Has anyone used or considered using virtual assistants (i.e. someone in a lower-cost-of-labor country working as a contractor) instead of or in addition to interns? I know lots of e-commerce sites and real estate brokers/agents use VAs in the Philippines to do customer support, build lead lists, schedule meetings, manage their individual email accounts, etc. Seems like a natural fit to at least augment the squads of interns at search funds.
Would love to hear opinions and/or experiences from anyone who's even just thought about using VAs!
Interns vs. Virtual Assistants
by a searcher from Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT Sloan School of Management
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I've been using VAs for years and as long as you have a good process to hire a good VA, it's a great idea.
HOW TO MAKE IT WORK!
After trying a lot of thing, here are several that I discovered to work well :
1. There are 2 types of VAs (for a lack of better terms, this is what I use):
a. Project managers (more of a go-getter, someone who can find answers) and
b. Process managers (those who are amazing at following a specific process.
Identify the type of person you need first and don't expect one type of person to do what the other type of person would do. It will save you a lot of headaches.
Many VAs I've hired in the Philippines are great at following clear SOPs rather than innovate (though of course they still make suggestions and improve the systems in small ways). Also, my experience has been that it matters where the VA is located (my expectations and the way I structure our relationship change based on the location of the VA)
2. Use a JOB FUNNEL to get applicants (via a site like Upwork) and qualify people at every step in order to get great people.
Have a clear idea of what the VA will do, and build the "job funnel" to discover those people have the soft and hard skills needed for the job! This is essential. I've hired VAs in the past, trying to get them to do a variety of tasks. And it was a terrible experience both for them and for me. But when I hire with a clear goal in mind, it works great.
2. Once I find the TOP 3-5 APPLICANTS, I give them the same test job to see the quality of their work (at least one of the tasks is either a bit unclear or requires a bit of creativity; I do this to identify how they would approach it if they are unclear or they have a bit of freedom - do they ask any questions about it? What kinds of questions do they ask? etc.)
3. I've done both pay-per-hour or pay-per-deliverable and both have worked well for me. Also, certain types of tasks fit well the pay-per-deliverable model (this model doesn't require extra managing, so it makes sense at times).
Note: on Upwork, you can do fixed price or hourly. I always start with fixed price and move to hourly after testing the VA on various types of tasks.
Over the years, I've had some interns as well (in fact, I'm trying one intern now who will probably become a really reliable full-time employee). But most of my experience is with VAs.
Hope this helps :)