Recruitment Insights and Best Practices

Thank All the barricades, I wanna know why they hold me back Need a miracle to break me through, but I won't get back The real one time, then I can save me from turning around Leave me off the ground, and one day, I'm free Yeah, I wanna be A real wonder, heaven lift me up from under Wishing I could be somehow, stronger now So I can fight away all the pain inside me Never be afraid as me Wishing I could be stronger So I can be a real wonder If you wanna be a wonder, baby, come and show it Tell me what you feel in your heart and your soul There's nothing I would take for granted With me, we'll make it through It's too hard to fix heartbreak We could part, I made a mistake But I'll try to make it up to you, my darling Ooh Yeah, I wanna be a real wonder Heaven lift me up from under Wished that I could be Somehow, stronger now So I can fight away all the pain inside me Never be afraid of the fate that finds me Wishing I could be stronger So I could be a real one time I can fight away all the pain inside me Never be afraid of the fate besides me Wish that I could be strong and kind So I can be a real one All the barricades, I wanna know me Be the miracle to break me through But I won't get back Real wonder, that I could save me from turning around Lift me off the ground, and once free Yeah, I wanna be a real wonder Heaven lift me up from under Wishing I could be somehow Stronger now So I can fight away any Wishing I could be stronger, so I can be real If you wanna be a wonder, baby, come and show it Tell me what you feel in your heart and your soul There's nothing I would take for granted With me, we'll make it through It takes two hearts to fix heartbreak We good boys I made a mistake, but I'll try to make it up to you, my darling Ooh Yeah, I wanna be a real wonder Heaven leads me up from under Wish that I could be someone I'm stronger now So I can find a way out of being inside me Never be afraid of the fate that finds me Wish that I could be stronger So I could be a real one So I can be a real one I feel afraid of the fate besides me Who's to like the peace? Shine bright so I can be real One day All right, all right. I hope that music has energized you. Good afternoon, good morning, and possibly good evening to some of you. How are you? How are you this day, this fine Thursday part of the day, whichever part you're coming from? Please let us know in the chat where you're joining us from, which country. Maybe you can use your country's flag. and let the chat be on fire. So today, my name is Pauline Hwanja. I'm excited to welcome you into this session. At ALX, we are not just about giving you the content for VA and all that. We want you to be ready. So today's session is about getting an insider information from a recruitment manager's point of view and perspective. making sure that you guys are ready to face employers when you do get the chance to encounter the employers. And so I'm not doing this alone. I'm joined by Edwin, who will be here shortly, but I'll allow him to say hi. Hi, Edwin. Hi, Pauline. How are you doing today? I'm great. I'm great. Trying to keep my energy going. It's a fine day in Nairobi, I would say. we can see and i'm actually also seeing it in the chat we have representation from all over the continent i'm seeing we have uh money from sa asking what is the session about we are having kenya malawi looks looks looks like we are everywhere lagos nairobi kenya we are crossing the borders pauline we are closing the borders and just like you shared we are not just about reminding them about Milestone submission, recap quiz, clinics. Today's session is even more interesting. And I don't think there's anybody excited about this session like myself. Maybe I can confirm in the chat. Is there anyone as interested in the chat as I am in the session? Sorry. I'm seeing people throwing their flags. Yeah, yeah. The excitement is all over. Over to you, Pauline. All right, thanks Edwin for that. The person who is asking what it's about, stick with us. We are gonna have you ready to face employers in a short while by the end of this hour. We are here to help you prepare to face the employers. And so in the next slide I'm gonna take you through today's agenda. So with the welcome and introduction which we've just done, then we'll go through what to engage. make sure that we are getting the most out of the session and out of our guest speaker today then we are going to have a quick check-in activity to have you warmed up uh see how you're doing how your energy levels are and then you're going to have a fireside chat uh with Athena Edwin is going to have I mean Cynthia our guest is going to take us through a quick talk on recruitment managers perspective then we'll have a Q&A session um she's gonna share frequently asked questions for recruited managers and then at the end we'll talk about the next steps uh announcements from alx and then we'll close the session at the top of the hour so how to engage how to get the most out of this session uh turn up turn up your energy and engage with us in the chat session we want to know how you It's going for you what you're getting out of it and take those notes, write those notes down and make sure that you get the most out of this. Then stay alert so you don't miss out on anything. We'll be sure, we'll make sure that this session is engaging for you and informative and then drop your questions. We'll have a slide or a link shared with you and then pinned at the top of the chat. Make sure you're on the lookout for that and drop your questions on what recruiters are looking for and anything else that you may want to ask Cynthia, who is our guest. And then most importantly, listen, learn, engage and have fun. Okay, so. I hope we got that. And so on to our check-in, on to our warm-up. We want to know for leisure, during your downtime, what would you rather do? Some people like to dance. Some people like to sleep. Others like to hike mountains. Others like to cook, swim, do the most, just do the most. So what's your leisure downtime? um like would you rather dance would you rather sleep would you rather cook and i'm gonna invite edwin to come and share maybe and read the charts and let us know what are they saying totally pauline uh looks like people like sleeping looks like people like sleeping for leisure which i think is going to be an opportunity you want to look out for on linkedin or anywhere where they are looking for professional sleepers question is What are you eligible to be a professional sleeper? Makinde says cooking. Someone said singing. Do we invite you to sing for us for just one minute? Chimezie cooks. I don't see anywhere here. Oh, someone said TikTok. Diana, your answer is not even in the options we give. TikTok any day, any time. Uh-huh. Dancing and cooking. How about you, Pauline? Are you a blend of all these? Do you dance as you cook? or do you sleep when when you when you're just having not so much to do and of course i'll ask this to cynthia as well when you're going to be bringing her on board to get to know away from the active hiring tasks that she does on a day-to-day what does her day look like outside of work pauline yeah for sure for sure i dance and then i sleep so those two are and then i try to walk maybe i feel like walking is more of a stress reliever than a downtime but dancing and sleeping for sure i identify with a lot of the chats responses i identify most sorry i identify most with the response louisa gave it depends on the mood really you're not going to be dancing when you're not feeling like it you'd rather sleep at the time but for some people they'd rather unwind to dancing and it uplifts their moods so excited to see the responses in the chats back to you amazing thank you thank you so much everybody for engaging with us i hope now you are ready to switch up uh switch things up and go to the fun part the main um purpose for this session um on the next slide um so be on the lookout As Cynthia and Edwin are taking us through the next session, please drop your question on Slido. There's a Slido link that will be pinned at the top of the chat. Make sure to drop your questions related to hiring. Like this is your one chance to talk to a hiring manager. What are they looking for? What are your most burning questions for her? Don't waste this opportunity. Oh, milestones. Oh, deliverables. I don't know. Don't waste this chance. You can ask us those questions anytime. So make sure you're asking recruitment questions. This is your one chance to have them answered. And so I'm going to invite Edwin and then he will take us through the next session with Cynthia. Absolutely, Pauline. And just like you said, Ed. encouraging anyone joining us today to take advantage of this session. This looks like a chance you've been given for two minutes only with your with your with your icon or your role model and you're not going to be asking them say questions which are not so relevant to the limited time you're having with them so on monday and wednesdays we have clinics where we get to answer all the questions milestone support savannah downtime this link isn't working how do we access our hubs when are the hubs open when are we going to get our certificate so let us save those questions for some other time but for the hour we are having imagine that uh you're in week four but you're seeing the progress you've made and you're feeling like okay our learners the men the momentum they've gained how about we start to bring them uh exclusive sessions like this to bring hiring partners recruitment managers to share with you insights the current trends the faqs that you're going to be asking and getting responses to around the hiring space so We are of course not going to be focusing on questions around the program content, but questions like what do I bid when I'm asked what I want as a starting salary? What are the skills you're looking out for if I want to be an outstanding VA? What does Athena do that I can leverage my skills on? I am still a current learner, do I have to wait until I graduate before I start asking out for jobs? Those are the questions I believe we are going to be focusing on today. And if you can take the next 20 seconds as I bring Cynthia on board to ask all the program related questions. And of course, over the next 15 to 20 minutes, if we can slow down our responses in the chat, unless you're going to be asking you to, just so that you get the most out of the session you're having today. You can imagine if our guest is going to be sharing her screen to walk you through a very, very critical stage in the hiring process. but you're probably asking about how to access your squads in the chats then you're likely not going to be any different from your peer who hasn't joined this session today which makes me think that okay how about you be our ambassadors and while on this session go ahead to also remind everybody in your squads that our session has just kicked off and they need not to be lagging behind so cynthia how are you doing how's your thursday I'm good. I'm having a good Thursday. I'm looking forward to Friday. Thank you everyone else. I don't know if that is the most Kenyan response or if it's African because everybody starts looking forward to Friday or after Monday. But yeah, very, very happy that you've gotten an hour of your time to have this exclusive session with us. Yeah, so a good number of us are singing for the... first time but I've had the privilege to have a session with you with our cohort five learners who just graduated and we thought that having shared all those nuggets of wisdom with our graduating learners how about we take advantage of our current learners who are still in their week four to get these insights even before they get to graduate. So of course we have questions that have already come up and I am going to ask maybe two to three out of those but before I do I wouldn't go without sharing with our amazing learners who is gracing us today. So we are having Cynthia Omaya, I believe that is the accurate pronunciation of your name. And yeah, Cynthia works with Athena and she's the hiring recruitment manager, I believe based in Kenya. What you are having today is probably somebody you're going to be meeting in your recruitment stage. But we've done due date. the justice of getting her here just to familiarize yourself with what it is that they look out for so again this is us giving you the secret sauce not so that when you go and meet uh cynthia in a session you become so so informal that you share no we've had a session with you just give me this job she can do that only if she has gauged that you are competent enough and you have what it is that athena kenya is