How to Hire a VA

The 4-hour work week makes hiring a VA look easy.  I don't think it's that easy.  There's too many options.  I've had a few friends ask me how I went about this:

1. I paid for onlinejobs.ph. English is widely spoken in the Philipines and the people looking at VA roles are pretty tech savvy. OnlineJobs goes into great detail about how amazing hiring a virtual worker from the Philipines is.
2. I placed an ad and specified:
   • Who I am and my background
   • That I needed a personal assistant and what tasks thy might do
   • How much I would pay
   • What hours I would need someone (9-12 in my timezone, because that's when I needed the most help)
   • Some questions that I had for any interested parties.
3. I got 500 responses in a few days, so I stopped the ad almost immediately.
4. I came up with a sample research task, something that I thought should only take 30 minutes or so.
5. I replied to people with a high English score (because I needed some filter) and asked them:
   • to complete the task
   • and give me screenshots of their internet speed (via fast.com or Google)
6. I scheduled Zoom calls with anybody who replied to me with a satisfactory test.
7. I made a quick heuristic and just hired the person with the highest score after I talked to at least 3 or 4 candidates.

This process isn't perfect.  It's actually a bit frustrating, since OnlineJobs' messaging system is difficult to use as an Applicant Tracking System.   I really wish I had enough work for two assistants because I definitely felt a gap when my previous assistant had to leave - and I'd rather have an assistant that knows me, help me hire a second assistant.

Hit me up if you need help hiring an assistant va@davedash.33mail.com.