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Having previous experience as an administrative assistant or support staff member is helpful, but not necessary. Even individuals without past experience can take training courses to learn needed skills, such as the Microsoft Office Suite or other administrative software. Freelance networks such as Upwork and Fiverr provide marketplaces where contractors can seek out positions. Contractors can also seek out work on more traditional job boards or through networking sites such as LinkedIn."}},"@type": "Question","name": "How Hard Is It to Be a Virtual Assistant?","acceptedAnswer": "@type": "Answer","text": "A virtual assistant has some of the same challenges as an in-person assistant, including working with a variety of programs, managing and prioritizing competing tasks and answering to an employer. What's different is that the virtual assistant is doing all of this remotely, without frequent in-person interaction, in a different location than their employer. This may be a less stressful environment for many employees. However, it's also an environment without any technical support staff on hand if there are any technological problems.","@type": "Question","name": "How Much Can You Earn As a Virtual Assistant?","acceptedAnswer": "@type": "Answer","text": "The compensation varies depending on what the assignment is and who you're working for. According to job search site Indeed, the national average for virtual assistants is just over $25 per hour, particularly for more basic administrative assistant jobs. Jobs with a higher value skill set, such as design, can command a higher price. Some of these jobs are advertised on standard job sites, such as Robert Half, Monster, and Indeed and have established hourly rates. For contractors who advertise their services on sites such as Upwork or Fiverr set their own rates and therefore can charge more. Facebook and other social media platforms also advertise for virtual assistants.
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Having previous experience as an administrative assistant or support staff member is helpful, but not necessary. Even individuals without past experience can take training courses to learn needed skills, such as the Microsoft Office Suite or other administrative software. Freelance networks such as Upwork and Fiverr provide marketplaces where contractors can seek out positions. Contractors can also seek out work on more traditional job boards or through networking sites such as LinkedIn.
A virtual assistant has some of the same challenges as an in-person assistant, including working with a variety of programs, managing and prioritizing competing tasks and answering to an employer. What's different is that the virtual assistant is doing all of this remotely, without frequent in-person interaction, in a different location than their employer. This may be a less stressful environment for many employees. However, it's also an environment without any technical support staff on hand if there are any technological problems.
The compensation varies depending on what the assignment is and who you're working for. According to job search site Indeed, the national average for virtual assistants is just over $25 per hour, particularly for more basic administrative assistant jobs. Jobs with a higher value skill set, such as design, can command a higher price. Some of these jobs are advertised on standard job sites, such as Robert Half, Monster, and Indeed and have established hourly rates. For contractors who advertise their services on sites such as Upwork or Fiverr set their own rates and therefore can charge more. Facebook and other social media platforms also advertise for virtual assistants.
Such tasks -- historically performed by a human personal assistant or secretary -- include taking dictation, reading text or email messages aloud, looking up phone numbers, scheduling, placing phone calls and reminding the user about appointments. Popular virtual assistants include Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, Google Assistant and Microsoft Cortana.
Though this definition focuses on the digital form of virtual assistants, the terms virtual assistant and virtual personal assistant are also commonly used to describe contract workers who work from home doing administrative tasks typically performed by executive assistants or secretaries.
With the evolution of chatbots and generative AI, various types of virtual assistants have gained popularity. However, they serve different purposes for customers and provide different levels of assistance.
Virtual assistants are typically cloud-based programs that require internet-connected devices and applications to work. Most AI virtual assistants can be found on devices such as smartphones, smart speakers or other platforms, including instant messaging apps.
The technologies that power virtual assistants require massive amounts of data, which feed AI platforms, including machine learning, NLP and speech recognition platforms. As the end user interacts with a virtual assistant, the AI programming uses sophisticated algorithms to learn from data input and become better at predicting the end user's needs.
Some consumers have expressed privacy concerns about virtual assistants, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home. These virtual assistants require large amounts of personal data and are always listening in order to respond to voice commands, also known as wake words or phrases. Although voice assistants are only intended to begin recording when given the wake command by a user, they may accidentally capture voice exchanges and private information without the user's knowledge.
Cortana, for example, works best by using data from a user's device, including emails and other communications, a user's contacts, location data, search history and data from other Microsoft services and skills -- third-party applications -- that users choose to connect with. Users can choose not to sign in and share this data with Cortana and can adjust permissions to prevent certain data from being collected, though these actions limit the virtual assistant's usefulness.
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