Accessing Your Skill Set As a Virtual Assistant

How does your personal and work experience add to your skill set as a virtual assistant?

I want to begin with the definition of a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant (VA), through the medium of the computer, internet and phone, is one who assists clients with various tasks and projects. Because everything is done virtually there is no need for clients and VAs to work within the same office space. The client submits tasks and/or projects to the VA usually through emails or phone calls.

A few of you are probably shaking your heads, asking yourselves, "how do my work and personal experiences translate to a resume?!" Think of it like this, basically a VA is an assistant, many times an administrative assistant, who works from their own [virtual], remote office as opposed to the office of their client. Did you catch the key word, "...administrative assistant?"

There are many individuals out there who don't have the time to accomplish all they want or need, whether personally or for their business, so they hire an assistant. Some assistants are administrative while others are more along the lines of being personal assistants.

Do you have administrative skills? If you have worked in an office, be it home or business, you have administrative skills. All of these are within the skill set of being a virtual assistant. You have many more VA skills than you probably realize.

Now, as I stated earlier, how does this translate marketable skills on your resume? We're getting there, I promise, but before we do, let's break down HOW business and life 'experiences' are administrative skills. For that, I'm breaking it down into six main categories, including: communication, computer and Internet, organization, planning, research and scheduling.

COMMUNICATION

• How many letters or emails have you sent?

• How many times have you had to visit the school counselor or principle?

• Do you know how to use your phone and email?

COMPUTER AND INTERNET

• How many letters, emails or even reports have you typed?

• Ever made a purchase online?

• Do you manage a social profile, whether LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace or Twitter?

• Have you written articles or blog posts?

ORGANIZATION

• Have you filed away misc. documents for records?

• Do you have a bank account you manage?

• How many spreadsheets (Excel documents) have you designed for use around the house, including your husband's collection of signed baseball bats?

PLANNING

• How many hotel, car or flight reservations have you made on the internet for yourself, a friend or a family?

• Do you have a meal plan? Have you scheduled the meals you make for your family, including the purchase of the ingredients?

RESEARCH

• How many terms have you 'googled' to learn about a topic you did not previously know?

• Do you know how to research a topic you're interested in or that a client might have a question about?

SCHEDULING

• How many doctors' appointments have you scheduled?

• How many trip itineraries have you put together to help your family vacation glide as smoothly as possible.

So, what might this look like on your resume?

Key Skills:

- Office Management 

- Telephone & Email Etiquette 

- Word Processing 

- Data Entry 

- Management Skills 

- Social Networking Profile Maintenance 

- Spreadsheet & Database Creation 

- Ghostwriting 

- Copy Editing/Proofreading 

- Academic Writing 

- Records Management 

- Meeting & Event Planning 

- Inventory Management 

- Research 

- Customer Service

Computer Programs, Sites and Applications:

- WordPress/Blogger 

- Microsoft Word/Works 

- Microsoft Outlook 

- Microsoft Excel 

- Microsoft Publisher 

- Google Docs 

- Skype/Google Talk 

- Photoshop/Picasa 

- QuickBooks/Peachtree 

- Facebook/Myspace/LinkedIn 

- Mozilla Firefox/ Internet Explorer 

- Google/Yahoo/Bing

If you're thinking about setting up shop as a virtual assistant, the next step would be for you assess where you are now. A great way to do that is by taking an inventory of the skill set life has already given you! Start a list of the various tasks you do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. In the right hand column you can list which of the main six categories your task falls under.

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