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Sample shortlist · candidates written by us, real screener output

Virtual Assistant

This is what every search delivers: finalists screened against the brief, each with a score, screening notes, structured 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, not a mock-up.

The brief they were screened against

Role: Virtual Assistant · Band: $700–1,150/mo

Must-haves: inbox and calendar support for a US small-business owner, decides the routine without being chased, clean professional written English, a daily summary the owner can read in a minute

Nice to have: invoice chasing and light bookkeeping, Shopify order admin, Google Workspace and Slack

Scored by the same rubric the production screener runs on real applicants (support-va, claude-sonnet-4-6), on 2026-09-23. Nothing below was edited afterwards — including where it went against a candidate. The rubric and weights are published.

Kimberly A.

SCREEN 88/100

Philippines · asking $1,000

Screening notes

Strongest evidence: the work sample is the standout — it is operationally complete, written exactly as described (owner reads in under a minute), distinguishes DONE/DECIDED/FYI/NEED FROM YOU with precision, and contains a fraud-check detail (calling vendor on the number already on file, not the one in the email) that the question did NOT supply and that reflects genuine payment-security awareness; the $14,200→$2,870 AR reduction with a named mechanism (day-31 trigger vs. 'whenever someone remembers') and the 120-email/10-owner-sees-10 inbox triage ratio are the kind of specifics that cannot easily be fabricated. Scenario judgment is structured and prioritized correctly with no hedging; the supplier-invoice answer in particular layers fraud check, limit verification, and vendor communication in a sequence that suggests real muscle memory. Biggest concern: no Zendesk mentioned (role brief references 'Zendesk/Shopify class') — Gorgias is a legitimate Shopify-native equivalent and is arguably better evidence for this brief, so this is a minor flag not a disqualifier; spoken English is unassessed and for a US client-facing VA that gap in evidence matters. Verdict: strong hire for the search brief as written — calendar, inbox, daily summary, Shopify, light bookkeeping, and proactive autonomy are all evidenced with numbers and named tools; advance to interview with one spoken-English screen.

Experience

4 years as the only VA to the owner of a US home-fragrance brand on Shopify, about $900K a year with 6 staff. I run the inbox (around 120 emails a day, of which the owner sees about 10), a calendar of 20–25 meetings a week, and order admin: address changes, cancellations and refunds under $75 on my own call. I also took over invoice chasing: wholesale accounts more than 30 days overdue went from $14,200 to under $3,000 in five months, mostly because the reminder now goes out on day 31 instead of whenever someone remembers.

Scenario answer

My rule: anything that only needs information I already have, I decide. Anything that spends money beyond what's pre-approved, or changes a relationship, I get ready so the owner can decide it in ten seconds later. In order: 1. The supplier invoice, because it's the only one whose deadline is today. Before paying anything I check three things. Does it match the purchase order or the last few bills from this vendor? Are the bank details the same ones we've paid before? A 'please pay, and note our new bank details' follow-up is the classic fraud, so any change means I call the vendor on the number we already have, not the one in the email. And is it inside my limit? With my current owner that's $2,000 for existing suppliers. If all three pass, I pay it today the way we paid their last invoice, send the vendor the remittance, and it goes in my summary. If it's over the limit, I don't pay. I tell the vendor it's with the owner for approval and they'll have a payment date tomorrow morning, and I ask whether a late fee applies, so the owner decides with the real cost in front of them. 2. The client reschedule, because the client should hear back within the hour and tomorrow's good slots fill up. This doesn't need the owner. I pick two times the owner would take, for example 11:30 tomorrow or 10:00 Thursday, never over the Friday team meeting, and offer both. When the client picks, I move the event, keep the same Zoom link, and add a line to the invite so the owner sees why it moved. 3. The Slack question. It has already waited a day, so it gets answered today, not added to tomorrow. If the answer exists somewhere I can check (a shipping cut-off, where a file lives, what we told a customer last time), I answer it and link the source. If it's a decision, like a discount for a wholesale account, a day off or a policy change, I tell the team member it will be in front of the owner tonight and when they'll hear back. All three go in the end-of-day summary, split into what I did and the one thing I need from the owner.

