Sample shortlist · candidates written by us, real screener output
Executive Assistant
This is what the screening delivers: every candidate scored against the brief, with screening notes, their answers and a graded work sample. These sample candidates were written by us and run through the real screener — the scores and notes are its unedited output.
At a glance
Highest score first. Scores within 2 points are level: when we had the screener read the same two applications again, the gap between them moved by up to 2. A must-have in the brief (below the list) costs 5 points when the application does not show it and 2 when it only partly does.
- Valentina R.Goes on to the interviewLevel with Angelica T. at 88: stronger on the scenario answer (91 vs 88), Angelica T. on the experience (85 vs 82).88/100
- Angelica T.Goes on to the interviewAhead of Nomsa D. mainly on the brief: Nomsa D. did not fully show 3 must-haves.88/100
- Nomsa D.Stops here57/100
2 of 3 clear 70, the score an applicant needs to go on to the written interview. A real shortlist only holds people who clear it and then the interview; the one below it is shown so you can see what the screener turns down.
The brief they were screened against
Role: Executive Assistant · Band: $900–1,400/mo
Must-haves: calendar and inbox ownership for a US founder, research briefs that end in a recommendation, native-level written English, 4+ hours of US overlap
Nice to have: travel booking, light vendor and contractor chasing, Notion or Coda
Scored on 2026-09-23 by the AI screener that grades real applicants: the executive-assistant rubric, run on claude-sonnet-4-6. Nothing below was edited afterwards — including where it went against a candidate. The rubric and weights are published.
Valentina R. · 1 of 3
SCREEN 88/100How the 88 adds up · Top ~10%
A bar is as long as its part's weight; the filled share is the score out of 100.
- Graded work sample 35%87
Brief is usable as-is: structured, priced accurately, competitors differentiated, and closes with a concrete conditional recommendation.
- Scenario judgment 25%91
Distinguishes deadline from urgency, sequences actions precisely, and names the underlying principle: two hard decisions, not twenty small ones.
- Experience specificity 20%82
Names fintech context, two fundraises, board deck sourcing discipline, and weekly operating review — specific roles and constraints, not adjectives.
- Written & spoken English 15%88
Phrase 'urgency, which is different and which I can absorb' shows register and control; no errors; tone is direct and appropriate for a US founder.
- Salary-band fit 5%100
Asks $1,350 a month, inside the $900–1,400 band.
Must-haves in the brief: 4 of 4 shown
- calendar and inbox ownership for a US founder — shown
managed the calendars through two fundraises
- research briefs that end in a recommendation — shown
If we are under 30 people and US-only, Gusto is the default and the decision is not worth more than an hour. If we are planning to hire in four states and issue laptops, price Rippling in the same week
- native-level written English — shown
urgency, which is different and which I can absorb
- 4+ hours of US overlap — shown
Full US Eastern overlap from Bogotá — same hours, no night shift
The parts, weighted as above, come to 88.
Screening notes
Strongest: Scenario answer — the deadline-vs-urgency distinction and the inbox triage logic are precise and immediately usable.
Concern: No explicit example of a research brief produced in the EA/CoS role; the work sample is strong but stands alone.
Worth asking: What did the board deck assembly process look like end-to-end, and who were the stakeholders they coordinated with?
Verdict: A well-evidenced, high-judgment candidate whose ask sits near the top of the band and whose writing quality matches the role's core demand.
Experience
4 years as EA then chief of staff to the two co-founders of a Bogotá-based fintech that sold into the US. Ran the weekly operating review, owned the board deck assembly (I did not write the strategy, I made sure every number in it came from one source), and managed the calendars through two fundraises. Full US Eastern overlap from Bogotá — same hours, no night shift, which is the reason I cost more than a Manila hire.
Tools
Google Workspace, Notion, Linear, Slack, Superhuman, Zoom, Pitch for decks, Rippling
Scenario answer
Asked: Your executive has a double-booked Thursday: an investor call and a customer escalation, plus 40 unread emails and a flight Friday morning. Walk through exactly how you'd handle the next 2 hours.
