When you try to find online jobs or work as a virtual assistant, do you think about what you can contribute, or do you just go at it for the sake of getting one?
Most of the time, people look for jobs based on availability and not based on skills.
That’s the biggest mistake you can ever make.
Maximizing your skills can help you get ahead, even in a remote setting.
The goal here is to end up with a job where instead of saying, “I can do that,” you can say, “I’m great at that.”
That’s what’s going to give you a thriving career as a remote employee.
How to Assess Your Skills
Here’s the most crucial question of all – what are your most valuable skills?
It’s normal to base your career path on the job title, but going straight into specific skills may also make you realize that there are other job roles you can take, considering the things you’re good at.
This means that you get to open up endless possibilities as you try to find online jobs.
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Tip #1: Review your tasks and responsibilities
Look at your current job. Then, look at your past jobs.
What were the tasks and responsibilities you have and had?
Make a detailed list, not leaving anything out.
Even if it’s something as simple as writing inter-department memos or calling suppliers, it can prove to be a valuable asset later on.
Include even your experience as an in-office worker. It doesn’t matter that you’re going for a homebased virtual assistant role now. The skills you developed in the office will still be helpful.
Why is this important?
Job titles may be the same in different companies, but the specific duties of each virtual assistant may be different.
Some tasks may also overlap with that of a different job title. This means that you could have been stuck doing one thing for so long when you could have also been helpful under a different title all along.
What type of virtual assistant could you be considering your past tasks and responsibilities? This guide can help you figure that out.
Tip #2: Think about the skills you gained from these tasks
Nope, it doesn’t end with your list of tasks and responsibilities.
For every task you completed in your current and past jobs, you definitely learned skills from them.
For every supplier or client you called, you developed your communication and interpersonal skills.
For every memo you wrote, you brushed up on your business writing.
For every report you finished, you improved your ability to go through data.
Go through that list of tasks and responsibilities and think long and hard about what each item on that list has taught you. Then, as you find online jobs, match these skills to the opportunities you find.
This article will tell you the Best Ways to Apply for a Homebased Job.
Tip #3: Review the tools you know how to use
Your knowledge of specific tools is part of your skill set.
Especially if these are tools that not everybody knows how to use, you have enough leverage to get the job that you want.
Start with tools that are specific to your field.
If you’re in sales, you may know the ins and outs of tools like Salesforce, Zoho, or HubSpot.
Graphic designers should be knowledgeable in tools like Photoshop, InDesign, and other tools within the Adobe Creative Suite.
What if the tools you use are a little too common?
Don’t worry; no tool is too common to take advantage of (unless it’s MS Paint or anything else from ages ago!).
Let’s say you’re quite skilled at MS Excel. Yup, everybody knows how to create Excel spreadsheets. But if you can work with pivot tables and VLOOKUP, then THAT’s something worth mentioning.
Tip #4: Look at how your performance is viewed
In every job, there’s a certain way of reviewing employee performance.
For sure, you’ve been given feedback about your work before. This is a great way to assess your own skills.
Think back about what areas your bosses see as your strengths. There are definitely skills there worth taking note of.
As an added tip, you could also look at skills where you have always received poor marks in terms of performance. These may be opportunities for you to improve.
But if you’re really intent on rocking it in the remote scene as a virtual assistant or remote worker, there are so many ways for you to stay productive: How to Be Productive in a Remote Setting.
Tip #5: Take online tests
We often see online tests that we can either ignore or take.
Now, if it’s something that can tell you which Harry Potter character you are or what animal you were in your past life, then that would probably be a waste of time. That’s not something that can help you if you’re trying to find online jobs.
But if it’s something that gives you a little background on your personality and behavior, then that definitely can be useful in your search for your most valuable skills.
Even if the potential employer you’re eyeing does not really ask you to answer tests like these, it can still help you to take these tests on your own. These can give you a better look at who you are as a professional.
Here are some of the tests that employers usually ask potential employees to take.
Myers-Briggs Type indicator
The MBTI is said to be a recruitment tool used by 89 out of 100 Fortune 100 companies.
