Nowadays, personal assistants can be considered as 24/7 girls or guys because they are on call no matter what time or day. They have to take care of all the things that concern their bosses such as scheduling of meetings, business negotiations, bookings and reservations for flights or for restaurants, sorting of mails, and all the works that concern the office.

Often times, personal assistants also take care of the menial tasks such as meal orders, office interiors, laundy issues, and other fetishes of their employers. And at times, they are the errand boys and girls who takes care of appointments and represents the boss in meetings and other functions or events.

Becoming a personal assistant

If you were thinking of becoming a personal assistant, the first relief would be no specific educational background and course training matter. This is because the major requirement would be the skills of the person to remain calm during pressure and stress. If one can handle pressure and stress with ease, then, he or she can be a candidate to become a personal assistant.

Other main consideration would be being in the right place and in the right time. If you are working in a corporate world and if you have a clean track record or if you have secretarial experience, then you are the foremost candidate for the position. People who usually work near the boss or the line of work usually deals with the employer are among the options once the boss decides to hire a personal assistant.

Aside from working near the boss, people who have friends that know high-ranking executives may also get the position through recommendation. This can be very helpful especially if the future employer trusts the backer. But in this case, the candidate for personal assistant should be very careful because once he or she commits something unpleasant, the trust in him or her is not the only thing at stake but also in the person who gave the recommendation.

Although becoming a persona assistant does not really require outstanding academic background, having a clean track record and reliable credentials can help a lot. People who are interested to become personal assistants should bear in mind the major qualities and technical skills needed for the position including the:

- strong work ethic because the job requires all the patience and perseverance any person could have;

- self-discipline because the position entails a lot of responsibility;

- ability to do multi-tasking because this is needed for the busy and hectic schedule of the boss;

- people skills because forming a good rapport earns the trust of the executive or the boss;

- ability to stay calm despite pressure because it will make the person think straight;

- computer skills for handling technical matters such as electronic correspondence, research, etc.

- telephone etiquette because good manners is a must in communicating through phones;

- superb style in communication because he or she represents the boss at times;

- keen problem-solving skills to rule out everything that the boss needs;

- excellent time management skills to make sure that the boss in not lagging anything behind; and last but not the least, a personal assistant must have outstanding organizational skills to ensure that everything and in place when the boss inquires about it.

For some people, having a personal assistant can be considered a perk. Why? This is because they can be spared from all the tasks they need to do on a day-to-day basis. But having a personal assistant could cost you much. This is the reason why many people think that they could not afford hiring one. Although it could cost you money, it can help you save more effort and time to do other things.

If you really need one, you can hire a personal assistant that doesn’t have a high salary and lots of benefits. But of course, that would also depend on the type of work that he or she will be doing for you. Before decide on hiring a personal assistant, it is best to conduct a research first so you would know the acceptable rates for their services. Then, list down the tasks he or she will be taking care of, that way you can find an efficient personal assistant fit for your needs.

Most of the personal assistants for the high ranking people and public figures such as politicians, lawyers, celebrities and businessmen earn from $40,000 to $120,000 in a year. And this sum of money even goes with added benefits and perks like free use of vehicle, mobile phone with line, gifts, and free vacations. But, there are also those that don’t need this salary, benefits, and perks. They are called “indispensable assistants” who can provide you with the services depending on your requirement.

The average rate of indispensable assistant who can provide personal assistance ranks up to $350 per month. This type of personal assistant is ideal for employers who don’t need to change tasks monthly. This is very practical because you will have to pay for the same set of tasks that the personal assistant needs to do.

For people who have busy schedule due to one or more businesses and travels most of the time, the executive personal assistant is ideal. Salary ranges $800 to $1000 monthly or $20 to $30 hourly, which covers the basic support for you and your family. You can ask this type of assistant to do even menial jobs at the house such as watering the plants, buying groceries, take care of your pet, takes care of the things that you need before and after your trip. They can even send thank you notes and gifts to your family members or friends on special occasions that you cannot attend to.

If you prefer hourly or daily services, you can ask for personal assistants that can provide errands services. For just  $25 to $30 an hour, you can ask somebody to buy the materials for your child’s project, bring a set of documents to office, and other menial jobs you don’t have time to attend to.

If you need somebody to assist you in managing your schedule, prepare travel documents, make specific arrangements, do data entries, sort out files and things that you need for the office or business, you can pay an administrative assistant, $22-$30 per hour. This type of assistant is only for business tasks, you cannot ask them run some errands for you nor do your calendar.

For people who need somebody to help out in office or managing your business, hire an executive assistant which would cost you $25 to $35 an hour. This personal assistant can help you in answering and returning phone calls, managing your calendar, travel schedule and prepare things that you need for your travel, do presentation as well as preparing budget and expenses records.