Work sample

Subject: EOD Wed 7 Oct (1 thing needs you) 1. DONE: Moved Rachel (Northside Gifts, wholesale) from Thu 9:00 to Thu 11:30, as requested. Same Zoom link; the reason is in the invite. 2. DECIDED: Paid the jar supplier's invoice #20417, $1,684.00, due today. Matches PO 311, same bank details as August, under your $2,000 limit. Remittance sent. 3. DECIDED: Answered Tessa's Slack question from Tuesday: the last day for holiday wholesale orders is Fri Nov 13, per the calendar we set in September. Pinned in #ops so it doesn't come up again. 4. FYI: 46 orders shipped, 3 address changes, 1 refund ($38.00, cracked jar, photo on file). Wholesale overdue is $2,870, all under 45 days; reminders went out this morning. 5. NEED FROM YOU: Northside Gifts asked for net 60 instead of net 30 on their $4,200 reorder. I told Rachel we'd confirm by Friday. A yes or no is enough. Nothing else is waiting on you.

Agustina R.

SCREEN 82/100

Argentina · asking $1,150

Screening notes

Strongest evidence is the work sample, which is genuinely exceptional — it models exactly the one-yes/no daily summary the brief requires, uses real dollar figures ($18,450 in, $6,200 overdue, $1,340 supplies), names a crew lead, documents a complaint resolution with photos, and frames the upsell question with the owner's own prior pricing logic ($1,300 → $2,340 at 1.8×); this is the kind of artifact that is hard to fake and directly matches the brief's 'daily summary the owner can read in a minute' requirement. The scenario answer is structured and professional — the three-acknowledgment-before-solving approach, the bank-details phone-call tripwire on the invoice, and the Slack self-correction about WhatsApp habits all show real operational judgment rather than boilerplate. Experience specificity is strong: 41→27 days-to-collect is a named, numbered outcome; Jobber, QuickBooks Online, Bill.com, Calendly, and Zapier are all tool-level specifics consistent with a 35-person service business. The principal concern is salary: at $1,150 she sits $50 above the band's ceiling, and this role is customer-support/VA rather than the ops-heavy AR work where she is most evidenced — Zendesk and Shopify experience are absent and Slack is newly adopted, meaning the customer-support toolstack fit is weaker than the administrative fit; for the specific search brief (small-business owner inbox + calendar + light bookkeeping) she is a near-ideal match, but for the broader customer-support VA…

Experience

7 years in admin and operations. The last 4 as the remote assistant to the owner of a Miami commercial cleaning company (35 cleaners, about 60 client sites): I run the owner's inbox and calendar, crew schedule changes, and accounts receivable. I brought average days to collect from 41 to 27 by invoicing the day a job closes and phoning, in English or Spanish, on day 10. Before that I spent 3 years as front-office supervisor at a Buenos Aires hotel, which is where I learned to answer the angry email first.

Scenario answer

First minute: nobody waits in silence. I send three short replies before I solve anything. To the client: 'Of course. I'll send you two new times within the hour.' To the vendor: 'Thanks for the reminder. I'm checking invoice 4471 now and will come back to you today.' In the Slack thread: 'Sorry this sat since yesterday. I'm on it and will answer by noon.' Then I solve them by deadline. 1. The invoice, due today. The owner approves the week's bills every Monday in Bill.com. If this one is on the approved list, releasing it is routine, so I do it now and send the vendor the payment date. If it isn't on the list, it isn't routine, however small. I check it against the PO and our last payment to this vendor (same amount range, same bank details; a change in bank details means a phone call to the number we already have), then tell the vendor it's with the owner today and they'll have a date tomorrow morning. It becomes the one question in my end-of-day summary. 2. The reschedule, for tomorrow 9am. I decide this myself. I look at the owner's week, offer two slots that fit the rules we agreed (no calls before 9:30 on Mondays, Friday afternoons kept free for site visits), and when the client picks, I move the invite and keep the same meeting link. If it's a client the owner is negotiating with, I still move it, but I mention it in the summary so the owner isn't surprised. 3. The Slack question, for the full answer. If it's about something written down, like a site's cleaning checklist or a supply order, I answer it and link the source. If it's the owner's call, I say exactly that and when they'll get an answer, which is better than a second day of silence. Honest note: our crews use WhatsApp, so Slack is newer for me. I've learned to check the Threads view at the start and end of every day, because that's where a question like this one hides.