looking out for you Which again, before I invite Cynthia, makes me want to just share this one more time. Be keen on what you're going to be sharing the next 15 to 20 minutes. You could see that a lot of the targets are going to be based on those who are in Nairobi and those who are in Kenya. But this is not to mean that if you're in Malawi, Zambia, Uganda, South Africa, Morocco, wherever it is that you're joining us from. the nuggets are going to be getting in the next 20 to 30 minutes are things you don't want to miss out as you get to now leverage your skills so over to you cynthia happy to have you maybe before i can ask you to come over and say hi to us i'll just share with you some of the questions our learners are asking so many about and i just can't stop to think of what are the main things you guys look out for in the hiring process when the applications are being done This must be a question that's coming from somebody who has applied maybe more than once and you've told them no you're not so ready go back and do this but you're not telling them what this is. Here's your lookout for those are some of the questions that are coming out. These questions for the Q&A session and invite you to share with us more. Over to you, Cynthia. All right. Thanks so much. I'll definitely tackle those questions as I walk you through our process. I want to say first, thank you so much for having me. I'm very happy to be speaking to this cohort. And congratulations. You're almost there. You're almost there. And I think it's a very good initiative to have. um such kind of talks so that at least you know what to expect out there once now you're job hunting what they also the job market is looking out for and the current trends and things that recruiters are looking out for um so as i have been introduced so graciously my name is cynthia omae but i preferably go by cindy the short name of cynthia i work at athena and i serve as a recruitment manager So we hire exceptional executive partners, otherwise known as virtual assistants. But I have a whole presentation prepared for you guys just to walk you through what who Athena is, who are the ex-Bs, what's our recruitment process like. Hopefully, as I take you through this, I might be able to answer a few questions that are already coming up. So I guess we can get into it. But before that, I think there was a question I was asked. about how I like to unwind or things that I do during my own downtime when I am not thinking of work. I would say I'm more of a music person so music is my go-to thing. I think sleeping is a constant for everyone. You need to sleep, you need to just have a minute, a breather and have your brain not so active and I find sleeping and music as one of very effective ways because checking walks the N-BAR. Basically, whatever just makes you feel like there's a better tomorrow, I employ it to do it. All right, that's it. Allow me to share my screen. I'll try as much as possible as I'm taking you through the recruitment process here at Athena to kind of also generalize it and see how you can gain insights. Generally, just as someone who's looking for work in the virtual space or just tips on how to navigate recruitment as a whole. Right, that's it. Let me just share my screen, then we'll take it up from there. Okay, so who is Athena? Let's get to know who we are and what we do here. So basically we are, sorry about that, we are a delegation company. It's the easiest way to describe us. So delegation company in that we are looking out for the 1% out there that can support our clients in their day-to-day life activities. So basically get the clients to delegate to our executive partners who we hire and train and just make sure that they are the best of the best and they can really support them. And they can go beyond assisting. So that's why we use the term as a partner as well. We do more than just assist. You become literally like a second party to your executive. So our clients are usually ambitious CEOs, founders, executives, you name it. People in high places who need to delegate so that they can focus on other things. Yeah, so they join us to just leverage on. our executive partners because they know how much we invest in the recruitment process and even the training process such that once you're done with the whole Latina journey, once you're able to call yourself an executive partner, we've really gone through in-depth training. At the moment, we're primarily in the Philippines and in Kenya. So we just expanded to South America, in Guatemala, and we're looking to expand to other regions as the years come. Right. So let's talk about who an executive partner is. So an executive partner is basically someone who's going to optimize their client's daily schedule so they can reach the maximum productivity. They provide the resources to aid their client's network. They drive internal and external communication for smooth workflow reports, you name it. So all these things that you are going through. During your own program as a virtual assistant, some of the things will also be tackling. So the most common ones are usually the calendar management. Inbox management, travel itineraries, but there's so much more that you get to do as a virtual partner or assistant. All right. So who do we support at Athena? So we support the ambitious business owners, the C-suites, the tech titans, the super scalers. Really, this is just an example of the kind of people we support, but it's really endless. So you get a chance to work with really... With guys who are doing really amazing things out there, not only do you get a chance to work with them, you're trying to think like them, then over time, even overtake how they think because you're now their go-to person. Like you help them achieve all these things that they want to do. So let's talk about the recruitment process. Here at Athena, these are some of the steps that you will go through if you're interested in working with us. So. Let's start with the first one, which is the initial questionnaire. So once you get the link, which we can share with you afterwards, then you can also have a go at it and try. Once you get the link, the first page, the first landing page, the initial questionnaire would look something like this. Some of these are the questions that you would be answering at this point. So this, for example, having no graveyard experience. is not a knockout. It's an advantage to have work-driven experience but again at the same time if you haven't had a chance to work it's not something that would disqualify you but you just need to be prepared mentally that working virtually and supporting clients who are outside your time zone would ideally mean that most of the time that daytime is your daytime. So whether they're ahead of you or behind of you you just need to be okay with customizing your working hours. to favor them as well. So for us, we work 40 hours a week. So if you say you're not available to work 40 hours a week, this is one of the things that can disqualify you from our process and you get a rejection immediately. You're done completing, filling out this form. So if you're currently studying or enrolled, for example, like you guys who are just about to finish, we currently do not take up candidates who are... engaged, actively engaged in institutions or schools. This is just because the training process is also quite rigorous and requires your full attention in order to hack it. So the minute you're done with school and you're interested, you can apply. But if you're still in school and you say, yes, it's going to be an automatic rejection. And even if you try to maneuver the system, we'll still be able to catch up and see what's, and we'll just find out if you're still in school or not. So. For Athena Kenya specifically, we're currently just hiring in Nairobi. So if you're based in Nairobi, that's also something else that's going to allow you to move to the next stage. But if you're not, unfortunately, it's going to be something that will automatically reject you. Given you have to be 18 years and above to kind of legally work anywhere, really. And then we also just want to kind of pre-know you. How many years of experience do you have? But the good thing with Athena, we really don't look at your experience, so to speak. It's more of if you're able to actually do the work and the tasks at hand. So that's pretty much what you would tackle in the initial questionnaire. So then we'd move next to the test gorilla, which is now the next stage. And I think I almost talked about stage out here in the internet. So this is where we are basically doing a skills assessment. We use... test gorilla our third party to help us execute this so you'll get several questions and these questions that you're answering are basically just gauging your critical thinking executive assistance presence communication time management problem solving typing speed test and email based on these assessments i'm sure you can pick uh you can already guess that these are some of the qualities and qualifications that we look out for when considering hiring virtual assistants you I bet you it's also some of the things that you're learning while you're still in school. So we're just trying to ascertain before you get to the whole process that these skills are good to go. So while you're debunking the test gorilla, some of the things that you might encounter are also your typing speed skills. So a good way to also practice and just see how fast you can type. It's the same website we also use. is monkeytype.com. It's completely free. You just make sure that you choose for one, rather 30 seconds, because we only give you 30 seconds to do it. So then you'll get a chance to practice. For us, the pass rate is you have to have scored 30 words per minute and above for you to be considered successful. So how fast you type as well really plays a lot in the virtual assistant space. We also after that, now once you're done with the test gorilla face, you move to the language assessment. Again, communication. I think the most common language to communicate easily is English worldwide. So we also want to make sure that you're able to communicate and articulate yourself well with the English language. So we'll give you an English test basically. Sorry for that. I just want to go back. We'll give you an English test. Our pass mark starts from a B2 going up so all the way to C2. So C2 is the highest that you can score and B2 is the lowest that we consider, though it can go as low as B1, B2 or B1. So if you score anything B1 or B1, B2 for us, you won't be considered. It has to be B2 and above so that's between 6.7 all the way to a 10. I think this is one of the most interesting assessments to do because it's basically you're repeating you have very few minutes to listen to what they're saying then you repeat or type it back so another pro tip for those of you considering becoming an executive partner with us here at Athena while you're doing the test Gorilla aim to finish all the questions don't overthink it too much just reason as uh as already an executive assistant and you want to always make sure that you're doing right by your executive and always just aim to complete it also time is not on your side it's also how fast you can move same thing for language assessment you also just want to make sure that you have a really quiet environment and full um no distractions you want to make sure you have a good power source good internet so that you anywhere on your device so that technology does not fail you at this point while you're doing your assessment because if it if it fails or if you stop midway it will take it like you're you're done with the assessment and that will be an automatic fail all right so then um like we say just keep practicing with the what's for the english and test gorilla if you do your research out there there's um constant a lot of questions that constantly tackle some of these skills that you can enhance so that when you're actually doing the assessments it's not so foreign and it kind of feels familiar all right so then once you're done with all this and you've passed you would there's a stage I haven't touched on that is not part of here where we basically just get to you get to upload your CV now at that point you get to upload your device specs, you get to upload your internet, upload and download speed. And this will probably tell you that in the virtual working space, you need to have a really good reliable device that you're working with. You need to have a good power source and you also need to have good internet because those are some of the key things you need to work virtually. So we also want to make sure that as