Regardless of position, household staff members need to be people you can trust, rely upon, and feel confident working with every day. This is especially true about personal assistants, who are entrusted to help your personal and professional lives run smoothly and take care of all the things you need help with managing. For example, these household staff members can handle everything from travel arrangements to reservations, calendar management, clerical duties, running errands, and other necessary tasks.
Therefore, well-thought-out personal assistant job interview questions are valuable in getting to know the personalities and skill sets of potential hires. Here are seven essential personal assistant interview questions to ask your candidates to ensure a good fit and a positive working relationship for the future.
1. Why Do You Want to Be a Personal Assistant?
Before diving into the other personal assistant job interview questions, try to get a sense of why this candidate wants the job and has pursued this particular career path. Open-ended questions like this are great icebreakers and help you get to know a new candidate’s personality and goals.
2. What Experience and Training Do You Have to Be a Personal Assistant?
Experience is important when it comes to being a personal assistant, and this goes beyond what a candidate’s resume says. From this question, assess the types of related education a candidate has received and the types of people he or she has worked for in the past.
3. What Specific Skills or Strengths Set You Apart from Other Personal Assistants?
The job interview process is a bit of a competition, so use this question to challenge candidates to compare themselves to their competitors. Perhaps your current interviewee is more organized, personable, or tech-savvy than others, and this can help you make your final decision.
4. What Were Your Favorite and Least Favorites Aspects of Your Previous Work as a Personal Assistant?
All employees have things they love and hate about past jobs, and you’ll want to ask this personal assistant job interview question to further get to know your candidates. If a candidate responds that a certain task was undesirable and you will need that task completed on a regular basis, that candidate might not be right for your job.
5. What Is One Area for Professional Improvement That You Would Like to Work On?
This question plays into a candidate’s potential weakness and room for improvement. It can be an uncomfortable one to ask and answer, but also a crucial one to determine who dedicated a candidate is to this career and address possible challenges before they actually arise.
6. What Are Your Salary Requirements and Availability?
You’ll also want to ask practical questions, such as salary requirements and availability to begin work, early-on in the interview process to ensure that your goals and visions align. You’ll waste less time in the interview process by discussing practical details early and avoid disappointments down the road.
7. What Questions Do You Have for Me?
As an employer, it’s also important to remember that you aren’t the only one who should be asking questions during the interview process. Towards the end of your candidate interview, ask if he or she has any questions for you in order to clarify any misunderstandings or gauge concerns that the candidate may have. A candidate who has no questions may not be truly interested in the position, so this is also a way to understand how committed he or she is to your job.
If you are looking for a new personal assistant, Household Staffing International can help. We work with many experienced, talented, and flexible personal assistants and can connect you to a candidate that meets your needs and exceeds your expectations. Contact us to learn about more important personal assistant interview questions to ask and find the best personal assistant for your situation.