Asking for Virtual Assistant Works Samples at the Time of Hiring

Francis:

Another tool in your hiring process which we didn’t talk about yet is asking for work samples. Check if they have a portfolio in their profile and put it as a requirement in your job description that you need a portfolio. This will take care of all the applicants which do not have a portfolio you don’t even interview them.

Also, you can ask them to attach something, a work sample or something else, in their interview. This is before you even start the contract. This will show you who is really motivated to do the job for you and who is able to give you a work sample. 

On the other hand, it will drastically reduce the amount of people who will apply for your job because they have to invest a lot of time and perhaps don’t even get a job.

But if your experience is that when you open a job description and you get a hundred applicants then you can put hire requirements to cut down on the people who applied to you and really filter out the best of the best for you.

Stefan:

Yes, that’s a possibility that you could this. 

Francis:

This can all be happening before you start the contract within the interviewing phase. 

Stefan:

Most of the time the portfolio is very good actually and shows work which is to me is totally surprising because I wouldn’t hire someone whose portfolio of his past work is not okay – is not good. 

Francis:

Yes, of course.

Stefan:

But, surprisingly, I don’t understand why often it’s very difficult for people to reproduce what they already did in their portfolio. I don’t understand this. This is totally illogical. I mean, they could do it once why can’t they do it again? 

Francis:

Well, as I said in my opinion, I wouldn’t do graphics designs on oDesk.

Stefan:

Okay.

Francis:

Something like that. So E-book writing, transcription, data entry, data analysis, all website administrative tasks – all of those technical stuffs can easily be outsourced to oDesk.

Stefan:

You wouldn’t do layout, designs or all creativity stuff?

Francis:

At least, I cannot teach you anything about it. I never have done designer jobs over oDesk. 

Stefan:

Okay.

Francis:

So if I tell you, “Do it”, I wouldn’t be honest. 

Stefan:

No, it’s okay.

Francis:

So, in my opinion, I would probably use 99Designs or Fiverr or some of the Fiverr clones which are more expensive. There’s some $20 Fiverr clone, for example. 

Stefan:

There’s also Gigabox, for example.

Francis:

Ah yes, that’s true. So I would probably go over there if I wanted to have a designer job. It might be surprisingly time and money saving. If you invest $100 once and have a great design instead of losing a few weeks of time, a lot of nerves and then $40 without having a result by training an assistant and not getting the results. Then if you do it the second time then you easily has invested $100 also.

Also, with most professional designers you have the chance to have your work reviewed once or twice even on Fiverr. So if you’re not happy with the results, you are not paying the full price unless they have revised it once or twice. This is, in my opinion, a very good solution for designer jobs.

Stefan:

Yup. Right now, I don’t need a designer. But in the future I think I will do it whether it’s two versions. Either I do it small as you suggested in Fiverr. Do the 5 solutions – 5x 5, its $25. Or, do it way bigger also as you said Ninety-nine designs where you pay like $700 for a design or for 20 designs but you only pay for the one you choose.

So, from my experience, I think it’s very likely that only those 2 things are practical. Either go very small or very big for design and art stuff. On the other side, for technical stuff; for writing or what I need right now is not writing but layout.

Arrange the words and the pictures in the layout in a book. I’m writing the E-book right now and if I would outsource that, I am anxious to outsource that because somewhere deep inside I know that this won’t work.

Do you understand what my problem here is? Because from the past experiences I don’t trust this system anymore, I don’t trust that I can hire someone who does the job as I tell him to do the job. There’s also a little burying inside of me already.

Francis:

Yes, of course. If you have had failures in the past, then you will not be as trusting as if you had a lot of success in the past. That I think is natural. In my opinion, it is a doable thing. But if you already have lost your trust in the ability of your assistant then it will be difficult to get this job done. 

So for anyone reading this interview, I think an editing and template doing job is very doable in oDesk or Elance or any other outsourcing platform for that matter. For you Stefan, personally, I propose to you that after the interview we talk about how you want the job done.

I figure out with either my assistant or someone else I hire especially for that to do it. I figure out how to make the instructions and then I give this back to you and you try that out with increased instructions.

Stefan:

Okay, could try that. I could try that.