I would not treat this as a scheduling problem. It is a question of which meeting has a deadline attached. The investor call has one — their diligence window, or their partner meeting on Monday. The customer escalation does not; it has urgency, which is different and which I can absorb. So the investor call holds and I move the escalation, but I move it by talking to the customer, not by sending a reschedule link. Two sentences from me, an apology with a reason that is true but not detailed, and two concrete alternative times. While he is on the investor call I do the escalation prep so the 4:30 version is shorter than the 2:00 version would have been. Account history, what we promised, what we actually delivered, and the one number he will be asked for. Inbox: I work it in two passes. Pass one is thirty seconds per email, sorting for anything time-bound — a contract, a renewal, an invite that expires. Pass two is replies. He sees maybe four of the forty. The other thirty-six get answered by me, filed, or left to resolve themselves, and I tell him at the end of the day what I answered on his behalf so nothing is a surprise. The Friday flight is the easiest piece and the one people drop. Check in, confirm the car, and send him one message Thursday night with the departure time, the terminal, and the hotel address — in the message, not in a link. The pattern underneath all of it: he should end the day having made two hard decisions, not twenty small ones.
Work sample
Asked: Write a one-page research brief on any B2B software company: what it does, pricing, 3 competitors, and 5 bullet takeaways an executive could read in 90 seconds.
RESEARCH BRIEF — Gusto (gusto.com) WHAT IT DOES Payroll, benefits and HR admin for US small businesses. Runs payroll, files the payroll taxes, and handles benefits enrolment. The pitch is that a 20-person company does not need an HR person, it needs Gusto plus one afternoon a month. PRICING Simple $49/mo + $6/person. Plus $80/mo + $12/person, which adds time tracking and multi-state. Premium is quoted. Benefits brokerage is bundled at no extra software cost in states where they operate. COMPETITORS 1. Rippling — broader (device management, app provisioning), more expensive, aimed at companies that want one system of record. Wins when IT is also a problem. 2. Justworks — PEO model, so they become the co-employer. Better benefits pricing at small headcount, less flexibility, higher per-head cost. 3. ADP Run — incumbent. Cheaper at scale, notoriously hard to leave, support quality is the common complaint. FIVE TAKEAWAYS - The real switching cost is mid-year: moving payroll providers between quarters creates tax-filing seams. Move in January or accept the mess. - Gusto's benefits brokerage is where the margin is, so expect the sales motion to push there. - Multi-state is the upgrade trigger. One remote hire in a new state moves you from Simple to Plus. - Rippling is the real comparison if we expect to be over 50 people in 18 months. - Contractor-only payroll is $35/mo flat — relevant if most of the team is contract. RECOMMENDATION If we are under 30 people and US-only, Gusto is the default and the decision is not worth more than an hour. If we are planning to hire in four states and issue laptops, price Rippling in the same week — the gap closes fast.
Availability
Full-time, 8am–5pm ET from Bogotá (the same clock time in the US winter; in summer I start at 7am). Can start in three weeks.
Angelica T. · 2 of 3
SCREEN 88/100How the 88 adds up · Top ~10%
A bar is as long as its part's weight; the filled share is the score out of 100.
- Graded work sample 35%87
Brief is structured, specific on pricing mechanics and switching costs, and closes with a conditional recommendation tied to the reader's actual situation.
- Scenario judgment 25%88
Triage logic is explicit and sequenced; the hotel card-present detail and inbox-sorting method show real operational judgment, not generic prioritization.
- Experience specificity 20%85
Five years with named company type, city, and stage; inbox ownership in month three, 30 trips, 90-minute notes turnaround — specific numbers throughout.
- Written & spoken English 15%88
Phrase 'Escalations survive a two-hour slip far better than an investor does' is precise, idiomatic, and calibrated exactly to a US executive audience.
- Salary-band fit 5%100
Asks $1,150 a month, inside the $900–1,400 band.
Must-haves in the brief: 4 of 4 shown
- calendar and inbox ownership for a US founder — shown
Owned his calendar and inbox outright — he stopped reading the inbox in month three
- research briefs that end in a recommendation — shown
RECOMMENDATION
- native-level written English — shown
Escalations survive a two-hour slip far better than an investor does
- 4+ hours of US overlap — shown
9pm–6am PHT (9am–6pm US Eastern
The parts, weighted as above, come to 88.
Screening notes
Strongest: Scenario answer — sequenced, opinionated, and grounded in a specific past incident ("last week that surfaced a signature deadline").
Concern: No independent verification of claims is possible; depth of detail is high but all self-reported.