you're considering becoming one of us, that you also have all these things in mind. So then after that, you get to finally meet your recruiter. So now you're preparing for your executive partner interview. So what do you want to know once you are in the session? So you want to gauge your commitment and motivation. Why did you want to apply to Athena? And at this point, it's really not in general. Any company, when you're asked why you're motivated to join or basically any questions that are leaning towards commitment and motivation is not really your chance to highlight your skills yet it's more just to show why you want to be part of a particular company what about their mission and vision speaks out to you that you see is aligned with your own career path so then at that point after that we also want to get to know your background and skills so we want to know your past work experiences if the work experiences are not that many talk about your experiences such as for this cohort, the girls who are going through the ALX program talk about some of the things that you've learned. Of course by this point it's assumed that you've gone through the JD, you understand the role you're applying for, so as you highlight your skills and background, you also want to see how you can tie it in with some of the requirements listed in the job description. At the same time you will always be asked any role You'll be asked your knowledge about the role, what you know about the role, how do you think you fit into it. So make sure you've researched the role, make sure you can explain the role well and you don't have to quote the job description word for word. In fact, a tip is just to understand the role and relay this information back to the recruiter with your own words, with your own understanding of the role, and then any gaps that maybe you need to be addressed in terms of the role or the company that you could not find in the job description or with your own research. This is also your chance to ask them about the company and some of the things that you want to know about the role. We also evaluate your readiness to join our training program. For us, we are having training programs running every week, every Monday. So we also want to know how soon you can start. Then also sell yourself. And another pro tip that's probably not listed here is when you get that chance to break the ice when the recruiter asks you things you like to do for fun, your hobbies, your interests, don't start touching on your CV yet. literally just tell them what you like to do for fun. Like what we were talking about earlier, do you guys like to decompress by sleeping or music? But of course now during an interview saying you enjoy sleeping for fun is a bit different, at least when I show the more exciting side of you, even if it means you enjoy taking nature walks or listening to music or spending time with family. And then also take the opportunity to ask to get to know your recruiter as well. Ask them what they also enjoy doing. It's very helpful because it will help you build a good rapport with them and kind of calm you down in terms of the interview anxiety that one usually goes through just before an interview and during. All right. So the basics, I think these ones are things you'll find out that anytime you research. You always want to make sure that you're giving smart answers. And then also you want to set up yourself for success. You want to make sure you've made a great impression. Some of these things like I'm saying during the initial stages, ask your recruiter back also what they like to do for fun. Your storytelling is really going to go a long way. Paint a good picture. Even as you're maybe elaborating on your experiences, I... usually prefer when a candidate is telling me okay I've worked for Athena this is what Athena does my position at Athena was a recruitment manager this was some of the tasks I did as a recruitment manager at that point you can even choose to see maybe some of your greatest achievements but also be very mindful of time so that you don't dwell so much on one point and end up eating the whole time most interviews are usually structured like for us we try to take 30 to 40 minutes maximum so you also management of time is very important so that also the recruiter doesn't feel like you have overpowered the session and now they can't continue to get to know you because they have their own structure of the things they want to make sure that they know from you at the end of the interview for them to be able to make a decision whether you're a right fit or not. You always have to research a company. You have to research the company. You have to understand what's out there, what's trending for them. So that when you're asked a question, a basic one that we always ask is, what do you know about Athena? Or maybe what about us really attracted you? Or when you saw the job ad, what made you click apply? What made you think you can be an XP? And if it's a virtual assistant out of all the companies, why Athena? You want to make sure that you can elaborate and articulate that very well. Then lastly, I think I've already talked about that, is your time. You need to... manage your time quite well. So do not be shallow with your answers but also do not over explain. Just keep it very simple to the point that you're direct with your answers and the recruiter does not need also to probe you for more, rather ask more follow-up questions because you're giving very short answers or interrupt you because now you're over answering, you're taking too much time on one thing. And they've already gotten the point. All right. So for us, afterwards, we're done with the final interview. You move to a skills validation call. It's more of a practical interview. So you want to validate a few skills and see you do these things practically. So we call this the final validation call in our process. So. To explain, it usually takes 20 minutes. We do it via Zoom. You have at least the first three minutes will give you a scenario so you're required to draft a response, an email response. based on the scenario you're given. So at this point also you see where your typing skills come in handy, your comprehension, your understanding and your ability to think on the spot. After you're done with that we move to another assessment where we just basically do a very quick Google Sheets exercise to assess your tech-savviness, see how you do things under pressure. That one usually takes eight minutes and you're sharing your screen so that we can also see what you're doing. And lastly, we usually do a situational question. So we'll just share a situation with you, then give you three minutes to also gauge your understanding, your problem solving, critical thinking, all the skills that we've been talking about. So for us, once you're done with this final step, you move to the offer letter. Then the background checks commence the same time as you're starting training. And this is what Athena training kind of... looks like in a nutshell so you have the first two weeks weeks they take it takes about two to six weeks depending on your ability to grasp also the content your performance and whatnot but the first two weeks are usually fixed and this is the do or die for the training bit so you're doing some instructor-led classes social learning some self-paced courses it's similar to what's you're currently doing. So actually if you've gone through the ALX program it's not gonna be that overwhelming or difficult. It's true that our training is designed to be rigorous, it's designed to be basically just to give you an idea of how real life situations will be. So not many people enjoy this part but I usually say if you come this far and you're just about to hack into training and then If you picture the exposure you're going to be getting working with some of these executives and you already know what to do, it's going to go a really long way. Yeah, so maybe we can tackle a few facts of laughs. Then I'll do a few frequently asked questions and then open it up to you guys to ask me as many questions as you want. Yeah, so this is just to talk about it again. We are not really into the full-time, the three years full-time experience. It's more of, can you actually do the job? Your past experiences matter, but they don't really affect your ability to get into or into Athena really. We do accept graduates so long as it doesn't matter the year, so long as you're done with school and you prove that you can do this work, the job will be yours. We do provide equipment during training, depending on the modality of training. So currently we have virtual training, then we have on-site, and that's why we emphasize at the moment we're just hiring in Nairobi. If you're part of the on-site class, we'll cater for everything. If you're part of the virtual class, the requirements that are listed in the JD now really play along with your device, your internet, power source, etc. So even if you don't have freelancing experience, honestly, it's not going to affect your ability to join us. I think most of them are pretty much redundant at this point. So I'll take you through a few frequently asked questions and go back to... or rather hand it back to you guys that can ask me a few questions. So I'll stop sharing my screen and then just tackle a few questions. All right, so some of the questions I think we have also kind of talked about as I was telling about our whole process in Athena but frequently asked questions are like the top three qualities or skills we look out for when we are hiring. virtual assistants. So it would have to be your communication, dependability and adaptability. In other words, we can also say your problem solving skills. And I think just the fact that we are best in it, this is a virtual thing. Also, your tech savviness really goes a long way because you can really work in the virtual space if you don't understand the virtual world to begin with. So how you navigate Zoom. Do you understand the Google workspace? If you're introduced to a new equipment, how fast can you be able to adapt and teach yourself and learn? Because all these things in the kind of the internet space we are in, it's very easy to teach yourself some of these things and keep up. Of course, also the time zones. So things like those we're talking about, the adaptability comes in there. So common mistakes that applicants make during the hiring process and how they can avoid them. For us, I think I've tackled the knockoff questions here in Athena. But if we were to generalize it, now when you come to your CVs, like one CV does not fit all, to be honest. You need to customize your CV for each role that you are applying for. Sometimes it's very funny, even a candidate will send you... maybe they're applying for Athena and the one that they used, they send you the CV and cover letter that they used to apply to company X. So it starts, dear company X recruitment managers. I already know this is not even for us. It's just one CV that the candidate was not even meticulous enough to edit and just reflect the actual company. So some of these small things really go a long way. You really have to have. good attention to detail as well because your interviewer will pick it up. Even small things such as having typos in your CV also can disqualify you from a process really. Another question that as cynthia is coming back up yes cynthia we might have had your network give feedback but yeah overall i believe we are now seeing where this is going as an employer they are looking out for these nitty-gritties which sometimes they're occasionally meeting in your modules we ask you what is your typing speed and you believe you just want to do it so quickly to transition to the next module but it actually adds up to you being in the one percent of what Athena and many other hiring employers are looking out for so of course I am going to see in the chats what is one key takeaway that so far you have taken i'll share with you mine because i was writing them down number one tailor your resume like joffrey is sharing in the chats you don't want to use a cover letter that you're applying for a content moderator role for a different task right you are going to just get kicked off even before you get to meet your your employer for for an interview i am going to take some learnings that you've taken from the session uh attention to detail is key bridget that's accurate accurate customize your cv like kathy says um i'm going to read the next five cynthia welcome back i was just getting to hear what the key takeaways are from our learners and looks like you didn't do some should you work i don't know if we need to stop the session here