Work sample

Subject: Tue 13 Oct, end of day — one yes/no for you (item 5) 1. New client: the Coral Gables dental office signed. Evening cleaning starts Monday 19 Oct with Luis's crew. It's in Jobber and on the invoice schedule. 2. Complaint handled: the Brickell office client said the 12th-floor restrooms were missed Monday night. The crew lead confirmed it, they re-cleaned at 7am, and I sent the property manager photos. No credit given; it's their first complaint this year. 3. Payments: $18,450 came in today from four clients. Overdue past 30 days is now $6,200, across two clients. Both promised payment this week; I'll call Friday if it hasn't arrived. 4. Supplies: I placed the monthly restock with the usual supplier, $1,340, within $60 of September's order. Arrives Thursday. 5. For you: the Doral condo building wants to go from weekly to twice-weekly service. They pay $1,300 a month now. Last time you quoted twice-weekly at 1.8 times the weekly price, which would be $2,340 a month. OK to send that? Yes or no is enough.

Hazel D.

SCREEN 63/100

Philippines · asking $750

Screening notes

Strongest evidence is the work sample — it is concise, scannable, action-oriented, and uses a real real-estate context (Johnson file, lender follow-up, photographer invoice) that was not supplied by the question, suggesting genuine VA experience rather than fabricated content; sentence structure and grammar are clean throughout. Scenario judgment is procedurally sensible but thin: she correctly flags escalation to the owner, but offers no autonomous resolution path, no time-boxing, and no prioritisation rationale — the summary at day's end is described vaguely ('a message listing all three items') whereas the work sample shows she can execute a clean EOD brief, so the gap between the two is notable. Experience specifics are the biggest concern: two years of VA work is plausible and the real-estate context adds colour, but she names no metrics (volume of emails managed, calendar size, number of clients served), no client-management tools beyond Google Workspace/Calendly/Slack, and critically no Zendesk, Shopify, or inbox-triage tooling that both the role brief and this search's must-haves require; the call-centre year is mentioned but entirely undescribed. Verdict: a competent generalist VA with solid written English and a genuinely usable work sample, but she is inbox-and-calendar shaped rather than support-ticket shaped, lacks the specific toolstack, and her scenario answer defaults to 'ask the boss' rather than showing structured autonomous judgment — advances to a…

Experience

2 years as a general virtual assistant for two US clients, a real estate agent and a life coach. I manage their emails, schedule appointments in Google Calendar, do data entry, post on their social media and prepare simple reports. Before that I worked for 1 year as a customer service representative at a call centre in Davao. I am organised, reliable and a fast learner, and my clients say my communication is very clear.

Scenario answer

Since my employer is in meetings all day, I would handle each item carefully and make sure nothing is missed. First, the client who wants to reschedule. I would reply to the client right away to let them know I received their request, that my employer is in meetings today, and that I will confirm a new time as soon as possible. I would check the calendar for open slots so I can suggest them to my employer. Second, the supplier invoice. I would reply to the vendor to thank them for the reminder and let them know the invoice has been forwarded for approval. I would also check that the amount is the same as their previous invoices. Since it involves payment, I would wait for my employer to approve it before anything is paid, because I do not want to make a mistake with money. Third, the Slack question. I would reply to the team member and let them know I will check with our employer and get back to them. At the end of the day I would send my employer a message listing all three items so they can decide quickly when their meetings are finished. I believe good communication is very important so that everyone knows what is happening.

Work sample

Hi [Owner], Here is my summary for today: 1. I replied to the new emails in the inbox and flagged the important ones for you to read. 2. I scheduled two showings for tomorrow afternoon and updated your Google Calendar. 3. I posted the new listing on Facebook and Instagram using the photographer's photos. 4. I followed up with the lender about the Johnson file, but they have not replied yet. I will follow up again tomorrow morning. 5. I need your approval on the photographer's invoice so I can send the payment. Please let me know if you have any questions or if there is anything else you need me to do. Thank you!

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