With the rise of remote work, the demand for job candidates with virtual assistant skills is rapidly increasing. Everyone, from individuals to large-scale businesses, is looking for virtual assistants to help them with various tasks.
Whether you’re looking to break into this field or simply want to update your resume to better showcase your valuable abilities, you’re in the right place. For the best chances of success, it’s crucial to know which virtual assistant skills to include and how to do it properly.
In this article, we’ll discuss the key skills that employers are looking for in virtual assistants. Moreover, we’ll give you expert tips on how to highlight these to make your resume stand out, improve your competence, and boost your employability. Let’s dive right in.
Key Takeaways
Virtual assistants are increasingly sought-after professionals who provide administrative, creative, and technical support remotely.
To best demonstrate your virtual assistant skills, you should include them next to relevant accomplishments in your resume objective, resume summary, and work experience section.
Virtual assistants often possess many different skills, including communication, time management, email management, data entry, and more.
To improve your abilities, you can ask clients for feedback, learn from others, work on your communication, customer service, and time management skills, stay up to date with technology, etc.
What Does a Virtual Assistant Do?
In essence, a virtual assistant is an individual who provides administrative skills, creative, and technical support to clients from a remote location. As technology advances and the world becomes increasingly digitized, this role is becoming more prevalent than ever before.
Virtual assistants can do tasks that range from managing emails and scheduling appointments to booking travel arrangements, conducting research, managing social media, and more. Due to the versatility of this role, two types of virtual assistants could have completely different skill sets and responsibilities.
One of the main reasons why employers and businesses opt for virtual assistants is their cost-effectiveness since they work remotely and are often paid on an hourly basis.
Moreover, by hiring virtual assistants, employers gain access to a wider talent pool. They can target individuals from around the world with the virtual assistant skills needed for their business in particular.
Communication between virtual assistants and clients is usually done through email, instant messaging, or video conferencing. Additionally, virtual assistants will likely use various online tools and software, such as project management software, time tracking software, and more.
All of this makes the role of a virtual assistant rather dynamic and diverse. Employers from various lines of business look for virtual assistants so that they can focus on their core competencies while delegating the rest of the tasks to these experienced professionals.
How to Add Virtual Assistant Skills to Your Resume
Since a virtual assistant's duties can vary a lot from one job to the next, it's important to be clear and specific when listing your skills on your resume. You want to make sure that you’ve demonstrated the exact abilities that the potential employer is looking for, which is why you should start this process by doing research.
Examine the job posting and try to find out as much as possible about your potential employer and their business. That way, you can figure out which virtual assistant skills and tools to include in your resume.
Once you have a complete list, there are two things that you should do for the best results:
Add your virtual assistant skills to the skills section of your resume.
Demonstrate some of the most important abilities throughout the document.
You should include some of your virtual assistant skills in the summary or objective of your resume, as well as in your work experience section. By mentioning a skill while talking about some of your prominent achievements or outstanding results obtained, you’ll make them more concrete and substantial in the eyes of recruiters.
More than that, you could use memorable action verbs and power words to make your abilities stand out. Lastly, don’t forget to quantify your accomplishments with numbers and percentages to add even more credibility to your competence.
11 Virtual Assistant Skills To Include in Your Resume
We’ve established that virtual assistant skills can differ a lot from one position to another. Now, let’s examine some of the most prominent ones that you could include in your resume. If you’re a beginner, this list will give you a good starting point for which virtual assistant skills to learn first.
#1. Communication
Communication skills are critical for virtual assistants, as their work always revolves around frequent communication with clients, team members, and sometimes even stakeholders. Due to the fact that virtual assistants often work remotely, effective communication is necessary to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that all tasks are completed successfully.
Clear and professional communication doesn’t only affect work performance—it also helps build trust between the assistant and the client. In addition to verbal communication, it also involves non-verbal and written communication, as well as active listening.
Communication Example
Here’s how you could demonstrate your communication skills on your resume:
Utilized communication skills to resolve customer complaints in a timely and satisfactory manner, resulting in a 95% satisfaction rating.
#2. Time Management
Virtual assistants often work on multiple tasks—sometimes for several clients simultaneously. That makes time management an essential skill that allows them to complete everything on time and ensure that deadlines are met.
Time management is a complex skill that involves prioritizing tasks, setting goals, and creating schedules. Clients value these skills in virtual assistants as they allow them to complete tasks efficiently and within the agreed-upon time frame.
Time Management Example
Let’s see how you could demonstrate these virtual assistant skills on your resume:
Demonstrated strong time management skills by efficiently handling the schedules of multiple clients, ensuring all appointments were arranged without conflicts.
#3. Email Management
We already mentioned that a significant portion of communication between virtual assistants and their clients is done via email. That makes email management a must-have skill for this type of professional. It involves everything from organizing and prioritizing incoming emails to drafting concise and professional responses and doing so in a timely manner.
Email management skills are vital in maintaining clear communication, avoiding miscommunication, and upholding a high level of professionalism.
Email Management Example
Here’s how you could demonstrate these skills on your resume:
Drafted professional and concise responses to emails, representing clients in a highly professional and competent manner.
#4. Data Entry
One of the most common types of tasks virtual assistants do for clients across many industries is data entry. You might be required to input data into databases and spreadsheets, as well as other software applications.
Speed and accuracy are often highly sought-after soft skills that are tightly connected to data entry. Accuracy ensures clients can make correct, informed decisions, while speed directly impacts the productivity of both parties.