because it looks like you've gotten everything but no we will have some questions for you you But yeah, your network gave feedback when you're sharing some of the frequently asked questions. So maybe if you can just finish on that, then we can ask a few questions we've gotten that have come up also. Thank you. All right. Thank you for that. And sorry for cutting out, guys. So I think I was tackling how to stand out as a VA in this market. So you want to... to stand out by showing that you have initiative and a proactive approach. So you can try and highlight some of these things also in your CV so that it also kind of boosts or makes your CV stand out depending on the recruitment process of whatever company you're trying to apply for. For us, the CV comes in much later. And honestly, the CV itself versus how you perform during the interview, you can have a very, not the best CV out there, but during the interview, you're able to show your initiative and proactiveness, how you're answering the questions, is able to demonstrate this quite well. So you're able to see that or rather showcase how you'll add value to it. um your clients or the kind of value you've been able to give to your clients in the in the past so again that just revolves around again uh problem solving um yeah so i think i i think i've talked so much i want to tell you guys that was insightful i think we need to be having you week on week cynthia because you are the gift that keeps giving so thank you very very much that was insightful if anything you covered a half of the questions you are having because you are having questions like what is it that you look out for and of course myself at the moment i saw you speak about things that i've seen in many other cover letters and resumes i am attentive to detail the same cv that is mentioning that someone is attentive to detail has a typo so there's not attention to detail in that we are not good at time management there are things that you can say day by day but unless you live with them then your hiring manager is going to not feel so confident in you so like you said cynthia you are looking for the one percent the one percent is not somebody who does the basic but of course goes over and beyond so before i share what our learners are asking joyce said that passing the athena test is one of the hardest things she has maybe seen this year and the feedback i have to that when i was just skimming through linkedin a testimonial from an executive partner is it's challenging but very rewarding that was the wording of it and i believe it's accurate in case any of us have gone to linkedin and seen the testimonials from the learners from not from the learner sorry from the executive partners who are working with athena so i'll share some of the questions that are coming up yeah so i have not so much experience what is it that i'm going to put out if i'm leveraging myself so this is probably somebody who hasn't worked before at all But with the learning we've taken from our program, say in this instance, they want to be an executive partner with Athena, what do they use as their ammunition? What is going to sell them out to be in the 1% center? All right, that's a good question. I would say one, the fact that you have made it through, quote unquote, difficult assessments is a plus. So when you get a chance to get to the interview stage and you're speaking to your recruiter, One of the advantages you might have over someone who's, let's even say, has plus five years experience is one, your tech-savvy-ness. So if you're able to showcase and even just show how you teach yourself or the kind of skills you've learned, or even just highlight properly the knowledge you've gained by participating and being part of the LX program. and showcase how you can use these skills in the virtual space. That's something that also really amazes us when you're able to talk. We're asking about the kind of tools maybe you've interacted with in the past. And you're just talking about the tools that we really know in the virtual space are quite important. So that's one thing. How you're going to communicate to your recruiter, your communication skills, how you present yourself, basically your whole demure. A demeanor would go a long way. So are you going to show up with graphic t-shirts and be like, okay, I just finished school. I don't know what to do. Or be very professional and be, and don't even focus on the fact that you have, because if the recruiter has not asked you if you're finished, you're about to talk about your experience or has not highlighted the fact that you don't have so much experience, what you want to do is also sell yourself. Show how you can still fit in regardless of the fact. that you haven't had a chance maybe to work in the past because this is some of the things that we're trying to offer out here. I want to offer a chance for guys who really can showcase that they can do it to have this chance to actually do it. So just sell yourself, showcase your skills, your qualifications and don't focus on the negatives. You want to show the plus of having you, the advantage. I'm saying so many words, but let me just say another face. phrase I like to say. For me, I view recruitment as dating but for work so as as i am interviewing you you're also interviewing me we are sussing each other to see if we are the right fit for each other so look at it like that look at it like um how you view relationships out here you also don't know much about each other so when you're coming there how will you present yourself to the person you want them to see who do you want to be seen in this professional space so once you figure that out um that's what you want to make sure that shines all through during the interview. That is so well put. Yeah, so the moment you apply and you've gone through the assessment, there actually is something that you have to offer. So you're not coming from a negative point, but you're on an even ground. So what's going to sell you out is what skills you have that you can leverage. Don't look at the experience you put out, but instead the skills you're having that they could use, because actually you're going to give service to the client. and it's not going to be free of charge so you're coming something they actually do need one other question that is standing out uh cynthia of course a lot of the questions we are having are athena related so much that uh they're coming from the team in nairobi and i of course would say that their thinner linkedin profile and other social media platforms are so so active so obviously you want to join the webinars to have these questions answered in even longer sessions because for today we'll tried to tailor it to see that we are covering all our learners who are joining us out today there's this question i don't know if you're going to give us the accurate answer to it cynthia but it's about i'm going to put it in three phases one how do i bid for an employer who's asking for my rates or what is the range that i'm going to give if i'm asked and if i'm pitching myself to an employer or a client how am i going to quantify find the services that I'm having to fit within this range? I don't know if it's a question you can respond to in the next two minutes max. It's so multifaceted. Yeah, it is. It is. Let me try and keep it simple. So I would say first things first, you need to do your research. So how much, how much, what is the standard rates that guys are being paid out there for the same services? Then also look at... Also the investment you're putting into it. You have your devices, you'll have your internet expenses, need to have a backup power source, all these things that you know you need in order to be an effective virtual assistant are some of the things that you want to consider. Tie the two things between what you need to survive as a human being, what you need for you to be able to provide these services. And lastly, what is the market reach out there so that you don't undercharge. and at the same time we don't overcharge i hope that kind of answers it it helps research helps out a long way so thank you very much as maybe your final point as i give you mine looks like this demand outside of nairobi outside of kenya so maybe if you're having your people because i know you know people go share out that you have a lot of market outside of nairobi outside of kenya and we have learners who are ready to leverage their skills with you hopefully this is going to be feedback you're going to be happy about if you come back next time sharing that we have a new location in Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Africa is open to apply so thank you very much as we share your parting shots maybe. All right thanks as well thanks for having me guys I hope shows an insightful session keep pushing the job space is not easy but with programs like this you've definitely had it I'm wishing you all the best. thank you so so much and please don't uh don't hesitate to reach out to us if you'd want our services like we are also going to just reach out to you if you are in need of you sharing more insights like this so thank you very much so yeah we are going to share some key announcements to our learners and yeah the learners from our session cynthia are saying thank you very very much thank you so much uh oh thank you cindy somebody didn't forget what you prefer to be called by Yes, we had Pauline at the beginning of the session and for a moment we thought Pauline isn't here with us anymore. Pauline, welcome back. All right, thank you so much Cynthia and Edwin for that insightful session. It feels like one hour is too short. It's like we need a longer webinar. I don't know. At least that's the feeling I got. It was so informative even for myself, not just as a... as a job hunter or something, but even other skills that I may need outside here. So for quick announcement. The next steps, keep an eye out on any program updates shared. We share a lot of information on our emails and also on the portal. If you go to the portal and look at the VA library and your scores, there is all the information that you need to help you succeed in these programs. So be on the lookout for that. Then join our VA Focus Lounge tomorrow with learners who've graduated. Thank you. And they have some success stories to share. So tomorrow, Friday, 18th October, 2 p.m. GMT. Be sure to join us to learn about balancing life, learning, and career growth from some outstanding former VA graduates. Then if you have any questions about the program and you're not finding quick answers, please go to Lair. All of you know our AI assistant, Lair. Thank you. She will have all the answers. Please do not DM the community ambassadors. Imagine you're 98,000 of you, all of you reaching out to the CAs. There's no way they'll be able to respond to you. So reach out to Leah. If there are technical issues that you have with Savannah, then send your questions and reach out to the support team on Zendesk. and they'll be able to assist you with that. And then lastly, make sure to submit and complete your weekly deliverables ahead of time and before the deadline, that is Monday, October 21st at 11.59 PM GMT. So yeah, thank you. And then lastly, please help us with your feedback. Please help us improve our events. Let us know. know your thought, how was the session, how was this, should we do more of this, or should we improve, scan this QR code and let us know. There's also a link that is being shared on the chat. Please share your feedback with us in the next one minute. We really appreciate your feedback to help us improve. Thank you. We hope you've enjoyed the session and we hope you've been able to give us your feedback. If you've not, you can still go ahead and let us know the session so that we can improve on future experiences. And thank you so much. Thank you so, so much for joining us today. We appreciate you and we are glad you could be with us. I'm walking alone, the streets are empty The only thing I can see is my own silhouette I'm getting stronger, step by step The clock is ticking, but there's no time for me From town to town, from London to Taiwan I've been all around the globe Trying to protect your souls We are here And I'll show anything I've been flying from town to town From London to Taiwan I've been all around the world Try to protect your souls We are heroes tonight We will fly above the sky We are heroes tonight We are heroes tonight We will fly above the sky We are heroes tonight Niiiight Yeah Ooh Niiiight We are here for a single night Yeah, I'm close to you, I'm real I've been flying from town to town, from London to Taiwan I've been all around the globe, trying to protect your soul

