Questions You Should Ask When Interviewing Your Filipino VA

If you’re reading this, it means you’re on board with replacing yourself. You’re ready to replace yourself in your business by outsourcing to the Philippines. You’re ready to outsource some of the tasks you’ve been doing for years!

The right place to get started is here at Onlinejobs.ph. This is where you’ll find more than 1 million profiles of online Filipino specialists who are ready and eager to take on the everyday tasks of your business.

How do you know which of these many workers are right for you and your business? You do this through a thorough interview process. Like any other business, you evaluate which have the skills and attitude that best suit your needs. Only ours is a little different.

Finding candidates
1 Finding candidates
The first thing you can do is to visit Onlinejobs.ph and search for candidates based on the skills and experience you’re looking for. You can customize your search and select applicable skills, talents and areas of expertise. You can select and deselect criteria as you need to.

Doing this, your search will lead you to several qualified applicants. Pick around 20 to 30 candidates you feel meet your needs and choose from this pool. Don’t shortlist yet. Not everybody in that list is going to be available or as qualified.

Make contact
2 Make contact_
In addition to contacting qualified applicants, you’d want to post a job on Onlinejobs.ph. Interested prospects will start responding to you. You can then review these candidates’ profiles and resumes on the site. Narrow down the qualified candidates. Then send out an email that acknowledges that you have received their inquiry and you believe they may be a good fit for the job.

Your email should be short, simple and to the point. Don’t waste time on fluff or unnecessary details. Reiterate that you want to hire someone to fulfill a specific task. It’s important to stick to one thing here; don’t make a long list of duties.

Wrap up your email by confirming that the candidate is still indeed looking for a job. It’s possible that in the time between the posting and you making contact that the person has found other work.

“Interview” candidates who respond
3 “Interview” candidates who respond
Once you have your list of candidates from browsing the database and the job post, you can start the process of sending email interviews.

In a series of emails, ask questions and give them simple tasks that test their skill. Send more emails and ask specific questions to see whether they’re the right fit for your business. Have the candidates send you a link to their profile on onlinejobs.ph or ask them questions about themselves or about their skills and experience.

It’s best to send multiple emails to the top candidates, even up to 10 if you think that’s best. By sending a bunch of different messages, you will:

  • Assess skills and comprehension,
  • Find out how well they communicate in English,
  • How serious they are about the job
  • Get a sense of their attitude and whether they would ‘fit’ into your business.

To video call or not to video call

It isn’t necessarily a bad thing to conduct a video interview but there are some drawbacks to be aware of.

Most Filipinos are shy by nature and prefer not to chat face to face. So, if you require a video interview, you’re likely to lose some potential candidates. This is especially true for positions that won’t require a lot of speaking, like programmer, designer or webmaster.

A good rule of thumb is to only have video interviews for positions where speaking will be a big part of the job. An interview would let you know how well the candidate can speak English.

Questions to ask

Your email “interviews” can be used to assess your candidate’s skills, background, experience and how they’ll fit in with your business. Ask the person several questions so you can see if they can follow directions. You should also ask questions specific to the position you’re hiring for.

Different questions to ask or tasks to assign include:

  • Do you already have another job? If so, where are you working and how many hours are you working?
  • How much money are you looking to make?
  • Have you worked for foreign employers before?
  • How long have you been doing (state type of work you’re hiring for) work?
  • Please send me a link to your onlinejobs.ph profile.
  • Please send me three references and examples of your best work.
  • Please write a paragraph of why I should hire you. Don’t send a list of your experience; describe it to me.
  • When would you be available to start work?
  • Do you have your own computer and Internet access? If you have access, how fast is your connection?
  • Will you work from home or from an Internet café?
  • Where are you in the Philippines?

Bring ’em aboard

After a handful of rounds of emails, you’ll know which candidate is right.

Once you find the right one, offer them a job right away. Don’t make them wait. The longer you make them wait, the bigger the chances they’ll start looking for another job and you might lose them.

And once you make the offer, make sure that you lay out the conditions and expectations for employment very clearly. Tell the worker:

  • how many hours per week they’ll be working,
  • what their starting pay will be,
  • how often they will be paid,
  • how much time off they can take, and
  • that you’ll need them to send daily email updates of what they’ve been working on and what questions they have.

I can’t emphasize enough how crucial it is that you are specific and clear about these things.

And — this very important—drill into your new VA that they shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions if they run into a problem with a project.

Sometimes Filipino workers “disappear” when they run into problems with an assignment. Instead of telling you about these problems, they’ll be embarrassed or afraid you’ll be mad. Then they’ll stop sending updates. Sometimes they’ll quit working altogether without giving you any notice.

Make it clear to the new hire that you’re more than willing to lend a hand when challenges come up and that disappearing is not an option.

Finding candidates and hiring the best talent isn’t always easy. The good thing is, Filipinos are loyal and dedicated. Once they start working for you, they’re likely to stick around for years and years. When you do have to find and hire, follow these easy steps, and you can’t go wrong.


John JonasAbout John Jonas
John helps business owners learn to outsourcing to the Philippines and replace themselves with virtual assistants.
He founded and owns OnlineJobs.ph.

He currently employs 14 amazing Filipino workers full-time and loves every one of them. He lives in Utah, has a wonderful wife, 4 amazing kids, and golfs 4-5 times/week.

Find John at JohnJonas.com and Facebook.


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Hiring Checklist: The Essentials to Starting your VA off on the Right Foot

Comments

  1. Elinore says

    I find the descriptions about us Filipino really realistic. It seems Mr. Jonas had been with lots of Filipinos
    to know their traits, be it positive and negative. Defining us is what our culture is, loyal, pleaser, shy but some are aggressive (due to some exposure) but willing to be competitive to alleviate the lives of our family. We are family oriented people, as part of our culture. Thank you to all who wants to help us by giving us work and projects to earn and learn from.
    🙂

  2. Elinore says

    Good job here Ms. Romana! Congrats!
    God Bless and more power to sites like this which help Filipinos to have a better place in global work environment 🙂

        • says

          Applying here in Onlinejobs.ph is the same as applying a job in real life. Make sure your profile/application is attractive enough to convince employers to contact and hire you.

          You can apply for any of the jobs posted here or on our website by signing up for an Onlinejobs.ph jobseeker account. It’s completely free and takes only minutes to apply. Having a jobseeker account also gives you access to thousands of new online jobs daily.

          To start the registration process, just follow this link ===> http://www.onlinejobs.ph/register

          Once you’ve completed your profile, you can start searching for the job that you want here ===>http://www.onlinejobs.ph/jobseekers/jobsearch/

          You can find a wide variety of full-time, part-time and project-based jobs there, from data entry, design, writing, programming, and more!

          The job posts would contain all the information you need to apply for that position.

  3. Caleb says

    It was great to add these questions; I added them to our interview template. Can you explain why it’s important to know where they are in the Philippines?

        • says

          Applying here in Onlinejobs.ph is the same as applying a job in real life. Make sure your profile/application is attractive enough to convince employers to contact and hire you.

          You can apply for any of the jobs posted here or on our website by signing up for an Onlinejobs.ph jobseeker account. It’s completely free and takes only minutes to apply. Having a jobseeker account also gives you access to thousands of new online jobs daily.

          To start the registration process, just follow this link ===> http://www.onlinejobs.ph/register

          Once you’ve completed your profile, you can start searching for the job that you want here ===>http://www.onlinejobs.ph/jobseekers/jobsearch/

          You can find a wide variety of full-time, part-time and project-based jobs there, from data entry, design, writing, programming, and more!

          The job posts would contain all the information you need to apply for that position.

  4. jessica says

    good day mam,sir
    Im jessica soriano applying for any position regarding data entry or a virtual assistant.To tell the truth im new to this field, i have work experience as customer service representative at the same time cashier in small grocery business last 2011, my previous work is as sales clerk last 2016. I hope you we can communicate. I will do my best to do what ever task you will given to me, im am dedicate. Thank you and Gob bless..

  5. Ken says

    Thanks for sharing this great information. We are finally starting to use your services, looking for SEO, customer service, graphic design and so much more, after being buried in too much work. Turns out, the hiring process is a job in itself 😉

    Cheers, Ken

    FluShields.com, MySiliconDreams.com, SiliconHaven.com

  6. Michelle says

    I would like to take this opportunity to comment here a
    in section and to thank for this online jobs.ph site as I have found my agreat job here and I love it! Im lucky enough to say that Im one of those rockstar virtual now! From an office job to a full pledge work from home remote job. Filipinos are very resourceful and very dedicated. I pride myself in being a Filipino.
    This website is absolutely the best for filipino jobseekers!!!! Definitely recommended!!! ????

    All the best!!
    Chelle

  7. Olivia Nacion says

    I find it a legit apps .that can help me find a job . I do hope that this can help me .We are all in life difficulties due to PANDEMIC that is why searching for an online job will truly help a private school teacher like me .Thank you !

  8. Marisol Pasiol says

    Hi,

    I am Marisol Pasiol Applying for any Position Such As A Virtual Assistant.. I have work experience as A VA .. I Would Like To Help You .. Yet I have Experience About Data Entry And Researcher And I Promise More Practice It MySelf So That I Will Be Ready To Help You .. If There Things I Need To Learn More . Ill Be More than Happy To Do It The Task .. I Can Work Under Pressure With Minumum Supervision . Thankyou And Godbless

    • Jeanna says

      Hello. I am a US employer and this is my first time here. I’ve actually just learned of this site today. I am looking for a virtual recruitment assistant that has a confident and strong phone presence speaking and interviewing candidates and can learn our processes quickly. We are a home care services placement agency and recruit (and train) professional caregivers to work with seniors at home helping them age in place safely and comfortably in their own homes. I posted an ad for the first time today. I am open to working with someone who has no experience, but has a strong phone presence, learns very quickly, and someone who can work independently after instructed; however, not afraid to contact me with questions or concerns if they are unsure or come across a snag. I am thrilled I’ve discovered this site.

  9. Myka Salome C. Ong says

    Hello, can you please expedite the process of my verification? I changed my profile picture and my ID proof suddenly went low. I change it again to its original pic but the ID proof has not improved. I have been applying these days and employers would not be impressed if I have low ID proof.

    Kindly please fix it soon.

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