by Jomvie
(Philippines)
Jomvie – Full-time Virtual Assistant from the Philippines
The true definition of a virtual assistant
When I first started working online, I never thought I would be working as a virtual assistant. For me, in my own perception, “virtual assistant” is a job I will never take because:
- I’m a guy (I’m not being sexist)
- You have to be a fast learner
- Competitive
- Strong personality
- Organized
These are just a few of the reasons why I am not confident in taking this job. But, hey, look where I am right now—I’m a virtual assistant.
But, what is the true definition of a virtual assistant?
A virtual assistant is a person who provides assistance or personal services to a particular person across the globe. It is like a secretary, only virtually.
You don’t have to be a girl to fit into this job description. You are only required for your:
- Time
- Easily adaptable nature for the job, and
- Dedication to your work
Being a service provider requires and demands you to give time to this job since you are rendering your services and you have to be equal to the person hiring you, because you’ll undergo a series of training and familiarizing your daily routine.
And that is why you have to be a fast learner, competitive and with a strong personality, because you are dealing with a personality that is different from yourself—yes, you have to be flexible and ready to adapt to the nature of the job.
If you will not dedicate yourself to the nature of the job, and you’ll just do things according to your will and not according to the will of the person who hired you, it’s just as good as useless.
Now that I’ve finally realized that being a service provider does not require being of a specific gender, I would really like to share this experience to those who are looking for an opportunity as an online worker.
Like me, if you want to take your first step in the online world, you should try to be a virtual assistant and you’ll never regret the experience it offers.
Hello!
I’m sorry for my unformal message. If you will be so kind to give me few tips on my beginning as a PA (I am only doin my course now). Anything will be needed for now, encourage, any important topics…. Thank You!
Your Faithfully,
Magdalena (future PA)
Hi Magdalena,
thanks for your comment, no problem with being informal 🙂
Let’s see. I will go from the following assumptions: you are based in Europe and work for an employer in the western world, e.g. USA. If you say PA, I will assume you mean “Personal Assistant”.
To me, a personal assistant is a VA that takes care of private things, like setting up a meeting, screening emails or making calls to make a reservation, as an example. Here is an article I wrote about that:
https://ideal-helper.com/real-life-experiences-with-virtual-assistants/whats-a-personal-assistant-whats-a-virtual-assistant/
If you are just starting out, make sure you get to know your employer’s needs and habits. Align with his (or her) type of communication. Does your employer call you or leave you voice (or screen recording) messages? Does he approve of getting chats or looks forward to one (and only one!) email a day?
What I most value in an assistant is the ability to think independantly and propose solutions without me defining them first. In other words, if your employer gives you a task, do it. But if you know of a way to do the task more efficiently in the future, do it like that as a test, show your employer and ask if that’s ok to do in the future.
Ideally, you worry about small details and roadblocks on your own before contacting your employer. For example I would appreciate it if my VA wrote me in my daily report:
“I have worked on getting task X done. I encountered a problem but did some research on a forum specialized on X for 20 min and implemented the solution posted under [this link].”
However, some employers love to micro-manage every step of the way. Try to find out early what type your employer is and adapt.