How are you? How are you this day, this fine Thursday part of the day, whichever part you're coming from? Please let us know in the chat where you're joining us from, which country. Maybe you can use your country's flag.

and let the chat be on fire. So today, my name is Pauline Hwanja. I'm excited to welcome you into this session.

At ALX, we are not just about giving you the content for VA and all that. We want you to be ready. So today's session is about getting an insider information from a recruitment manager's point of view and perspective.

making sure that you guys are ready to face employers when you do get the chance to encounter the employers. And so I'm not doing this alone. I'm joined by Edwin, who will be here shortly, but I'll allow him to say hi. Hi, Edwin. Hi, Pauline.

How are you doing today? I'm great. I'm great.

Trying to keep my energy going. It's a fine day in Nairobi, I would say. we can see and i'm actually also seeing it in the chat we have representation from all over the continent i'm seeing we have uh money from sa asking what is the session about we are having kenya malawi looks looks looks like we are everywhere lagos nairobi kenya we are crossing the borders pauline we are closing the borders and just like you shared we are not just about reminding them about Milestone submission, recap quiz, clinics.

Today's session is even more interesting. And I don't think there's anybody excited about this session like myself. Maybe I can confirm in the chat. Is there anyone as interested in the chat as I am in the session?

Sorry. I'm seeing people throwing their flags. Yeah, yeah.

The excitement is all over. Over to you, Pauline. All right, thanks Edwin for that. The person who is asking what it's about, stick with us. We are gonna have you ready to face employers in a short while by the end of this hour.

We are here to help you prepare to face the employers. And so in the next slide I'm gonna take you through today's agenda. So with the welcome and introduction which we've just done, then we'll go through what to engage.

make sure that we are getting the most out of the session and out of our guest speaker today then we are going to have a quick check-in activity to have you warmed up uh see how you're doing how your energy levels are and then you're going to have a fireside chat uh with Athena Edwin is going to have I mean Cynthia our guest is going to take us through a quick talk on recruitment managers perspective then we'll have a Q&A session um she's gonna share frequently asked questions for recruited managers and then at the end we'll talk about the next steps uh announcements from alx and then we'll close the session at the top of the hour so how to engage how to get the most out of this session uh turn up turn up your energy and engage with us in the chat session we want to know how you It's going for you what you're getting out of it and take those notes, write those notes down and make sure that you get the most out of this. Then stay alert so you don't miss out on anything. We'll be sure, we'll make sure that this session is engaging for you and informative and then drop your questions.

We'll have a slide or a link shared with you and then pinned at the top of the chat. Make sure you're on the lookout for that and drop your questions on what recruiters are looking for and anything else that you may want to ask Cynthia, who is our guest. And then most importantly, listen, learn, engage and have fun. Okay, so.

I hope we got that. And so on to our check-in, on to our warm-up. We want to know for leisure, during your downtime, what would you rather do?

Some people like to dance. Some people like to sleep. Others like to hike mountains.

Others like to cook, swim, do the most, just do the most. So what's your leisure downtime? um like would you rather dance would you rather sleep would you rather cook and i'm gonna invite edwin to come and share maybe and read the charts and let us know what are they saying totally pauline uh looks like people like sleeping looks like people like sleeping for leisure which i think is going to be an opportunity you want to look out for on linkedin or anywhere where they are looking for professional sleepers question is What are you eligible to be a professional sleeper?

Makinde says cooking. Someone said singing. Do we invite you to sing for us for just one minute?

Chimezie cooks. I don't see anywhere here. Oh, someone said TikTok. Diana, your answer is not even in the options we give.

TikTok any day, any time. Uh-huh. Dancing and cooking.

How about you, Pauline? Are you a blend of all these? Do you dance as you cook?

or do you sleep when when you when you're just having not so much to do and of course i'll ask this to cynthia as well when you're going to be bringing her on board to get to know away from the active hiring tasks that she does on a day-to-day what does her day look like outside of work pauline yeah for sure for sure i dance and then i sleep so those two are and then i try to walk maybe i feel like walking is more of a stress reliever than a downtime but dancing and sleeping for sure i identify with a lot of the chats responses i identify most sorry i identify most with the response louisa gave it depends on the mood really you're not going to be dancing when you're not feeling like it you'd rather sleep at the time but for some people they'd rather unwind to dancing and it uplifts their moods so excited to see the responses in the chats back to you amazing thank you thank you so much everybody for engaging with us i hope now you are ready to switch up uh switch things up and go to the fun part the main um purpose for this session um on the next slide um so be on the lookout As Cynthia and Edwin are taking us through the next session, please drop your question on Slido. There's a Slido link that will be pinned at the top of the chat. Make sure to drop your questions related to hiring.

Like this is your one chance to talk to a hiring manager. What are they looking for? What are your most burning questions for her? Don't waste this opportunity. Oh, milestones.

Oh, deliverables. I don't know. Don't waste this chance.

You can ask us those questions anytime. So make sure you're asking recruitment questions. This is your one chance to have them answered.

And so I'm going to invite Edwin and then he will take us through the next session with Cynthia. Absolutely, Pauline. And just like you said, Ed. encouraging anyone joining us today to take advantage of this session. This looks like a chance you've been given for two minutes only with your with your with your icon or your role model and you're not going to be asking them say questions which are not so relevant to the limited time you're having with them so on monday and wednesdays we have clinics where we get to answer all the questions milestone support savannah downtime this link isn't working how do we access our hubs when are the hubs open when are we going to get our certificate so let us save those questions for some other time but for the hour we are having imagine that uh you're in week four but you're seeing the progress you've made and you're feeling like okay our learners the men the momentum they've gained how about we start to bring them uh exclusive sessions like this to bring hiring partners recruitment managers to share with you insights the current trends the faqs that you're going to be asking and getting responses to around the hiring space so We are of course not going to be focusing on questions around the program content, but questions like what do I bid when I'm asked what I want as a starting salary?

What are the skills you're looking out for if I want to be an outstanding VA? What does Athena do that I can leverage my skills on? I am still a current learner, do I have to wait until I graduate before I start asking out for jobs?

Those are the questions I believe we are going to be focusing on today. And if you can take the next 20 seconds as I bring Cynthia on board to ask all the program related questions. And of course, over the next 15 to 20 minutes, if we can slow down our responses in the chat, unless you're going to be asking you to, just so that you get the most out of the session you're having today.

You can imagine if our guest is going to be sharing her screen to walk you through a very, very critical stage in the hiring process. but you're probably asking about how to access your squads in the chats then you're likely not going to be any different from your peer who hasn't joined this session today which makes me think that okay how about you be our ambassadors and while on this session go ahead to also remind everybody in your squads that our session has just kicked off and they need not to be lagging behind so cynthia how are you doing how's your thursday I'm good. I'm having a good Thursday.

I'm looking forward to Friday. Thank you everyone else. I don't know if that is the most Kenyan response or if it's African because everybody starts looking forward to Friday or after Monday. But yeah, very, very happy that you've gotten an hour of your time to have this exclusive session with us. Yeah, so a good number of us are singing for the...

first time but I've had the privilege to have a session with you with our cohort five learners who just graduated and we thought that having shared all those nuggets of wisdom with our graduating learners how about we take advantage of our current learners who are still in their week four to get these insights even before they get to graduate. So of course we have questions that have already come up and I am going to ask maybe two to three out of those but before I do I wouldn't go without sharing with our amazing learners who is gracing us today. So we are having Cynthia Omaya, I believe that is the accurate pronunciation of your name. And yeah, Cynthia works with Athena and she's the hiring recruitment manager, I believe based in Kenya. What you are having today is probably somebody you're going to be meeting in your recruitment stage.

