Writing, Transcription, & Research focused Virtual Assistant Required

Please read the entire job description, as there are special instructions located herein, that must be followed to be considered for the job posting.

If this is an opportunity you would like to pursue, please respond here inside onlinejobs.ph, by putting the word Blue, in the subject line. If you do not put Blue in the subject line of your response, we will not reply to you. We do this to ensure you have read and fully understood the job opportunity you are applying for. Please continue reading to the end of our job description as there may be more special instructions to be considered for this position.

We are 3 friends who run remote businesses. We each manage several projects in both personal and professional capacities and need assistance juggling these projects and staying on top of the admin work required to make them happen. (The three of us are Adhd diagnosed, and whilst being reasonably high functioning, we are still prone to drop balls when we're trying to balance too many things).

We need help with writing tasks, research tasks (purchasing decisions, tools, services, etc), transcription (we dictate, you write down), help with email & messages, competency with task manager / project management tools, and a good ability to follow up and make sure things get done / dont fall through the cracks.

We want someone who is comfortable taking initiative, following up, good english writing skills & good enough listening skills to transcribe in real time when we are speaking to you over the phone.

Because context is important, we would much prefer to hire a single person exclusively than to continuously switch between VAs. The optimal arrangement would be to do a one month trial period and if that goes well for both of us, switch to something full-time.

Job Description

Personal & Business Ops -
This is the basic stuff. Requests like "Please use the Heykuya app to have a 2 pin power adapter (photo attached) delivered to my house", "Please ask Tom to invoice us and send payment" or "Please find the cheapest flight options from Manila to San Francisco in this date range".

Turning conversations into content and actions.
We often need to create written meeting minutes from recorded audio or video calls. Important here is the ability to distill a 60-minute conversation with multiple people down to key bullet points, and to pick up on important action items and assign them to the relevant people within our task ---------- box management -
When the email inbox piles up, it can be difficult to manage. I've found that knowing what to say is normally quite easy, but d ---------- how to say it (writing the response) is what can take a lot of time. Therefore, a workflow we'd like to try is having a short daily call with you, where we can talk through the responses to the emails in our inbox, and you can draft and send the responses afterward. This will mean you'll have controlled access to our email inboxes (We'll use Spark for this).

Research
We often need to answer questions to a higher fidelity than what is available from a Google search, compiling multiple sources into a cohesive, insightful answer. For example, "What is the global market for freelance web developers?". I think a good barometer of the quality expected here is what's available on ---------- /#examples

Editing & Content Creation
Content strategy will become a key part of the new business I'm working on. This will require regularly writing and publishing blogs on various topics. I personally have quite a bit to say on each of these topics, but the process of getting it out of my head, finessing, and editing it is one which I feel currently has a lot of friction. Similar to the Inbox Management mentioned above, I would like to try a workflow where the content for some of these blog posts can be initially communicated conversationally, and converted by you into written format.

We are looking for someone who would be available to do both asynchronous & synchronous work - the asyncrhonous work would be things like research, task management, inbox manageent etc & the synchronous work would be like transcription & real time assisting / accountability / 'body doubling' ( ---------- /articles/body-doubling-adhd#:~:text=Body doubling simply means doing,when friends do homework together ). For the synchronous calls & work, you would need to be available for north american morning hours &/or north american night hours. If you've read to here, the extra special instruction is to change the subject from blue to 'kinda blue' - we are looking for someone with an attention to detail and this gives us a first filter to see candidates have such a trait. Please also add to the subject line after kinda blue, whether you can do (1) morning (~1am manila time) (2) night (~noon manila time) or (3) morning & night. We are flexible with which times, but bonus points for those who are night owls and can do both these times.

Please do not apply for this role if you are unable to have the schedule or interest or skill set to do synchronous work / in real time over the phone or video.

Required Skills
- Super strong written English - you can show examples of previous writing you've done. Ideally, you really enjoy writing, and it comes naturally to you.
- Confident communicator - The job will require you to regularly communicate with people in both written and spoken format, through English and Tagalog. You'll need to be very comfortable in these contexts, and be adept at both understanding and being understood.
- Access to a good internet connection We understand there'll always be some connectivity issues here in the Philippines, but ideally, your primary place of work will have a reliable connection strong enough to carry Zoom video calls.
- Web software wizard - This isn't a deal-breaker but is a big plus. We use a host of web-based tools to manage our workflows - many of which are heavily configurable, and powerful when used correctly. Ideally you've used some of these before and are familiar with how they work. An example of one such all-purpose-tool is Airtable. Outside of that we'll use 1Password for credential management, Monday for project management, Spark for Email, Notion for documents, HeyKuya for on-demand stuff).