Worth asking: How they handle a founder who does want to stay in the inbox, and what their Notion build looks like in practice.
Verdict: A well-evidenced, consistently strong application across all four parts, with the ask sitting comfortably inside the band.
Experience
5 years EA to the founder of a 40-person US SaaS company (Series A, Austin). Owned his calendar and inbox outright — he stopped reading the inbox in month three. Ran a 6-person weekly leadership meeting: agenda out Friday, notes and owners out within 90 minutes of the meeting ending. Booked ~30 trips a year including two board offsites. Before that, 2 years as admin coordinator at a Manila logistics firm.
Tools
Google Workspace, Superhuman, Calendly, Notion, Navan (was TripActions), Slack, Zoom, Brex for his card receipts
Scenario answer
Asked: Your executive has a double-booked Thursday: an investor call and a customer escalation, plus 40 unread emails and a flight Friday morning. Walk through exactly how you'd handle the next 2 hours.
First ten minutes: I look at who is actually on the investor call. If it is a partner we are mid-raise with, that one does not move — I message the customer's main contact from his address, own the delay in one line, and offer 4:30pm or 8am Friday. Escalations survive a two-hour slip far better than an investor does, and the customer hears from someone rather than nobody. Next thirty: I sit in the escalation prep instead of him. I pull the account's last four tickets and the contract renewal date into six lines at the top of the doc, so when he joins at 4:30 he reads for ninety seconds rather than asking questions I could have answered. Then the inbox. I do not read 40 emails — I sort them. Anything with a date in it goes first, because those are the ones that get expensive. Last week that surfaced a signature deadline buried in a thread he had already replied to. Everything from a name he knows gets a holding reply from me. The rest waits until Monday and most of it dies on its own. Last fifteen: the Friday flight. Check-in, seat, and — the one that has actually bitten us — confirm the hotel does not need a card present at 11pm arrival. I put the confirmation numbers in the calendar event body, not in an email, because he will look at the calendar from the airport and not his inbox. What I would not do is ask him which to prioritise. That is the question I am there to stop him having to answer.
Work sample
Asked: Write a one-page research brief on any B2B software company: what it does, pricing, 3 competitors, and 5 bullet takeaways an executive could read in 90 seconds.
RESEARCH BRIEF — Ramp (ramp.com) WHAT IT DOES Corporate cards plus spend management for US companies. One product: issue cards, capture receipts automatically, close the books faster. Sells against Brex and Amex, and increasingly against Bill.com on the AP side. PRICING Free tier for the card and basic spend management — Ramp makes money on interchange. Ramp Plus at $15/user/month adds procurement and advanced approvals. Enterprise is quoted. The free tier is the wedge and it is a real one: a 40-person company can run the whole card program at $0. COMPETITORS 1. Brex — same category, moved upmarket to startups with venture funding and away from SMB. Charges for the software tier earlier. 2. Amex Business — incumbent, better rewards, far worse software. Most switchers come from here. 3. Bill.com — owns AP workflow for SMB accounting. Ramp is eating into this rather than the other way round. FIVE TAKEAWAYS - The free tier is not a trial. Interchange pays for it, so there is no upgrade cliff coming. - Switching cost is the receipts history, not the card. Ask what an export looks like before committing. - Their AP push means the finance team will feel this more than the card holders. - Brex's move upmarket left the sub-100-person segment to Ramp; that is where the product is sharpest. - Worth asking: does it integrate with the accounting stack you already run, or does it want to replace it? RECOMMENDATION If we are on Amex Business and closing books late, this is worth a 30-day pilot on one department. If we are already on Bill.com and happy, the case is much weaker — you would be buying overlap.
Availability
Full-time, 9pm–6am PHT (9am–6pm US Eastern; I start an hour later when daylight saving ends). Two weeks' notice.
Nomsa D. · 3 of 3
SCREEN 57/100How the 57 adds up · Competent but generic
A bar is as long as its part's weight; the filled share is the score out of 100.
- Graded work sample 35%62
Brief is clean and readable but thin: pricing figures are hedged, no sources cited, and the recommendation is a single generic closing sentence rather than a pointed executive takeaway.
- Scenario judgment 25%58
Escalates the double-booking to the executive rather than making a judgment call; inbox triage goes oldest-to-newest, not by urgency — shows process but weak prioritization.