But we've done due date. the justice of getting her here just to familiarize yourself with what it is that they look out for so again this is us giving you the secret sauce not so that when you go and meet uh cynthia in a session you become so so informal that you share no we've had a session with you just give me this job she can do that only if she has gauged that you are competent enough and you have what it is that athena kenya is looking out for you Which again, before I invite Cynthia, makes me want to just share this one more time. Be keen on what you're going to be sharing the next 15 to 20 minutes.

You could see that a lot of the targets are going to be based on those who are in Nairobi and those who are in Kenya. But this is not to mean that if you're in Malawi, Zambia, Uganda, South Africa, Morocco, wherever it is that you're joining us from. the nuggets are going to be getting in the next 20 to 30 minutes are things you don't want to miss out as you get to now leverage your skills so over to you cynthia happy to have you maybe before i can ask you to come over and say hi to us i'll just share with you some of the questions our learners are asking so many about and i just can't stop to think of what are the main things you guys look out for in the hiring process when the applications are being done This must be a question that's coming from somebody who has applied maybe more than once and you've told them no you're not so ready go back and do this but you're not telling them what this is. Here's your lookout for those are some of the questions that are coming out.

These questions for the Q&A session and invite you to share with us more. Over to you, Cynthia. All right.

Thanks so much. I'll definitely tackle those questions as I walk you through our process. I want to say first, thank you so much for having me.

I'm very happy to be speaking to this cohort. And congratulations. You're almost there. You're almost there.

And I think it's a very good initiative to have. um such kind of talks so that at least you know what to expect out there once now you're job hunting what they also the job market is looking out for and the current trends and things that recruiters are looking out for um so as i have been introduced so graciously my name is cynthia omae but i preferably go by cindy the short name of cynthia i work at athena and i serve as a recruitment manager So we hire exceptional executive partners, otherwise known as virtual assistants. But I have a whole presentation prepared for you guys just to walk you through what who Athena is, who are the ex-Bs, what's our recruitment process like.

Hopefully, as I take you through this, I might be able to answer a few questions that are already coming up. So I guess we can get into it. But before that, I think there was a question I was asked.

about how I like to unwind or things that I do during my own downtime when I am not thinking of work. I would say I'm more of a music person so music is my go-to thing. I think sleeping is a constant for everyone.

You need to sleep, you need to just have a minute, a breather and have your brain not so active and I find sleeping and music as one of very effective ways because checking walks the N-BAR. Basically, whatever just makes you feel like there's a better tomorrow, I employ it to do it. All right, that's it.

Allow me to share my screen. I'll try as much as possible as I'm taking you through the recruitment process here at Athena to kind of also generalize it and see how you can gain insights. Generally, just as someone who's looking for work in the virtual space or just tips on how to navigate recruitment as a whole. Right, that's it. Let me just share my screen, then we'll take it up from there.

Okay, so who is Athena? Let's get to know who we are and what we do here. So basically we are, sorry about that, we are a delegation company.

It's the easiest way to describe us. So delegation company in that we are looking out for the 1% out there that can support our clients in their day-to-day life activities. So basically get the clients to delegate to our executive partners who we hire and train and just make sure that they are the best of the best and they can really support them. And they can go beyond assisting.

So that's why we use the term as a partner as well. We do more than just assist. You become literally like a second party to your executive. So our clients are usually ambitious CEOs, founders, executives, you name it.

People in high places who need to delegate so that they can focus on other things. Yeah, so they join us to just leverage on. our executive partners because they know how much we invest in the recruitment process and even the training process such that once you're done with the whole Latina journey, once you're able to call yourself an executive partner, we've really gone through in-depth training.

At the moment, we're primarily in the Philippines and in Kenya. So we just expanded to South America, in Guatemala, and we're looking to expand to other regions as the years come. Right.

So let's talk about who an executive partner is. So an executive partner is basically someone who's going to optimize their client's daily schedule so they can reach the maximum productivity. They provide the resources to aid their client's network.

They drive internal and external communication for smooth workflow reports, you name it. So all these things that you are going through. During your own program as a virtual assistant, some of the things will also be tackling.

So the most common ones are usually the calendar management. Inbox management, travel itineraries, but there's so much more that you get to do as a virtual partner or assistant. All right.

So who do we support at Athena? So we support the ambitious business owners, the C-suites, the tech titans, the super scalers. Really, this is just an example of the kind of people we support, but it's really endless.

So you get a chance to work with really... With guys who are doing really amazing things out there, not only do you get a chance to work with them, you're trying to think like them, then over time, even overtake how they think because you're now their go-to person. Like you help them achieve all these things that they want to do.

So let's talk about the recruitment process. Here at Athena, these are some of the steps that you will go through if you're interested in working with us. So.

Let's start with the first one, which is the initial questionnaire. So once you get the link, which we can share with you afterwards, then you can also have a go at it and try. Once you get the link, the first page, the first landing page, the initial questionnaire would look something like this. Some of these are the questions that you would be answering at this point.

So this, for example, having no graveyard experience. is not a knockout. It's an advantage to have work-driven experience but again at the same time if you haven't had a chance to work it's not something that would disqualify you but you just need to be prepared mentally that working virtually and supporting clients who are outside your time zone would ideally mean that most of the time that daytime is your daytime. So whether they're ahead of you or behind of you you just need to be okay with customizing your working hours.

to favor them as well. So for us, we work 40 hours a week. So if you say you're not available to work 40 hours a week, this is one of the things that can disqualify you from our process and you get a rejection immediately. You're done completing, filling out this form.

So if you're currently studying or enrolled, for example, like you guys who are just about to finish, we currently do not take up candidates who are... engaged, actively engaged in institutions or schools. This is just because the training process is also quite rigorous and requires your full attention in order to hack it. So the minute you're done with school and you're interested, you can apply.

But if you're still in school and you say, yes, it's going to be an automatic rejection. And even if you try to maneuver the system, we'll still be able to catch up and see what's, and we'll just find out if you're still in school or not. So. For Athena Kenya specifically, we're currently just hiring in Nairobi. So if you're based in Nairobi, that's also something else that's going to allow you to move to the next stage.

But if you're not, unfortunately, it's going to be something that will automatically reject you. Given you have to be 18 years and above to kind of legally work anywhere, really. And then we also just want to kind of pre-know you. How many years of experience do you have? But the good thing with Athena, we really don't look at your experience, so to speak.

It's more of if you're able to actually do the work and the tasks at hand. So that's pretty much what you would tackle in the initial questionnaire. So then we'd move next to the test gorilla, which is now the next stage.

And I think I almost talked about stage out here in the internet. So this is where we are basically doing a skills assessment. We use... test gorilla our third party to help us execute this so you'll get several questions and these questions that you're answering are basically just gauging your critical thinking executive assistance presence communication time management problem solving typing speed test and email based on these assessments i'm sure you can pick uh you can already guess that these are some of the qualities and qualifications that we look out for when considering hiring virtual assistants you I bet you it's also some of the things that you're learning while you're still in school. So we're just trying to ascertain before you get to the whole process that these skills are good to go.

So while you're debunking the test gorilla, some of the things that you might encounter are also your typing speed skills. So a good way to also practice and just see how fast you can type. It's the same website we also use.

is monkeytype.com. It's completely free. You just make sure that you choose for one, rather 30 seconds, because we only give you 30 seconds to do it. So then you'll get a chance to practice.

For us, the pass rate is you have to have scored 30 words per minute and above for you to be considered successful. So how fast you type as well really plays a lot in the virtual assistant space. We also after that, now once you're done with the test gorilla face, you move to the language assessment.

Again, communication. I think the most common language to communicate easily is English worldwide. So we also want to make sure that you're able to communicate and articulate yourself well with the English language. So we'll give you an English test basically.

Sorry for that. I just want to go back. We'll give you an English test.

Our pass mark starts from a B2 going up so all the way to C2. So C2 is the highest that you can score and B2 is the lowest that we consider, though it can go as low as B1, B2 or B1. So if you score anything B1 or B1, B2 for us, you won't be considered.

