Hiring Your First Assistant Part 2

As promised, here is a form you can use to submit on Craigslist, Task Rabbit, local college forums or job boards, and your personal Facebook, if you feel comfortable with that.

Title: Personal Assistant for [insert your job or goal here] in [location you would be meeting with this person. You want an assistant who lives close to you.]

I am looking for a Personal Assistant for [how many hours per week or month]. [Talk about what times and days typically work for you, and how close you would like your assistant to be to you.]

I'm a [Talk about your age, job, hobbies, and personally traits here. Are you upbeat, do you have a busy schedule or would you like to be busier? It gives the person applying an idea of who you are. ] 

I have [what kind of goals?] goals that I need your help with. I am not very strong in [list your weaknesses]  and I would like someone to provide me with focussed support on an ongoing basis. 

I need help with: 

[bullet point list of all the tasks you see this person working on]

I would like someone with the following experience or qualities: 

[For your first assistant you may not know what you are looking for, just make sure that you are looking for things related to what you need help with, and not more. No one likes being lowballed for the experience they have. In the meantime, here's an example of what I might list.]

• -simple graphic design skills and a good eye for photography 
• -good with Excel 
• -providing accountability and consistency 
• -methodical and logical 
• -interested in startups/technology (the company I work with is in this field) 
• -interested in finance/investing 
• -interested in personal development 
• -thrifty 

Pay: [Your rate here. Will you offer a higher rate after a 6-month review?]

The hiring process is as follows:

[This is important! It's important to give people an idea of what they would be participating in, and when they will expect to know if they've gotten the job or not. Here's an example of my process, feel free to copy. ]

• We talk on the phone for 10 minutes and see if we have a connection.
• We meet for a working interview for 2 hours, with pay! This would probably take place at my office.
• We schedule a set day to work together that is ongoing.

Please e-mail me with your intro e-mail and your resume pasted into the body of the e-mail.

[A nice closing and a thank you]

Fielding the massive amounts of applicants you'll get is kind of a part-time job, but I tend to only look at applicants until I have 5 good candidates. I set up the 10 minute interviews with those 5 and choose 2 from those interviews. Then I set up the working interviews and make my final choice in the evening of the final interview, and e-mail both candidates right away with my decision. Actually, to be honest, I e-mail the one I've chosen first to make sure he or she still wants the position, then I e-mal the other applicant.

Anyway, now you know a little bit more about how I operate. I've had an assistant for years, and this has been my system that I've tweaked to what I consider pretty close to perfection.