- Experience specificity 20%63
Eight years across two real roles with concrete tasks (board packs, minute-taking, Concur, travel), but no numbers, no decisions owned, and no US-founder context.
- Written & spoken English 15%78
Consistently correct, clear register throughout; phrase 'I pride myself on being reliable and discreet' is the only slip into cliché; otherwise clean and professional.
- Salary-band fit 5%100
Asks $1,000 a month, inside the $900–1,400 band.
Must-haves in the brief: 1 of 4 shown, 2 partly
- calendar and inbox ownership for a US founder — partly shown (−2)
Diary management, travel, expenses, board pack printing and distribution
- research briefs that end in a recommendation — partly shown (−2)
Xero would be a good choice for a business looking for straightforward cloud accounting software.
- native-level written English — shown
I have very strong written English and I am used to a formal environment where confidentiality matters
- 4+ hours of US overlap — not shown (−5)
The parts, weighted as above, come to 66; must-haves not fully shown cost 9, so 57.
Screening notes
Strongest: Eight years of genuine EA experience across two roles, with named tools (Concur, DocuSign, SharePoint) and real tasks like board packs and minute-taking.
Concern: Only 2 hours of stated US Eastern overlap falls short of the 4-hour must-have; the scenario answer defers the double-booking decision entirely to the executive rather than showing prioritization judgment.
Worth asking: Can they shift their working hours to cover 4+ hours of US Eastern overlap, and have they supported a US-based principal before?
Verdict: A solid, experienced EA with clean English and real credentials, but the overlap gap is a hard must-have miss that needs resolving before progressing.
Experience
6 years as personal assistant to a managing director at a Johannesburg property group, then 2 years supporting two directors at a UK consultancy remotely. Diary management, travel, expenses, board pack printing and distribution, minute-taking for monthly board meetings. I have very strong written English and I am used to a formal environment where confidentiality matters.
Tools
Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Teams, SharePoint), Zoom, Concur for expenses, DocuSign
Scenario answer
Asked: Your executive has a double-booked Thursday: an investor call and a customer escalation, plus 40 unread emails and a flight Friday morning. Walk through exactly how you'd handle the next 2 hours.
I would start by speaking to the executive and asking which of the two meetings he would like me to move, because he is the one who knows the relationship history with both parties. Once he tells me, I would contact the other party immediately, apologise for the change and offer two alternative times that afternoon or the following week. I would then work through the inbox systematically from oldest to newest, flagging anything urgent for his attention and drafting replies to the routine items for his approval. I keep a running list of items awaiting his decision so nothing is lost. For the Friday flight I would confirm the booking, complete the online check-in as soon as it opens, and email him the itinerary with the boarding pass attached. I would also confirm the airport transfer and the hotel reservation. Throughout I would keep him updated so he always knows where things stand. I am very organised and I pride myself on being reliable and discreet.
Work sample
Asked: Write a one-page research brief on any B2B software company: what it does, pricing, 3 competitors, and 5 bullet takeaways an executive could read in 90 seconds.
RESEARCH BRIEF — Xero WHAT IT DOES Xero is cloud-based accounting software for small and medium businesses. It handles invoicing, bank reconciliation, payroll, expenses and reporting, and it is used by accountants and business owners alike. It is particularly strong in the UK, Australia and New Zealand markets. PRICING Xero offers several plans. The Starter plan is around $20 per month and limits the number of invoices. The Standard plan is around $47 per month with unlimited invoices. The Premium plan is around $80 per month and adds multi-currency support. Prices vary by region. COMPETITORS 1. QuickBooks Online — the market leader in the United States, with a very large accountant network. 2. Sage — an established provider, strong in the UK, with both desktop and cloud products. 3. FreshBooks — simpler and aimed at freelancers and very small service businesses. FIVE TAKEAWAYS - Xero is well suited to small businesses that want cloud accounting. - It integrates with a very large number of third-party applications. - QuickBooks is more widely used in the US, which matters when hiring a bookkeeper. - The Starter plan's invoice limit catches businesses out as they grow. - Multi-currency is only on the most expensive plan. Xero would be a good choice for a business looking for straightforward cloud accounting software.
Availability
Full-time, 9am–6pm SAST (2 hours' overlap with US Eastern, more if needed). Available immediately.
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