According to Pro REA Staffing president Vanessa Rosenblum, you have three objectives to accomplish when interviewing candidates for real estate virtual assistant jobs. You need to verify that the candidate has:
- The skills
- The experience
- The culture fit for your office.
You need to do all that while also getting each VA candidate’s buy-in. Remember: they need to like you as much as you like them.
Of course, you have to do all this quickly because everyone involved is busy. If you add too many steps in the interview process, you risk losing great candidates because other companies will entice them before you do.
So how do you get all the information you need to make an informed decision about a candidate, and do it as quickly as possible?
Vanessa shares several well-researched suggestions to help you navigate the interview process and screen your candidates effectively. They are as follows:
Key traits that VA candidates should have
No matter the specifics of the job description, there are five key traits that candidates need to have. As you interview each, think about whether your applicant has them.
- Can organise themselves and others, create systems, and manage processes with consistency.
- Pays close attention to detail and work quickly.
- Can be a leader in their role. They need minimal supervision. In fact, they naturally “manage up”.
- Develops solid strategies for solving problems (e.g. the person comes to you with several solutions for you to pick from).
- Is a natural caretaker and takes initiative to do so.
Interview tips
- Use an online scheduling system like YouCanBook.Me or SimplyBook.Me, which link to your own calendar. You can then email the interview links to candidates and they can book themselves on your calendar.
- Keep interviews short – no longer than 20 minutes apart. Vanessa shares that her own interviews don’t last longer than 7 or 8 minutes. As soon as she knows the candidate isn’t a match for the job, she wraps up the interview.
- Take notes during interviews. After interviewing several candidates, you likely won’t remember why and what you liked about each one. Include notes on what you want to follow up on or dig deeper into.
- Listen more than you talk. After you ask your question, stop talking and allow the virtual assistant candidate to speak.
- Prepare an outline of questions you want to ask, but don’t stick to the script. You may have a list of questions but pick those that are relevant to the candidate. Have a list of 15 or 20 questions that you hope to cover in your interview.
- Have a conversation with your candidate. You also need to build a relationship with this person as you move through the process.
- Ask follow-up questions. These give you a second to compose yourself and plan your next step. More importantly, they let you dig in for details. Specifics let you verify what they know.
Critical questions that candidates should answer
Interviews aren’t just about gathering information about candidates; they’re also about building relationships. If you’re interested in a candidate, there are important questions they must answer:
- Why are you passionate about what you do?
- Why are you interested in our company?
- How can you add value to our company?
Consider this: if the candidate is currently employed and is considering changing jobs, they want to know that they’re going to be successful in their new job. If they’re not clear about the details or have concerns about meeting your expectations, they’re probably not changing jobs.
Conducting a deep-dive interview
By this time, you’ve narrowed your candidate list to two or three of your top candidates. Now it’s time to go deep with a skills assessment and goal alignment interview, which should last 3-4 hours.
During this interview, you need to accomplish the following:
- To validate skills. Nothing compares to having candidates complete actual tasks to make sure that they know how to do the job.
- Assess culture fit. If they join your remote team and realise that the job involves long periods of isolation and that doesn’t work for them, wouldn’t you rather they figured that out now?
- Discuss standards, expectations, vision and goals. It’s time to ask questions like “How should I manage you?” or “How honest can I be with you?”. The questions should go both ways as its your chance to get on the same page.
When you finish your deep-dive interviews, you should be clear about who you should hire.
Here’s Vanessa Rosenblum’s complete video:
Shorten the interview process
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You can actually choose from our pool of top candidates right away. Simply visit our Hotlist at:
https://remoteworkmate.com/hotlist
You can browse a wide range of profiles on our Hotlist page. Once you find a qualified VA, simply fill out the form at the bottom and we’ll get in touch with you at first opportunity.
