4 ms·

Jason Fried: How to Hire an Assistant

110 points by gatsby 15y ago

larrik 15y ago
Here's an idea, instead of "executive assistant" call it "office manager" or something. It seems like that would solve the "stepping stone" issue he ran into, while effectively being the same job. (I'm not saying the job titles are always related, but I AM saying that they could be the same thing.)
- JoachimSchipper 15y ago
  The SvN post (at http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2544-were-looking-for-an-office-manager-executive-assistant http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2544-were-looking-for-an-offi...) is titled "We're looking for an Office Manager / Executive Assistant".
  - larrik 15y ago
    Huh. A little odd it wasn't in his article, but I guess it didn't help anyway. Color me surprised. Perhaps the volume of responses they got were more from fans of 37signals rather than actual job seekers? Regardless, I don't have any ideas on how to combat that.
    - stcredzero 15y ago
      I call my current assistant a "Producer." This is because he also has skills in professional theater, and could well do some work as a spokesperson.
teej 15y ago
The article title is technically ".. when to hire an assistant". It's an important distinction to make. The core point of the article is about how hard, but incredibly valuable it can be to let go of your baby.
- stcredzero 15y ago
  They also go over a bit of the how. (By aggregating all the tasks for a week that they'd have the assistant do, and presenting that list.)
stcredzero 15y ago
I had tremendous problems with this. I hired a friend of mine who is intelligent and recently graduated from a highly reputed engineering school. I told her that she was there to save me time, and that she should act with maximum initiative. One day I asked her to arrange a meeting for me within a certain time-span tomorrow, at a café with wireless Internet. She emails me back several hours before the requested time-span with a list of possible cafés and with everyone's availability -- thereby leaving it for me to arrange the meeting! I also gave her a copy of my password database, and told her she was responsible for this. We go over everything and I make sure she knows how to open the password vault program. Later, I hired someone to do some Wordpress stuff for me, and emailed them both, explaining that the Wordpress contractor was supposed to coordinate with my assistant for all of the relevant access and passwords. I wake up one morning to see an email from my assistant to the contractor saying, "I don't know anything about that password." I end up having to send another half-dozen emails to my contractor and answer as many calls, while I was onsite and supposed to be billing hourly to another company. Days later, I find out that she lost access to the password db file, and she never told me. It's been hard to hire an assistant!
- larrik 15y ago
  Why on earth would you pick an engineer to be an assistant? Engineers are usually people who want to build things, and being a good assistant has nothing to do with that. I don't know what fields are ideal for this sort of position (MBA would be my guess), but I can't imagine any engineering field to be one.
  - stcredzero 15y ago
    Why on earth would you pick an engineer to be an assistant? Because I could also tell her to do stuff like "Set up an Amazon EC2 instance" and she could just look up instructions and do it. (I know, because exactly this happened!) She could do geeky, she just didn't understand "assistant." I wanted someone who could do both.
    - tptacek 15y ago
dave1619 15y ago
sounds blissful.
- tptacek 15y ago
  Not really, not until you need one (we have an office manager now, and she's awesome, but in years 1-2 the role would have been more trouble than it's worth today).
kadavy 15y ago
I'm really shocked that it took them that long to hire an assistant. It would be very difficult to think creatively with all of those trivial concerns in one's head.
stevenj 15y ago
>This is a problem with job listings in general: They don't seem to describe an actual day's work. They're heavy on skills but not actions. Ya. Job listings should detail exactly the work that the person will be doing. I think part of the reason why this isn't done is because it may not sound as good. But an employer should want someone who will enjoy their work. So be honest and open about it. Employers should leave out the buzz words and marketing speak and just be straight forward. I wouldn't be surprised if doing so made hiring easier and better.
thedeuce 15y ago
the only question that needs answering when hiring an assistant is IS SHE BANGABLE.
timedoctor 15y ago
I've been working with a virtual assistant for more than a year and it's really amazing. Saves me a huge amount of time, mostly booking travel but could be anything really. I think the job of a CEO is to constantly develop systems such that you do not need to do the work, giving the work to other people or developing a process that doesn't require as much effort. A neverending battle to reduce the amount of work you have to do (and at the same time work more strategically on your business). An assistant is part of that process. I think a virtual assistant in combination with sites like task rabbit is a good option as well (and an order of magnitude less expensive).
larsberg 15y ago
Many places solve the assistant problem by going through a temp agency and then offering the individual full-time employment if they work out at the end of their contract. And I think there's an article waiting to be written about the dangers of the receptionist/assistant turned underqualified office manager. I've seen more companies go dysfunctional over that (fear to try to get more graph paper, kitchens that never get restocked, replacement keyboards/mice never get ordered, etc.) than even the dreaded IC-overpromoted-to-lead problem.
marcamillion 15y ago
Fried always says they are looking for people that are good at their job and want to keep doing that for many years. So if they provide no upward mobility, do they give raises annually ? At the very least to keep up with inflation or from time to time to keep people encouraged and wanting to come to work ?