Do you have what it takes to become a personal assistant? Some people do and others don’t. But if you are serious about working at this level, what do you need to do?

First of all, you don’t have to take a course in college to become a personal assistant because there aren’t any. You may have an advantage over others who apply if you have a business or accounting degree since some employers need someone who can do some budgeting.

In fact, anyone can become a personal assistant as long as they are willing to work long hours, be able to do multi-tasking, handle the pressure that goes with the job, internet savvy and very comfortable using modern technology.

You should also have people skills since you will relate to people both internally and externally in the organization. Some employers want their personal assistants to learn a second language so if they have to travel, he or she can act as a translator.

Given that you are working in the inner circle, certain information that is classified as confidential should remain that way. You should be able to keep this under lock and key. If people ask, don’t make the mistake of revealing what you know since this will cost you your job. 

The first step in becoming a personal assistant is to apply for the position and hope you get it. This will give you the opportunity to learn how things work in a company because even if there are differences in various working environments, there are a few activities there that are very common.

During the interview, remain calm and highlight your assets. It will be a great if you can tell the interviewer your previous work experience if you had the chance of working as a personal assistant in the past.

However, if you just graduated, highlight other things like you are conversant in foreign language, you can type X number of words per minute, you are internet savvy and very familiar with the latest high tech gadgets in the market.

If you are not able to get a job yet because the employer wants someone who is experienced, try to become a personal assistant through an apprentice program or offer your services for free.

There are also some agencies that help applicants look for a job so you can also consider sending your resume to them.

It is also possible to get the job by working first for a non-profit organization and building your network so when there is an opening, your name will be on top of the list.

Some people don’t sign up to become a personal assistant first. They enter the organization working in one position and then when there is an opening, they decide to apply for it since most employers are likely to hire within the company before putting an ad in the newspaper.

There are many ways to become a personal assistant. You can apply for the job directly or making your way to that position. Whatever happens, expect to work longer hours because your job does not end at 5PM. There will be times you will have to travel and stay up late longer than usual so don’t expect to have a social life.

More and more people are occupied with so many things. Some are so busy into their work—thus—they have less or no more time for other things that they should be doing. While others simply cannot perform or attend to their duties to numerous reasons such as medical condition or lifestyle. For these people, having a personal assistant is a great help to maximize their time as well as their energy.

Process of hiring a personal assistant

Today, the demand for efficient personal assistants continues to increase because more and more people are busy with so many things. With this at hand, the employment for personal assistant has become a lucrative employment target.

If you have an extremely busy life, a time-consuming executive career or your own business, or if you are working in a large home taking care of handling daily operations that involves business or office, then it is a must that you hire a personal assistant. Since a personal assistant will have a great responsibility in your life and business, you cannot just hire somebody for the position. To effectively hire a personal assistant, you must:

1. Write down the description of the job that the personal assistant needs to do. This list should contain specific details of what you really need the personal assistant is for.

2. Advertise your need for the personal assistant depending on your requirements. You can do this by placing a small advertisement in the local newspaper. Make sure that you include your contact details so the applicant can reach you easily.

3. Choose at least the top five among the applicants based on their resumes and credentials. To save some time, make sure that you pick those that have previous experience in being a PA in your work setting. This can be very convenient because it will take you lesser time to train the PA, all you need to do is conduct an extensive briefing and that would be it. In some cases, it will also be wise to hire qualified college fresh graduate because you can benefit from their vigor.

4. Set the schedule for the interview. Scheduling an interview should take place in one single day. By doing this, you can readily compare each applicant and there’s a greater chance of hiring a new personal assistant when the interview sessions are over. If you are not in a hurry to hire one, you can conduct a two-part interview to properly screen the respective candidates. On the second interview, ask somebody—a friend or a co-worker—to come with you and conduct an observation. This can be beneficial for you because you can get a feedback from other people.

5. After you have chosen the best candidate, prepare an orientation. This is very important because he or she exactly would be briefed on how the office or the business works. During the orientation, be prepared to discuss the salary and other benefits he or she will be getting.

6. Set a trial period. This is a wise move when hiring a personal assistant because you will never really know if he or she is fit for the job unless the PA is doing the work. A three-moth period is suitable to know if the hired personal assistant is fit for the job requirements that you need or not.

If there were one great invention in the field of modern gadgets, that would be the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). This is because it helps people to do the things that they need to practically everywhere and anywhere they go without worrying about the size of the gadget.

PDAs are handheld computers which can enable you to do computer works in mobility. It has been invented to ensure that people who are in different fields can always have something to rely on in terms of organizing schedules, preparing activities or a calendar, a wide storage for contact details, and an access to the Internet everywhere and anywhere possible.