Data Entry Example
Now let’s take a look at an example of data entry skills demonstrated on a resume:
Managed databases and spreadsheets for multiple clients, ensuring that all data was up-to-date and organized for easy access.
#5. Organization
For a virtual assistant who will likely work with multiple clients and manage a wide range of tasks simultaneously, organization is a critical skill. It allows you to effectively handle your workload, meet deadlines, and ensure that the clients’ needs are met promptly.
A well-organized virtual assistant can maintain clear communication with clients, prioritize tasks effectively, and streamline their workflow for maximum efficiency and productivity.
Organization Example
Here’s how you could highlight these skills on your resume:
Managed travel arrangements, including flights, hotels, and transportation, for the executive and other team members.
#6. Attention to Detail
Even though they mostly work remotely, virtual assistants are often responsible for managing important tasks and projects for their clients. That makes attention to detail a must-have, as it allows assistants to work with high accuracy and precision, minimize errors, and provide high-quality services.
Attention to Detail Example
While attention to detail is valuable in various industries, it’s especially important when it comes to scheduling, communication, and finances. Here’s how to highlight this skill on your resume:
Proofread and edited documents, including emails, reports, and presentations, ensuring all content was error-free.
#7. Adaptability
Working with multiple clients that have different needs and preferences requires high levels of adaptability. A virtual assistant with strong adaptability can quickly adjust to new tasks and workflows and effectively respond to any changes in priorities or deadlines.
This skill also allows you to quickly learn how to use new tools and adapt to the technologies that clients use to work and communicate.
Adaptability Example
An example of a candidate demonstrating their adaptability on a resume looks like this:
Handled unexpected situations, such as last-minute changes to schedules or client needs, by adapting quickly and efficiently.
#8. Research
Research is an important skill for virtual assistants because it allows them to gather information and data on behalf of their clients. Individuals with strong research skills can quickly find relevant and accurate information, which can be used to make informed decisions, create reports, or support other tasks.
Research Example
By highlighting this skill on your resume, you also show your ability to analyze and synthesize information. Here’s an example:
Conducted research on various topics, such as market trends and industry news, and analyzed competitors to create reports for executives.
#9. Social Media Skills
Social media skills are becoming increasingly sought-after among virtual assistants. This is because many businesses rely on various social media platforms when it comes to promoting their products or services.
Virtual assistants can do everything from content creation to customer service, which results in their ability to reach a wider audience, increase brand awareness, and boost follower engagement.
Social Media Skills Example
When demonstrating these skills on your resume, you can focus on the aspect of social media management that is your strongest point, such as account management, metrics analysis, and content creation. Here’s an example:
Managed social media accounts on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for multiple clients.
#10. Technical Skills
Due to the nature of their work, virtual assistants often need to be proficient in various software, tools, and technologies in order to provide efficient support to their clients. Virtual assistants that demonstrate strong technical skills can usually troubleshoot issues quickly, streamline and optimize workflows, and be more productive in general.
Since there are many different technologies that virtual assistants use, it’s crucial to list those that are relevant to the position that you’re applying for. Here are some of them:
Microsoft Office Suite
Google Suite
Adobe Creative Suite
WordPress
Pro tip:
You can list any certifications or formal training that you have completed to further add credibility to your technical skills.
#11. Language Skills
Language skills are important for virtual assistants who work with clients from different parts of the world or have a multicultural workforce. Proficiency in languages increases your employability, as it allows you to apply for more jobs or positions.
Moreover, communicating effectively with clients, customers, and colleagues in their native language will foster stronger business relationships and improve customer satisfaction.
When adding language skills to your resume, you should generally list them in a section of their own. You should start with the one you’re most proficient in and include the rest in descending order. Here’s an example:
Language Skills
English (Native Proficiency)
Spanish (Full Professional Proficiency)
German (Professional Working Proficiency)
How to Improve Skills Relevant to a Virtual Assistant
With virtual assistants having such diverse skill sets, it’s hard to find a one-size-fits-all approach to getting better at what you do. Some candidates might want to keep their technical skills sharp, while others would focus more on their research abilities.
Still, we’ve compiled a list of tips that can help anyone in the industry. Whether you’re trying to improve your virtual assistant skills as a beginner or a seasoned veteran, these will help you:
Ask clients for feedback on your work. This will allow you to adjust your approach, polish required skills, and provide better services.
Learn from others by joining virtual assistant communities, attending networking events, and connecting with other professionals. This way, you can exchange information, get informed about some great practices, and share experiences and knowledge.
Work on your communication skills since they are foundational for virtual assistants. You can do that by developing writing skills, professional verbal communication, and clear and concise writing.
Stay up to date with technology and, if needed, take courses or attend training sessions to learn those tools and software that could help you do the job of a virtual assistant.
You should continuously seek opportunities to learn new skills, such as graphic design or email marketing. By expanding your skill set, you increase your value and boost your employability.
Polish your customer service skills by responding promptly or addressing concerns in a polite and professional manner.
Work on your time management skills by prioritizing tasks or taking advantage of time management tools and techniques (e.g., the Pomodoro technique).
Closing Thoughts
In conclusion, being a virtual assistant requires a set of unique skills that allow for successful remote work. That makes crafting a tailored, job-specific resume all the more important, which is why you want to highlight those skills that employers want to see.
By doing so, you’ll stand out not only as an efficient virtual assistant but also as an individual with a commitment to providing high-quality services.
Remember, as a virtual assistant, your skills are your greatest asset. By following the guidelines in this article, you’ll be able to showcase your abilities in the best possible light.