It has to be B2 and above so that's between 6.7 all the way to a 10. I think this is one of the most interesting assessments to do because it's basically you're repeating you have very few minutes to listen to what they're saying then you repeat or type it back so another pro tip for those of you considering becoming an executive partner with us here at Athena while you're doing the test Gorilla aim to finish all the questions don't overthink it too much just reason as uh as already an executive assistant and you want to always make sure that you're doing right by your executive and always just aim to complete it also time is not on your side it's also how fast you can move same thing for language assessment you also just want to make sure that you have a really quiet environment and full um no distractions you want to make sure you have a good power source good internet so that you anywhere on your device so that technology does not fail you at this point while you're doing your assessment because if it if it fails or if you stop midway it will take it like you're you're done with the assessment and that will be an automatic fail all right so then um like we say just keep practicing with the what's for the english and test gorilla if you do your research out there there's um constant a lot of questions that constantly tackle some of these skills that you can enhance so that when you're actually doing the assessments it's not so foreign and it kind of feels familiar all right so then once you're done with all this and you've passed you would there's a stage I haven't touched on that is not part of here where we basically just get to you get to upload your CV now at that point you get to upload your device specs, you get to upload your internet, upload and download speed. And this will probably tell you that in the virtual working space, you need to have a really good reliable device that you're working with. You need to have a good power source and you also need to have good internet because those are some of the key things you need to work virtually. So we also want to make sure that as you're considering becoming one of us, that you also have all these things in mind. So then after that, you get to finally meet your recruiter.

So now you're preparing for your executive partner interview. So what do you want to know once you are in the session? So you want to gauge your commitment and motivation. Why did you want to apply to Athena? And at this point, it's really not in general.

Any company, when you're asked why you're motivated to join or basically any questions that are leaning towards commitment and motivation is not really your chance to highlight your skills yet it's more just to show why you want to be part of a particular company what about their mission and vision speaks out to you that you see is aligned with your own career path so then at that point after that we also want to get to know your background and skills so we want to know your past work experiences if the work experiences are not that many talk about your experiences such as for this cohort, the girls who are going through the ALX program talk about some of the things that you've learned. Of course by this point it's assumed that you've gone through the JD, you understand the role you're applying for, so as you highlight your skills and background, you also want to see how you can tie it in with some of the requirements listed in the job description. At the same time you will always be asked any role You'll be asked your knowledge about the role, what you know about the role, how do you think you fit into it. So make sure you've researched the role, make sure you can explain the role well and you don't have to quote the job description word for word.

In fact, a tip is just to understand the role and relay this information back to the recruiter with your own words, with your own understanding of the role, and then any gaps that maybe you need to be addressed in terms of the role or the company that you could not find in the job description or with your own research. This is also your chance to ask them about the company and some of the things that you want to know about the role. We also evaluate your readiness to join our training program. For us, we are having training programs running every week, every Monday. So we also want to know how soon you can start.

Then also sell yourself. And another pro tip that's probably not listed here is when you get that chance to break the ice when the recruiter asks you things you like to do for fun, your hobbies, your interests, don't start touching on your CV yet. literally just tell them what you like to do for fun.

Like what we were talking about earlier, do you guys like to decompress by sleeping or music? But of course now during an interview saying you enjoy sleeping for fun is a bit different, at least when I show the more exciting side of you, even if it means you enjoy taking nature walks or listening to music or spending time with family. And then also take the opportunity to ask to get to know your recruiter as well.

Ask them what they also enjoy doing. It's very helpful because it will help you build a good rapport with them and kind of calm you down in terms of the interview anxiety that one usually goes through just before an interview and during. All right. So the basics, I think these ones are things you'll find out that anytime you research.

You always want to make sure that you're giving smart answers. And then also you want to set up yourself for success. You want to make sure you've made a great impression.

Some of these things like I'm saying during the initial stages, ask your recruiter back also what they like to do for fun. Your storytelling is really going to go a long way. Paint a good picture.

Even as you're maybe elaborating on your experiences, I... usually prefer when a candidate is telling me okay I've worked for Athena this is what Athena does my position at Athena was a recruitment manager this was some of the tasks I did as a recruitment manager at that point you can even choose to see maybe some of your greatest achievements but also be very mindful of time so that you don't dwell so much on one point and end up eating the whole time most interviews are usually structured like for us we try to take 30 to 40 minutes maximum so you also management of time is very important so that also the recruiter doesn't feel like you have overpowered the session and now they can't continue to get to know you because they have their own structure of the things they want to make sure that they know from you at the end of the interview for them to be able to make a decision whether you're a right fit or not. You always have to research a company. You have to research the company. You have to understand what's out there, what's trending for them.

So that when you're asked a question, a basic one that we always ask is, what do you know about Athena? Or maybe what about us really attracted you? Or when you saw the job ad, what made you click apply? What made you think you can be an XP? And if it's a virtual assistant out of all the companies, why Athena?

You want to make sure that you can elaborate and articulate that very well. Then lastly, I think I've already talked about that, is your time. You need to... manage your time quite well.

So do not be shallow with your answers but also do not over explain. Just keep it very simple to the point that you're direct with your answers and the recruiter does not need also to probe you for more, rather ask more follow-up questions because you're giving very short answers or interrupt you because now you're over answering, you're taking too much time on one thing. And they've already gotten the point. All right.

So for us, afterwards, we're done with the final interview. You move to a skills validation call. It's more of a practical interview. So you want to validate a few skills and see you do these things practically.

So we call this the final validation call in our process. So. To explain, it usually takes 20 minutes. We do it via Zoom. You have at least the first three minutes will give you a scenario so you're required to draft a response, an email response.

based on the scenario you're given. So at this point also you see where your typing skills come in handy, your comprehension, your understanding and your ability to think on the spot. After you're done with that we move to another assessment where we just basically do a very quick Google Sheets exercise to assess your tech-savviness, see how you do things under pressure. That one usually takes eight minutes and you're sharing your screen so that we can also see what you're doing.

And lastly, we usually do a situational question. So we'll just share a situation with you, then give you three minutes to also gauge your understanding, your problem solving, critical thinking, all the skills that we've been talking about. So for us, once you're done with this final step, you move to the offer letter. Then the background checks commence the same time as you're starting training. And this is what Athena training kind of...

looks like in a nutshell so you have the first two weeks weeks they take it takes about two to six weeks depending on your ability to grasp also the content your performance and whatnot but the first two weeks are usually fixed and this is the do or die for the training bit so you're doing some instructor-led classes social learning some self-paced courses it's similar to what's you're currently doing. So actually if you've gone through the ALX program it's not gonna be that overwhelming or difficult. It's true that our training is designed to be rigorous, it's designed to be basically just to give you an idea of how real life situations will be. So not many people enjoy this part but I usually say if you come this far and you're just about to hack into training and then If you picture the exposure you're going to be getting working with some of these executives and you already know what to do, it's going to go a really long way. Yeah, so maybe we can tackle a few facts of laughs.

Then I'll do a few frequently asked questions and then open it up to you guys to ask me as many questions as you want. Yeah, so this is just to talk about it again. We are not really into the full-time, the three years full-time experience. It's more of, can you actually do the job? Your past experiences matter, but they don't really affect your ability to get into or into Athena really.

We do accept graduates so long as it doesn't matter the year, so long as you're done with school and you prove that you can do this work, the job will be yours. We do provide equipment during training, depending on the modality of training. So currently we have virtual training, then we have on-site, and that's why we emphasize at the moment we're just hiring in Nairobi.

If you're part of the on-site class, we'll cater for everything. If you're part of the virtual class, the requirements that are listed in the JD now really play along with your device, your internet, power source, etc. So even if you don't have freelancing experience, honestly, it's not going to affect your ability to join us. I think most of them are pretty much redundant at this point. So I'll take you through a few frequently asked questions and go back to...

or rather hand it back to you guys that can ask me a few questions. So I'll stop sharing my screen and then just tackle a few questions. All right, so some of the questions I think we have also kind of talked about as I was telling about our whole process in Athena but frequently asked questions are like the top three qualities or skills we look out for when we are hiring.

virtual assistants. So it would have to be your communication, dependability and adaptability. In other words, we can also say your problem solving skills.

And I think just the fact that we are best in it, this is a virtual thing. Also, your tech savviness really goes a long way because you can really work in the virtual space if you don't understand the virtual world to begin with. So how you navigate Zoom.

Do you understand the Google workspace? If you're introduced to a new equipment, how fast can you be able to adapt and teach yourself and learn? Because all these things in the kind of the internet space we are in, it's very easy to teach yourself some of these things and keep up. Of course, also the time zones. So things like those we're talking about, the adaptability comes in there.

So common mistakes that applicants make during the hiring process and how they can avoid them. For us, I think I've tackled the knockoff questions here in Athena. But if we were to generalize it, now when you come to your CVs, like one CV does not fit all, to be honest. You need to customize your CV for each role that you are applying for.

Sometimes it's very funny, even a candidate will send you... maybe they're applying for Athena and the one that they used, they send you the CV and cover letter that they used to apply to company X. So it starts, dear company X recruitment managers. I already know this is not even for us. It's just one CV that the candidate was not even meticulous enough to edit and just reflect the actual company.

So some of these small things really go a long way. You really have to have. good attention to detail as well because your interviewer will pick it up.

