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What’s it like to be a Virtual Assistant

It seems a bizarre title especially when you realise the term “virtual assistant” now means something completely different to a lot of people.  , compared to a few years ago before Siri and Alexa arrived on the scene.

Nowadays, virtual working is fast becoming a way of life for many businesses and employees.  I’ve noticed companies like PwC actively recruit virtual assistants as permanent company employees.  They obviously realise the value of the virtual worker.

To be successful at virtual working, it’s all about the attitude you bring to work, being competent in your field, responsive to customers, adaptable to situations and giving each client your absolute best every time you work together.

For me, it’s the variety I enjoy.  Throughout the course of the day, I wear a lot of hats, work with a diverse bunch of customers from a range of business sectors.

Early Bird

My day begins at 06.00 with coffee (or three).  I check for email which arrived overnight,  review today’s meetings and appointments, look at the news feeds and jot down a few notes.

With sufficient caffeine, I walk my two dogs. It’s a lovely way to begin the day and just that hour outside gives me some valuable thinking and planning time.

At 08:00 it’s off to my home office to begin work.  Today, I’ll put the final touches on a workshop presentation and email the link in time for our one o’clock Skype meeting when my client will be calling in from the USA.

With the presentation done, I’ve got an hour to finish the transcription I started last night.  I plug in my headset, open the control deck on my transcription software and pick up where I left off.  The deadline is 17:00 today so I have time to proofread the transcript after the Skype meeting.

Skype call complete, I confirm actions and schedule time to complete the new task my client wants; researching books for her delegate reading list.  Then, back to transcription.

At 13:00 I Skype meet the next customer.  We’re working on a rolling content calendar for his business blog.  We review current topics together, add in any new ones and decide on categories and links for week’s blog posts.

Working Lunch

Time for a quick lunch.  I’m taking meeting minutes this evening, so while I’m eating a sandwich, I check for any apologies received from the team.  I see they’ve asked to borrow my large screen monitor to preview the club’s new website.  I’ll need to leave time to dismantle it from my office.

Still munching, I check news feeds for topics of interest to send to my clients should they wish to work them into social media posts.

Could you just …

Ping! 13:45 and I get an email asking if I can “write a quick blog post” on one of the topics I just sent over.  Can I fit it in in one hour?  After some quick research, fact-finding and statistic checking, I begin writing.  Luckily for me today, the stars were all aligned and I found a super fact to include for context.  It’s great to be able to help someone out.

At 14:30, I close all computer programs and allow myself some  uninterrupted time to proofread the transcription.  It’s all about listening – one missing word or misplaced piece of punctuation can change the entire context of the transcript, so I listen to the entire recording.

15:30 Two emails come in sending apologies for this evening’s meeting, so I update the meeting agenda document and grab a cup of tea.

Phew, it’s 16:00 already.  Delighted to hear my customer has approved the blog piece I wrote earlier.  I create a nice blog image banner and log on to the customer’s website to publish the new content.  It looks great.

Finally, I check all today’s time has been allocated correctly, check my to-do list and tomorrow’s diary, pack up my bag and head to the meeting.