Useful tips

For starters, here are some of the tips that you can actually use in buying that perfect PDA for you. Make sure that you have done your research first so you won’t be lost once you started your PDA shopping.

But since it is a compact computer, “Palms” or “Palm Pilots” can be quite expensive. If you really need one, it is best to conduct a research first about PDAs—what are the good models, what is the price range, features suitable for your need, and where you can you find the reliable sellers. The research can be done by spending some time browsing the Internet and visiting sites that offer information on PDAs. Here, you can get dose of PDAs history, its current trends, and even some tips in buying the model worth of your money.

You can also ask some of your friends or people that you know who have PDAs on what they think is ideal for you. Of course, this will depend primarily on your need and nature of your work. By asking people who have PDAs, you can get first hand information on the dos and don’ts in buying and using PDAs. They can even recommend brands that have the features that you need. And if you are lucky enough, they can even recommend you to the seller whom they got their PDAs where you can get some discounts or additional PDA accessories.

Once you have done your research, it is now time to have a list of what you really need the PDA for. This is very important because you might get overwhelmed with the models that you have seen during your research and not pay attention to what you really need. The nature of your work will greatly influence your buying options. Make sure that once you have chosen a unit to buy, you can maximize its use so you will get your money’s worth.

The next consideration would be is your budget. Make sure that you have allotted a budget for your PDA and don’t go beyond what you cannot really buy. If possible, in setting the budget, make an allowance of about ten percent. This will help you get the best options without really going overboard. There are so many units in the market that are quite expensive because of its features. If you think that you don’t need those features, stick to those models within the range of your budget and of your needs.

You must also know the basics of PDA. Knowing the features is very important because this will help you decide which type of PDA that will suit your needs. Features of PDA include the size of the gadget itself, color, weight, stylus for character recognition, pre-installed programs including calculator, address book, date book, and note/memo pad.

It has synchronization, connectivity options as well as memory options for you to choose from. Also, determining the PDAs processor speed is quite crucial because it will greatly determine the efficient operation of your PDA. Knowing the right type of processor chip as well it’s the memory size can help you perform the tasks needed in faster and accurate manner.

To ensure that you will get what you really need at your money’s worth, other important things to take note of when buying a personal digital assistant is the memory, the software, and the operating system or OS.

People who have personal assistants such as politicians, business tycoons, entertainment moguls, company executives and celebrities are literally free from doing daily tasks and can fully concentrate on their jobs and routine because there is somebody who takes care of everything they need.

But, aside from having somebody who can do all the errands, there is more to having a personal assistant. This is having the peace of mind that everything that you need to do and everything that should be done is taken cared of without you doing a single thing except giving out specific instructions.

What do you get from a personal assistant?

Depending on the description of their job, a personal assistant can be considered as the most reliable person around an employer or a boss. This is because he or she does everything in order to make the employer feel less stressed and can concentrate more on the task ahead. The personal assistant does this by ensuring that everything—from office works and other menial tasks—are properly taken cared of.

A personal assistant (PA) is expected to maintain the business, the household, and the social calendar of his or her employer. The PA is expected to do all the scheduling in all appointments for the boss be it in the business or personal life. He or she is also in-charge in making all travel arrangements in local and international destinations while handling all the events and functions of the employer. Since the personal assistant is one of the closest people in the boss’s circle, he or she takes charge in various social planning and meetings.

Aside from overseeing personal, office, home and business affairs, the personal assistant is also expected to do public relations and media works for the employer. He or she is also handles all mail matters, writes the correspondences to different people, does the money-matter affairs such as paying the bills, bookkeeping, and maintaining the account, as well as maintaining personal or business files.

The personal assistant also handles the maintenance of private contact database and does the coordination for various business conferences and meetings. She or he also takes charge of menial jobs such as monitoring computer and office supplies, and writing personal invitations, greeting cards and even thank-you notes.

For a personal assistant to become effective, he or she must have at least two to three years of experience as a personal PA either in a home or office set up. The PA must also have at least a Bachelor’s Degree, knowledge in computers especially in running basic programs in the computer such as Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, and others, and should possess a strong communication skills, have keen organization skills and displays people skills.

Extra requirements especially for those who will be working with prominent business people is extensive knowledge in the etiquette when it comes to social, business, and personal aspects, have a strong professional attitude and moral outlook, must have professional bearing and should be fit to travel in case the boss needs to send him or her to a certain destination.

Other benefit of having a personal assistant is that you can rely on somebody on the things that need to be done. And if you are nice enough to the PA, you might have a personal companion and a friend who you can trust in times of need.