110 points by gatsby 15y ago

Here's an idea, instead of "executive assistant" call it "office manager" or something. It seems like that would solve the "stepping stone" issue he ran into, while effectively being the same job. (I'm not saying the job titles are always related, but I AM saying that they could be the same thing.)

JoachimSchipper 15y ago
The SvN post (at http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2544-were-looking-for-an-office-manager-executive-assistant http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2544-were-looking-for-an-offi...) is titled "We're looking for an Office Manager / Executive Assistant".
- larrik 15y ago
  Huh. A little odd it wasn't in his article, but I guess it didn't help anyway. Color me surprised. Perhaps the volume of responses they got were more from fans of 37signals rather than actual job seekers? Regardless, I don't have any ideas on how to combat that.
  - stcredzero 15y ago
    I call my current assistant a "Producer." This is because he also has skills in professional theater, and could well do some work as a spokesperson.

teej 15y ago

The article title is technically ".. when to hire an assistant". It's an important distinction to make. The core point of the article is about how hard, but incredibly valuable it can be to let go of your baby.

stcredzero 15y ago
They also go over a bit of the how. (By aggregating all the tasks for a week that they'd have the assistant do, and presenting that list.)

stcredzero 15y ago

I had tremendous problems with this. I hired a friend of mine who is intelligent and recently graduated from a highly reputed engineering school. I told her that she was there to save me time, and that she should act with maximum initiative. One day I asked her to arrange a meeting for me within a certain time-span tomorrow, at a café with wireless Internet. She emails me back several hours before the requested time-span with a list of possible cafés and with everyone's availability -- thereby leaving it for me to arrange the meeting! I also gave her a copy of my password database, and told her she was responsible for this. We go over everything and I make sure she knows how to open the password vault program. Later, I hired someone to do some Wordpress stuff for me, and emailed them both, explaining that the Wordpress contractor was supposed to coordinate with my assistant for all of the relevant access and passwords. I wake up one morning to see an email from my assistant to the contractor saying, "I don't know anything about that password." I end up having to send another half-dozen emails to my contractor and answer as many calls, while I was onsite and supposed to be billing hourly to another company. Days later, I find out that she lost access to the password db file, and she never told me. It's been hard to hire an assistant!

larrik 15y ago
Why on earth would you pick an engineer to be an assistant? Engineers are usually people who want to build things, and being a good assistant has nothing to do with that. I don't know what fields are ideal for this sort of position (MBA would be my guess), but I can't imagine any engineering field to be one.
- stcredzero 15y ago
  Why on earth would you pick an engineer to be an assistant? Because I could also tell her to do stuff like "Set up an Amazon EC2 instance" and she could just look up instructions and do it. (I know, because exactly this happened!) She could do geeky, she just didn't understand "assistant." I wanted someone who could do both.
  - tptacek 15y ago

dave1619 15y ago

sounds blissful.

tptacek 15y ago
Not really, not until you need one (we have an office manager now, and she's awesome, but in years 1-2 the role would have been more trouble than it's worth today).

kadavy 15y ago

I'm really shocked that it took them that long to hire an assistant. It would be very difficult to think creatively with all of those trivial concerns in one's head.

stevenj 15y ago

>This is a problem with job listings in general: They don't seem to describe an actual day's work. They're heavy on skills but not actions. Ya. Job listings should detail exactly the work that the person will be doing. I think part of the reason why this isn't done is because it may not sound as good. But an employer should want someone who will enjoy their work. So be honest and open about it. Employers should leave out the buzz words and marketing speak and just be straight forward. I wouldn't be surprised if doing so made hiring easier and better.

thedeuce 15y ago

the only question that needs answering when hiring an assistant is IS SHE BANGABLE.

timedoctor 15y ago

I've been working with a virtual assistant for more than a year and it's really amazing. Saves me a huge amount of time, mostly booking travel but could be anything really. I think the job of a CEO is to constantly develop systems such that you do not need to do the work, giving the work to other people or developing a process that doesn't require as much effort. A neverending battle to reduce the amount of work you have to do (and at the same time work more strategically on your business). An assistant is part of that process. I think a virtual assistant in combination with sites like task rabbit is a good option as well (and an order of magnitude less expensive).

larsberg 15y ago

Many places solve the assistant problem by going through a temp agency and then offering the individual full-time employment if they work out at the end of their contract. And I think there's an article waiting to be written about the dangers of the receptionist/assistant turned underqualified office manager. I've seen more companies go dysfunctional over that (fear to try to get more graph paper, kitchens that never get restocked, replacement keyboards/mice never get ordered, etc.) than even the dreaded IC-overpromoted-to-lead problem.

marcamillion 15y ago

Fried always says they are looking for people that are good at their job and want to keep doing that for many years. So if they provide no upward mobility, do they give raises annually ? At the very least to keep up with inflation or from time to time to keep people encouraged and wanting to come to work ?