Once you’re done with the test, you can better understand who you are in terms of these areas:
- How you direct and receive energy
- Your approach to processing information
- How you make decisions
- Your approach to the outside world
How does the MBTI do this?
The test looks at your psychological preferences based on these 4 choices:
- Extraversion or introversion? (E or I)
- Sensing or intuition? (S or N)
- Thinking or feeling? (T or F)
- Judging or perceiving? (J or P)
Based on your responses to the test, you will be matched to any of the 16 personality types formed when mixing and matching the letters representing each of the choices above.
The Caliper Profile
The Caliper Profile was fashioned specifically to assess how applicants could potentially perform the job based on personality traits.
The test usually involves asking which statements align with the applicants’ views the most. There may also be questions where you may be asked whether you agree or disagree with a certain statement.
What makes the Caliper Profile a popular choice among employers is the fact that it looks at both the negative and positive traits of the applicant. This means that they can get a better picture of who this person really is.
The downside, however, to this test is the fact that there are ways to use a pattern to come up with the desired results. In other words, some applicants may not be honest in their answers because it is easy enough to figure out how to come up with an outcome that perfectly matches the traits needed for the job they’re after.
The Hogan Personality Inventory
Although HPI was initially designed for social analysis, it has been proven to be effective in assessing potential job performance as well. This is why a number of employers have opted to use it as a recruitment tool.
The HPI has a little over 200 questions, all of them in true-or-false format.
It categorizes applicants based on these aspects:
- Clerical potential
- Managerial potential
- Reliability
- Sales potential
- Service orientation
- Stress tolerance
There are also up to 42 sub-scales that allow potential employers to have an even deeper look at your potential as an employee.
The SHL Occupational Personality Questionnaire
The Occupational Personality Questionnaire or OPQ is also known as SHL because of its developers, Saville and Holdsworth, Ltd.
The test is capable of identifying leadership potential in an applicant and can also predict potential job performance if a certain applicant is hired.
Aside from the OPQ, SHL also developed a similar test called the Motivation Questionnaire, which focuses more on future performance.
Both of these tests by SHL dig deep into these personality traits:
- Agreeableness
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Neuroticism
- Openness
This is another test that you can prepare for in advance, especially if the potential employer has openly declared that they are partial to specific traits that this test can reveal.
The DISC Behavior Inventory
DISC stands for Dominant, Influential, Steady, and Compliant. This behavioral model is said to have been around since the time of Hippocrates.
What sets this test apart from all other behavioral and personality tests is the fact that it only has around 12 to 30 questions. It looks at a person’s professional behavior by giving different statements, from which the applicant will choose the sentence that either applies to them the most or applies to them the least.
Although highly user-friendly and can give employers a good sense of who a person is, it talks more about a person’s temperament.
It would also be difficult to pit one person’s results against another using this assessment.
If you want to know about the things virtual assistants can do, check here: 101 Things Virtual Assistants Can Do
How to Find Remote Jobs Matching Your Skillset
Now that you have a pretty good idea of your marketable skills, it’s time to use them to find the best possible job match.
Yes, we’re using your skills to look for the perfect job and not just hitting the “apply” button at every interesting and familiar-looking title that pops up.
Why do you need that perfect fit?
Well, we’ve got 3 good reasons:
- It gives you a good chance to step up your chosen career ladder.
- It maximizes your earning potential.
- It amplifies the chances of you doing a job well.
These are great reasons to put in enough extra effort to really zero in on those skills, right?
Here are tried-and-tested tips on how you can find a job that matches your skillset.
Look at related keywords.
When you’re trying to find online jobs, for sure, you’re using the search option to look for the specific title you usually hold.
If you’re a social media manager, you probably look for a “social media manager.”
If you’re a programmer, you probably search for “programmer” or “web developer.”
But sticking to the same search terms over and over again limits your search for that perfect job opening. Instead of doing this, explore related keywords that you can use.
Instead of typing in “programmer” or “web developer,” you can maybe try to search for terms like “PHP developer” or “full-stack developer.”
If you’re a social media manager, you can search for “social media expert” or “social media VA.” It wouldn’t hurt to go wider, either. Search for “digital marketing expert” or “digital marketer” as well. Terms like these often get thrown around, but when you check the skills required, you may be surprised to see that you could actually match those requirements.
