Hiring an exec. assistant

[totovan]

Alright - So I"m throwing in the towel, after years of managing on my own and my general office staff. I've decided to hire an exec assistant. Anyone here with experience in recruiting, role development? Compensation?
How did you go about it? Was candidate age a factor? etc etc, Any input would be appreciated.

 

[danmand]

Get someone from a temp agency, with an option to hire. personality match is everything when it comes to an executive assistant.

 

[Capoeira]

get someone who is older...while the young pretty ones are fun to look at they will be starting a family soon and will be taking maternity leave.

There's a ton more problems with a younger prettier assistant!

Speaking from personal experience. All my assistants were selected for me, by the HR department. I found that the younger ones would (although quite fun to talk to and look at) called in sick at least once every other week (typically on Fridays lol), and are extremely unreliable.

If all you are looking for is eye candy for yourself and your clients, then go for the young hot one. If you want work to actually be done right, go for an older (30+) assistant.

 

[Thunderballs]

A wide salary range would be 40K-80K. Where they fall in that range depends upon who they supported then and now. The higher up the ladder, the higher their comp should be because they will typically be a lot busier and will by necessity need to be a lot more polished to handle peers internal and external as well as Board members. Add in a 5-10% bonus for the days that she may need to stay late and get things done. Definitely pass on young and pretty as they will typically not work as hard and could be a recipe for disaster. Hiring older will mean that her kids are grown and the mat leaves are over. Definitely be in on the hiring yourself and have references checked and set work expectations up front so there are no misunderstanding. There is absolutely no substitute for competency as her abilities will allow you to continue to earn at your level.

 

[hi up in the sky]

I'm in the same circumstance as Toto, and I know I live out in the boonies but those prices are quite high; in my neck of the woods 40k would be quite high for a mid level clerical/admin position. Beware the rumors that get started if you hire a young assistant. At one company I worked the rumor ended up that I had hired a boyfriend (I had hired a young man on a 4 month contract for a specific project). Even my wife was amused at that one.

 

[burt-oh-my!]

I would offer two pieces of advice. First, don't hire anyone who has lost their previous job and is now going to work for you for less money. this is particularly appropriate if by some chance they worked for government, or a corporation where they had a lot of benefits/perks which you are not oferring. They will be using you as a temporary source of income while they look to get back something similar to their old job.

And two: getting someone who is going to STAY is IMO extremely important. A staff member who handles a lot of work for you leaving can be VERY disruptive, and if your clients get to know her, it will make you look bad if they really liked her. So if I see someone who has had a job change every year and a half, forget it, not interested.

 

[james t kirk]

I agree with older - like 50 and up older. (I had to laugh at Capoeira above calling 30+ "older".)

It's a crap shoot any way you cut it, but I want someone who I can give assignments to and they can do it with next to no involvement from me. Not just someone to organize and file and type letters or me having to spoon feed them. I need, "here's an assignment - do"

I need to be be able to say, "I need you to prepare a flow chart, or gant chart, or org chart, or resumes, powerpoint marketing," etc. (In my line of work.)

I've found that the older women grew up in a generation where professional women were very much the exception, so most women who were going to work were secretarial, etc. You can find "smart" older secretaries, it's difficult to find younger smart secretaries because today, any woman with any brains does not aspire to clerical work. (Though you might be able to find a University grad from the humanities who can't find a job who is smart, but odds are they will hate the job because they consider it beneath them and will be looking at it as a stop gap only.)

 

[oldjones]

All well and good to evaluate experience and hire because of it, but don't fall victim to the stereotypes that young people are less responsible or productive or that older ones are solid and their family distractions are nehind them. Neither is true.

If she's gonna be assisting you, the first thing to figure out is what you're like as someone to work for and backstop; you're quite likely the last person in the company who knows. Put a serious effort into getting insight and assistance in the recruiting from people who do.

 

[C Dick]

I had to hire a new assistant last summer, my previous one was with me for ten years, and got a promotion, but it was traumatic to have to replace her. I find that young men are bad to hire, because they are ambitious and you can not keep them, at least I can't. But I hired a bunch of young women 20 years ago, and they are basically all still with me. They all went on maternity leaves, which is a pain, but they all came back at least part-time.

For me, the key to good hiring is to hire from a personal recomendation. Whenever I have hired from an ad, so often they turn out to be deeply flawed, out of work for a reason, with some form of horrible baggage. So I really work my network when I need to fill a position. The new girl was a friend of the daughter of a friend of mine (who I first met when she was dancing and I was her customer). She is great, just like they said she was, just an all around good person. But she may be too ambitious to stay, we'll see.