An online job today is one of the best choices you can make for yourself and your family. You can earn from a stable career without sacrificing your family time and time for passion projects. To boot, you are also safe from the health hazards outside your home. What more can you ask for?
But what is the best remote working career for you? Why not try becoming an executive assistant?
What Does an Executive Assistant Do?
Many executives abroad are pretty busy with the faith of the company, relying on their decisions. They have a full plate already. How can they find the time to do all those admin tasks? That’s where executive assistants come in.
Executive assistants cater to the admin tasks of high-level employers like business owners, professionals, or high-level executives.
Tasks may include setting up appointments, booking travel schedules, organizing data, creating slideshows, and more. Almost every person can do it. That’s why virtual assistants who cater for executives are in demand.
But how do you set yourself apart? Here are 7 crucial skills to become a sought after executive assistant.
Tech-Savvy
Most likely, you will be working with people from abroad. You need to know how to use online tools to your advantage.
What communication messaging tool are you using? Is it Slack, Skype, Messenger, Zoom? Do you know how to use Google GSuites? Are you familiar with booking websites for hotels and flights?
You have to be tech-savvy enough to juggle in-between these apps to fully support your executive.
Organization Skills
Your executive doesn’t have the time to arrange data and documents. You should have the organization to keep track of all the important documents and information at bay. Sometimes, these documents are needed on a whim. With your help, you can readily pull out crucial information for them.
And it doesn’t stop from there. Organization skills also include how you manage you and your executive’s time. With this skill, you can organize all your executive’s needs with high efficiency.
Knowing Your Executive’s Preferences
Every executive has different needs and preferences. You should know what your boss wants.
What kind of slides and images does your executive prefer for a presentation? Would you know the kind of hotel rooms or flights they wish, depending on the budget? By working with them closely, you can compile these unique preferences. And make decisions based on them faster.
Proactive
Now that you know your executive’s preferences, it’s time to anticipate his/her needs. What do you think would require their meeting next week? Do they have things to book for the coming spring? What can you improve with their data management?
You should be proactive enough to support your executive. They have too many things to think about. When you are proactive enough to spot what can be improved, you are surely lifting the unnecessary burden from them.
Communication Skills
You will be in contact with your executive almost every day. How are your communication skills online? You should adapt to the limitations of online communication. After all, you can’t see their non-verbal cues and can’t hear their voice intonation.
Practice communicating your ideas and deliverables well to avoid misunderstandings. And so that your executive will feel at ease with your service.
Teamwork
You will not be working for your executive alone. You will be working with his/her team as well. Pretty much, you’re like the extension of your executive to the team.
So, you need to build healthy working relationships with camaraderie to ensure that the goals of your executive and his department are in line.
Learning Attitude
There are many things that an executive needs. And these needs might change over time. For example, new software might be called for efficient data storage. Are you willing to learn new things?
As a sought-after executive assistant, you should have a learning attitude to supply the additional skills for the new tasks.
Conclusion
Want to become an executive assistant? With these crucial skills, you can find the best career in this field. If you’re looking for opportunities as an executive assistant, you can check this link for more information. Cheers!