Continue improving your skills.
Can you imagine how tough it was for people to learn more and be better decades ago?
Thankfully, we live in an era where you can learn new skills and improve on existing ones with very little effort.
Take online classes and stay updated on industry news.
Technology makes the world seem to spin so much faster now, so being content with your current knowledge could make you outdated. There are so many new tools being used across different industries, and before you know it, what you know now won’t be of much value.
So if you want to grab the best virtual assistant jobs with the best employers, it’s always best to show that you’ll be a valuable asset to their company because of your up-to-date know-how.
Keep your resume updated
When was the last time you updated your resume?
If it was a long, long, long, long time ago, then I’d suggest you spend a few days going over your resume and updating it.
Even if you’re currently employed, it is still important to browse through your resume and find areas you can improve on.
And for every achievement you receive at work, feel free to add it to your resume. Postpone this for later, and you might find yourself forgetting to add it when you need it the most.
You could also tweak your resume or make different versions of it so that you can appeal to different types of employers.
You see, different employers like different types of employees. And when they’re vocal about it on their job post, that’s an opportunity you’d have to grab.
Let’s say, for example, that one potential employer says that they are looking for someone who has leadership skills and could eventually handle a team. Knowing this, you can fashion your resume in a way that highlights your leadership potential.
Instead of saying, “single-handedly pulled the team stats to reach a record high,” you can rephrase that and say that you “took charge in improving the team’s numbers to beat the other teams’ existing record.”
Here’s How to Create an Awesome Virtual Assistant Profile
Personalize your cover letters
Just as you want to customize your resume based on the role you want to play and the preferences that a potential employer has, the same thing should be done in terms of your cover letter.
The great thing about a cover letter is that it shows more of your personality than your resume ever can.
Sure, your resume lists your achievements and valuable skills.
But your cover letter? It can show your future boss what a perfect match you are for his or her business.
How?
As you try to find online jobs, you’re going to mark job posts that stand out. The key here is to look at the way these job posts are written.
Does a specific job post seem light, fun, and outgoing?
Is it traditional, serious, and highly professional?
Depending on what kind of tone you sense, apply the same tone to your cover letter. This shows them that you speak their language.
Look for keywords on the job post that you can use on your application.
If they mention a number of tools that you’re required to use, don’t just say that you’re knowledgeable about them. Tell them that you’ve been using it for 5 years and have accumulated a number of tips and tricks to maximize its use.
If they mention that they want someone with initiative, talk about how you created a new system for the department you came from to ensure a more seamless workflow and how you were commended by your peers and bosses because of the huge impact it made on your team’s productivity.
Remember that your cover letter is where you can sell yourself and convince a potential employer that you’re worth the investment.
Look at credible job sites for remote workers
It’s not just about the job. It’s also about WHERE you try to find online jobs.
There are so many job sites online, but that doesn’t mean you’d have to browse through every single one of them – that would be a complete waste of time.
There are a number of sites specifically meant for virtual assistants or remote workers where you can search for a job that fits your skills perfectly. THAT’s where you should be looking.
These job sites would usually require you to create a profile, sort of an online resume. Make sure you rock that profile and make it as amazing as possible.
Remember that resume you worked so hard to update? Make sure your online profile carries every important part of your resume. Potential employers won’t just wait for applicants to click on their job ad. A lot of them also browse through different profiles and reach out to the ones they find most appealing. Aim to be one of those people they reach out to.
Lastly, make sure you use a reliable and credible virtual assistant site where you’re protected as a remote worker. eVirtualAssistants is your best bet when it comes to this.
Not only will eVirtualAssistants give you a wide range of opportunities, but they will also make sure that you get paid for the work you do once you get hired.
Excited to find online jobs that match your skills? Click here to get started.
From Where to Apply?
Before getting into the topic, let’s learn about some trustworthy platforms from where you can hire a virtual assistant. It can be done either from a VA agency or from a freelancing platform.
Here are some VA agencies to look at:
Some best freelancing platforms to hire a Filipino virtual assistant are:
