How to Vet a Virtual Assistant in 2026
Zack AllenJanuary 9, 20264:40
What a top 1% hire looks like, and the four levels I use to find one.
Last year my recruitment firm made 47 placements for clients. My e-commerce business has done $4.2 million in revenue since 2022, and my team in the Philippines runs my operations.
What top 1% looks like
My recruitment process leans heavily on character. You can train skills. You can't teach character and values.
So I'm looking for good judgment, a lot of effort and a good attitude toward work, none of which show up on a resume.
The frame I use: I'm vetting for my future CEO. Someone who could run the business one day if I needed them to. I don't want anyone stuck in a low-level position as they gain context. I want them to move into senior roles and backfill behind themselves.
Level 1: the application
All traffic from the job posting goes to the application. The basics come first: English test, speed test and resume.
The key part is at the end: two video responses, 30 seconds each. They show me how someone presents themselves before I even hear the answer. What's the webcam like? The mic? The background? The accent?
Then I hear what they say. We get so many applications that it's easy to spot when everyone gives the same answer because they asked ChatGPT.
Throughout the process I set traps that some people walk into, which disqualifies them. And there are deadlines at every step to keep things moving.
Level 2: mock scenarios
Maybe 10% of applicants make it here. These are situations they'd face in the role. For an experienced role, they'd better have been in those situations before and know how to react. For a less experienced role, I'm testing problem solving and judgment.
Level 3: the initial interview
A conversational interview with me or someone on my team, about 20 minutes, 1-on-1. I treat it as due diligence. Can they hold a conversation? Do I enjoy talking to them? Do I want to keep talking?
I focus on their story: the career path that got them to this call.
Level 4: the stakeholder interview
If the first interview goes well, we hold a follow-up with the person they'd work with. For a client role, the client joins. For my team, it's the teammate they'd work with most closely.
We revisit anything from the first interview, especially red flags. It's a consistency check that we're still aligned. I've had plenty of follow-ups go badly, and I've been glad every time that I didn't move forward.
Why it's top 1%
A posting might get 500 to over 1,000 applicants. We'll do maybe three follow-up interviews and hire one person. One out of a thousand is under 1%.
Making the call
The first week, applications come in. The second week is vetting. Once we have the top two or three, I decide, and we run reference checks to make sure they haven't been making it all up. Then I trust my gut.
Once the offer letter is signed and they're starting Monday, my job is done, right? No. A top 1% hire still needs a proper onboarding. Skip it and all that vetting goes to waste.
Transcript
Show the full transcript
Today I'm going to show you how I vet for a top 1% virtual assistant in 2026. Last year in my overseas recruitment firm, we made 47 placements with our clients. I have my own e-commerce business. We've done $4.2 million in revenue since 2022. And I have my own team based in the Philippines that helps me run all my operations. Now, the first thing we have to get out of the way is what a 1% talent actually looks like.
Now, my recruitment process is focused very heavily on character because I believe you can train skills. You can coach that, but you cannot teach someone character and values. And so, we're looking for someone who has good judgment. They put in a lot of effort and they have a good attitude towards work because this stuff does not show up on the resume. And the frame that I go into it with is basically vetting for my CEO, someone that if I need them to could run the business one day.
I don't want to keep someone in this low-level position as they gain more context and experience with my company. I want them to move up into more senior roles and backfill in as a result. And we do this, we find this talent through my four-level vetting protocol. We start off with the initial application. Now, this is where we're driving all the traffic to from our job posting that attracts high quality talent.
And then we have the logistics to get out of the way first. English test, speed test, resume. But the kicker here is the ending, the video responses. We have two video responses where they have 30 seconds to answer the question. Now, this one gets a couple things out of the way. First, it shows me how they present themselves. It's basically like a pre-in because I'll see what's the webcam like, what does their mic sound like?
What is their background? How do they present themselves? What what's their accent like? And in terms of their actual that's that's before I, you know, hear what they're saying. Then I hear their actual response to the question. Now, because we get so many of these, it's really easy to tell when everyone's saying the same thing. They just ask Chad GBT. Throughout this process, I have traps that people will int like I get people to intentionally fall into these traps and fall off at to unqualify themsel.
And then I have deadlines. I'm moving this process fast along to make sure we get to the result quicker. Level two, the ones that make it past there, maybe 10% of the people that apply, get to the mock scenarios. This is situations they would find themselves in in the role. So if it's a experienced role, then they better have been in these situations before, know how to react. If it's not, then I'm testing their problem solving skills, their judgment as one of the criteria we needed.
If they do on there, then they hop on initial interview with me or someone from my team. The initial interview is very conversation focused, maybe like a 20-minute one-on-one call. And I see it as more of like a due diligence call. like can they hold a conversation? Do I enjoy speaking to them? Do I want to keep talking with them after I focus it on their story? So like getting their journey basically to how well how we got to where we are today on this call from their career.
And if that call goes well, then we hold a follow-up interview. This one is a stakeholder interview. So if it's for a client of ours, then I'll have the client on the call. If it's for my own team, I'll have someone from my team that they'll be working with closely on the call as well. We cover things that came up in the initial interview, red flags. Now, I've had too many of these interviews, these follow-up ones, where it didn't go well, and I'm so glad I didn't follow through with them.
And so, I always have this, it's basically like a consistency check to make sure that we're still aligned with everything that we've spoken about before. Now, what makes this a top 1% of talent? Well, we probably get on a job posting, depends on what it is, we'll get 500, maybe a thousand plus applicants. And with the follow, we'll probably take three follow-up interviews and hire one person out of that. And so one divided by a thousand is like less than 1%.
Now towards the end, we have to make the call once we have our top like two to three options. Now remember this whole process like the the first week is when we let the applicants come in for the most part. And then the second week is this whole vetting process. Once I've decided who I want to go with, we make the reference checks just to like talk to someone from the company, maybe appear to make sure that they're not just totally bullshitting us to this point.
And I really want to trust my intuition and my gut that they're going to be the right choice. Now that I've decided who I want, sent out an offer letter, they're starting on Monday, my job is done, right? Well, except for the whole onboarding process. Just because they're a top 1% doesn't mean I don't have to onboard them onto my team. And so this will all go to waste if I don't not give them a proper onboarding.
So if you want to watch that video, it's linked up here. I'll see you over there right now.