Even small things such as having typos in your CV also can disqualify you from a process really. Another question that as cynthia is coming back up yes cynthia we might have had your network give feedback but yeah overall i believe we are now seeing where this is going as an employer they are looking out for these nitty-gritties which sometimes they're occasionally meeting in your modules we ask you what is your typing speed and you believe you just want to do it so quickly to transition to the next module but it actually adds up to you being in the one percent of what Athena and many other hiring employers are looking out for so of course I am going to see in the chats what is one key takeaway that so far you have taken i'll share with you mine because i was writing them down number one tailor your resume like joffrey is sharing in the chats you don't want to use a cover letter that you're applying for a content moderator role for a different task right you are going to just get kicked off even before you get to meet your your employer for for an interview i am going to take some learnings that you've taken from the session uh attention to detail is key bridget that's accurate accurate customize your cv like kathy says um i'm going to read the next five cynthia welcome back i was just getting to hear what the key takeaways are from our learners and looks like you didn't do some should you work i don't know if we need to stop the session here because it looks like you've gotten everything but no we will have some questions for you you But yeah, your network gave feedback when you're sharing some of the frequently asked questions. So maybe if you can just finish on that, then we can ask a few questions we've gotten that have come up also.

Thank you. All right. Thank you for that.

And sorry for cutting out, guys. So I think I was tackling how to stand out as a VA in this market. So you want to... to stand out by showing that you have initiative and a proactive approach. So you can try and highlight some of these things also in your CV so that it also kind of boosts or makes your CV stand out depending on the recruitment process of whatever company you're trying to apply for.

For us, the CV comes in much later. And honestly, the CV itself versus how you perform during the interview, you can have a very, not the best CV out there, but during the interview, you're able to show your initiative and proactiveness, how you're answering the questions, is able to demonstrate this quite well. So you're able to see that or rather showcase how you'll add value to it.

um your clients or the kind of value you've been able to give to your clients in the in the past so again that just revolves around again uh problem solving um yeah so i think i i think i've talked so much i want to tell you guys that was insightful i think we need to be having you week on week cynthia because you are the gift that keeps giving so thank you very very much that was insightful if anything you covered a half of the questions you are having because you are having questions like what is it that you look out for and of course myself at the moment i saw you speak about things that i've seen in many other cover letters and resumes i am attentive to detail the same cv that is mentioning that someone is attentive to detail has a typo so there's not attention to detail in that we are not good at time management there are things that you can say day by day but unless you live with them then your hiring manager is going to not feel so confident in you so like you said cynthia you are looking for the one percent the one percent is not somebody who does the basic but of course goes over and beyond so before i share what our learners are asking joyce said that passing the athena test is one of the hardest things she has maybe seen this year and the feedback i have to that when i was just skimming through linkedin a testimonial from an executive partner is it's challenging but very rewarding that was the wording of it and i believe it's accurate in case any of us have gone to linkedin and seen the testimonials from the learners from not from the learner sorry from the executive partners who are working with athena so i'll share some of the questions that are coming up yeah so i have not so much experience what is it that i'm going to put out if i'm leveraging myself so this is probably somebody who hasn't worked before at all But with the learning we've taken from our program, say in this instance, they want to be an executive partner with Athena, what do they use as their ammunition? What is going to sell them out to be in the 1% center? All right, that's a good question.

I would say one, the fact that you have made it through, quote unquote, difficult assessments is a plus. So when you get a chance to get to the interview stage and you're speaking to your recruiter, One of the advantages you might have over someone who's, let's even say, has plus five years experience is one, your tech-savvy-ness. So if you're able to showcase and even just show how you teach yourself or the kind of skills you've learned, or even just highlight properly the knowledge you've gained by participating and being part of the LX program. and showcase how you can use these skills in the virtual space. That's something that also really amazes us when you're able to talk.

We're asking about the kind of tools maybe you've interacted with in the past. And you're just talking about the tools that we really know in the virtual space are quite important. So that's one thing.

How you're going to communicate to your recruiter, your communication skills, how you present yourself, basically your whole demure. A demeanor would go a long way. So are you going to show up with graphic t-shirts and be like, okay, I just finished school. I don't know what to do.

Or be very professional and be, and don't even focus on the fact that you have, because if the recruiter has not asked you if you're finished, you're about to talk about your experience or has not highlighted the fact that you don't have so much experience, what you want to do is also sell yourself. Show how you can still fit in regardless of the fact. that you haven't had a chance maybe to work in the past because this is some of the things that we're trying to offer out here. I want to offer a chance for guys who really can showcase that they can do it to have this chance to actually do it.

So just sell yourself, showcase your skills, your qualifications and don't focus on the negatives. You want to show the plus of having you, the advantage. I'm saying so many words, but let me just say another face.

phrase I like to say. For me, I view recruitment as dating but for work so as as i am interviewing you you're also interviewing me we are sussing each other to see if we are the right fit for each other so look at it like that look at it like um how you view relationships out here you also don't know much about each other so when you're coming there how will you present yourself to the person you want them to see who do you want to be seen in this professional space so once you figure that out um that's what you want to make sure that shines all through during the interview. That is so well put. Yeah, so the moment you apply and you've gone through the assessment, there actually is something that you have to offer.

So you're not coming from a negative point, but you're on an even ground. So what's going to sell you out is what skills you have that you can leverage. Don't look at the experience you put out, but instead the skills you're having that they could use, because actually you're going to give service to the client. and it's not going to be free of charge so you're coming something they actually do need one other question that is standing out uh cynthia of course a lot of the questions we are having are athena related so much that uh they're coming from the team in nairobi and i of course would say that their thinner linkedin profile and other social media platforms are so so active so obviously you want to join the webinars to have these questions answered in even longer sessions because for today we'll tried to tailor it to see that we are covering all our learners who are joining us out today there's this question i don't know if you're going to give us the accurate answer to it cynthia but it's about i'm going to put it in three phases one how do i bid for an employer who's asking for my rates or what is the range that i'm going to give if i'm asked and if i'm pitching myself to an employer or a client how am i going to quantify find the services that I'm having to fit within this range? I don't know if it's a question you can respond to in the next two minutes max.

It's so multifaceted. Yeah, it is. It is. Let me try and keep it simple.

So I would say first things first, you need to do your research. So how much, how much, what is the standard rates that guys are being paid out there for the same services? Then also look at... Also the investment you're putting into it. You have your devices, you'll have your internet expenses, need to have a backup power source, all these things that you know you need in order to be an effective virtual assistant are some of the things that you want to consider.

Tie the two things between what you need to survive as a human being, what you need for you to be able to provide these services. And lastly, what is the market reach out there so that you don't undercharge. and at the same time we don't overcharge i hope that kind of answers it it helps research helps out a long way so thank you very much as maybe your final point as i give you mine looks like this demand outside of nairobi outside of kenya so maybe if you're having your people because i know you know people go share out that you have a lot of market outside of nairobi outside of kenya and we have learners who are ready to leverage their skills with you hopefully this is going to be feedback you're going to be happy about if you come back next time sharing that we have a new location in Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Africa is open to apply so thank you very much as we share your parting shots maybe.

All right thanks as well thanks for having me guys I hope shows an insightful session keep pushing the job space is not easy but with programs like this you've definitely had it I'm wishing you all the best. thank you so so much and please don't uh don't hesitate to reach out to us if you'd want our services like we are also going to just reach out to you if you are in need of you sharing more insights like this so thank you very much so yeah we are going to share some key announcements to our learners and yeah the learners from our session cynthia are saying thank you very very much thank you so much uh oh thank you cindy somebody didn't forget what you prefer to be called by Yes, we had Pauline at the beginning of the session and for a moment we thought Pauline isn't here with us anymore. Pauline, welcome back.

All right, thank you so much Cynthia and Edwin for that insightful session. It feels like one hour is too short. It's like we need a longer webinar.

I don't know. At least that's the feeling I got. It was so informative even for myself, not just as a...

as a job hunter or something, but even other skills that I may need outside here. So for quick announcement. The next steps, keep an eye out on any program updates shared.

We share a lot of information on our emails and also on the portal. If you go to the portal and look at the VA library and your scores, there is all the information that you need to help you succeed in these programs. So be on the lookout for that.

Then join our VA Focus Lounge tomorrow with learners who've graduated. Thank you. And they have some success stories to share. So tomorrow, Friday, 18th October, 2 p.m.

GMT. Be sure to join us to learn about balancing life, learning, and career growth from some outstanding former VA graduates. Then if you have any questions about the program and you're not finding quick answers, please go to Lair.

All of you know our AI assistant, Lair. Thank you. She will have all the answers.

Please do not DM the community ambassadors. Imagine you're 98,000 of you, all of you reaching out to the CAs. There's no way they'll be able to respond to you.

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Transcript for:Recruitment Insights and Best Practices

Transcript for:
Recruitment Insights and Best Practices