10 Interview Questions You Can Ask Your Future Virtual Assistant

1. MyVirtudesk.com

2. Have you ever asked yourself Is it possible to multiply myself? What If I could clone myself? If you did, you would possibly be able to do every single task for your business. Nowadays, businessmen hire a potential Virtual Assistant from offshore just to offload half the work they’re doing.

3. 1. Tell me something about yourself that is not work related? It is a great way to start the interview. It eases the nervousness of the candidate and let’s them be at ease as they will be talking about something they really know about – themselves.

4. 2. Outside of your role as a Virtual Assistant,  what activities do you enjoy doing? On a personal level, it will allow you to know more about the candidate. It can somewhat give you a sneak preview of their personality. This gives you a chance to see who they are outside of work. 

5. 3. What type of work do you prefer or are you most comfortable to do? Throwing this question to your potential Virtual Assistant will let you know if their skill set fits what you need. This gives you a chance to identify if they will be honest enough to tell you of their own skills and capabilities. This can lead for you to identify on which candidate would be a good fit for the post. 

6. 4. What modes of communication do you like most? Topmost used modes of communication are email, phone calls, face-to-face Skype or Google Hangouts Video Calls. Asking this question can give you an idea on how you will communicate with your Virtual Assistant specially when assigning projects and providing them instructions. Communication is the key to making your partnership a success, so having the right tool for communication is essential. 

7. 5. Do you have any preferred schedule or restrictions? Make sure you are able to communicate. Some Virtual Assistants may be based anywhere around the globe. Some of them prefer to work in the morning or at night. However, what matters most is that you establish your needs and your Virtual Assistant’s availability so you would know if it’s a good match.

8. 6. What do you consider as your core skills and services? This question let’s you explore the skills of the candidate. This gives you a birds eye view of the their strengths. Knowing these things can help you in identifying if a candidate is right for the job. 

9. 7. If I asked you to perform a task, and after accepting it you realized you couldn’t do it on your own, what would you do? This will allow you to determine the candidate’s resourcefulness. Remember that your Virtual Assistant is well – Virtual. Which means, there’s no one to help them out with their tasks, which means, being resourceful is the key to getting things done. 

10. 8. What would you do if I gave you an assignment, and you thought you understood it, but then later you realized you didn’t understand? It does matter if the Virtual Assistant knows how to admit mistake/s. This question gives you the opportunity to know in how your potential Virtual Assistant will display accountability and honesty.

11. 9. What would you do if you realize that you couldn’t finish all tasks given to you on time? Setting of right expectations is another key factor to having great partnership with your Virtual Assistant. One of the qualities they need to posses is being able to be honest and to set the right expectations to you as their client. A deadline is a deadline and no one can argue with that, proper setting of expectations should be communicated to be able to come up with a strategy that will help in accomplishing any pending tasks.

12. 10. Tell me a story of when you spoke up and contradicted your boss? This interview question to your potential VA should give you an  insight into his/her work style. It’s a plus if they are giving you suggestions or recommendations. So if they ask you, “Have you considered this other way to do such and such?”, don’t get offended, they are concerned about you and your business.