondary education degree; Complementary qualifications such as an administrator or executive assistant will be valued
Skills and Characteristics
Digital skills
This profile must be handled very well in the digital environment since all the work is done through the Internet. You must have extensive knowledge of project management applications, email marketing, social media management, SEO knowledge, digital writing, etc.
Time management
With this point, we do not just imply that you have to be an organized individual as well as handle both your calendar and that of your customer. What’s more, if you do not manage this point directly, ignore being a virtual assistant. You must be able to handle your time to perform each job. If you are to work for 4 hrs and also you have a list of 20 items to work on, you ought to recognize exactly how to determine how long it will take you to properly handle consumer assumptions.
Versatility
As an employee, you have to adapt to different situations that may arise. For example, accounting and reporting have nothing to do with each other, yet you must defend yourself in both areas.
In addition, over time virtual assistants acquire more responsibilities and have to be trained to respond to them.
Communication skills
One of the crucial skills of a virtual assistant is to connect clearly and properly. If your interaction abilities are bad, you have to find a way to improve on them. You need to know how to deal and interact with people by means of communication when referring to your customer, as well as when sending e-mails or interacting with other individuals. As a virtual assistant, you should be able to communicate well with customers through different mediums, such as emails and phone calls. By using technology to translate, you must be familiar with different cultures and dialects. Having a knowledge of other languages is a plus.
Cleverness
Realistically, working cleverly is more vital than “working hard”. This involves taking notes of clear objectives and being aware of new devices that make your work much easier.
Typing and writing skills
A virtual assistant must have great writing and typing skills. They should be comfortable typing at least 30 WPM and should know Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. In addition, a VA should be comfortable using the internet, both locally and internationally. If the client works with a database system, he or she may need assistance maintaining the website or other software. A VA must be comfortable working with different communication mediums, such as email, chat, and instant messaging.
Positive mindset
” I can” should be a phrase written on the face of each virtual assistant. You must take duty for your job as well as treat your customer’s organization as if it were your own company. If you collaborate with a favorable as well as a focused mindset, not only on your task but on completely making every work you do count, you will get on the appropriate track and progress continually.
Research skills
Excellent research ability is also important for a virtual assistant. There are many tasks that a VA is required to do, and the ability to do these tasks promptly is invaluable. An assistant should be able to dig up resources and make decisions quickly. This is an essential skill in the modern world of work. The knowledge of various languages and cultures will be a huge asset for a virtual assistant.
Determination to find out
The wish and also the ability to find out need to be an internal fire in each virtual assistant. Don’t tell your customers that you can’t do something when you can find a way to figure it out. Figure out just how to do it, ask if they can instruct you exactly how they need the work to be done. Each new ability that you discover while carrying out the task will be a brand-new skill for you in the future.
How to Become a Virtual Assistant
In this line of work, you must have certain knowledge at an administrative and organizational level, in addition to mastering the most basic aspects at a computer level.
Thus, anyone cannot enter this sector without taking into account the following factors:
- Training as a virtual assistant
If you have knowledge and experience in different online tasks and you possess enough skills, you can skip these lines, but if not, you will need the training to apply for this type of virtual work.
Currently, there are many courses and training programs to become a professional virtual assistant quickly and efficiently. Of course, you must bear in mind that you will have to invest in yourself, something that you will surely appreciate over time. An example would be the Asistademy virtual assistant course, a system that enables its students to become true professionals in the sector.
In it you will learn (among many other things), to obtain income, attract clients and also build long working relationships with them that allow you to project your career (and your income) in the short, medium, and long term
- Present your services and make yourself known
Once you are prepared and have the correct training, you have to go out on the market and make yourself known. The best way to do this is through a personal blog, where you must present yourself attractively and effectively, adding value and building trust.
The most important thing is that you make a good presentation of the services that you are going to offer, detailing exactly what type of functions you can fulfill and the prices that you are going to charge for them.
If you already have previous experience, you can also add your resume and/or some of the previous work that you have completed.
- Go out to find your first clients
The first customers are the most difficult to get, so at the beginning, you have to go find them and build loyalty. As you grow and do your job well, word of mouth will do the rest.
There are two ways to find and attract customers: digital and face-to-face. In my opinion, the first is much more comfortable and efficient, although you should not rule out the second if the opportunity arises.
Where to work
Many new virtual assistants choose to work for companies that are exclusively dedicated to outsourcing virtual assistants. Working for someone else generally carries a lower salary, but it can also help you build experience upfront and save. However, we will provide you with some ways that are available when it comes to where to find work as a virtual assistant. With these platforms, you don’t have to worry about searching for clients anymore.
Examples include;
- Fiverr
- Upwork
- Workana
- People Per Hour
- Glass Door
Virtual Assistants Salary Scale
This profession is increasingly booming in different countries of the world and is already well established in the United States. On the internet there are no barriers for anyone and different people can all work with the clients they want.
You can work by the hour, by full service, by monthly payment, or any other form of payment previously agreed with the contractor of your services. Of course, you put a price on your work!
A virtual assistant can earn between $ 10 to $60 per work hour. For this reason, to the question of how much a virtual assistant can earn, the answer is very simple: it depends on the value that their services bring to clients.