Opportunities Opening Up for Filipino Workers Via VA Jobs

Better opportunities await Filipinos going into virtual assistant (VA) jobs for Australian clients.

“There is a large demand for VAs in Australia,” Says Linh Podetti, founder and director of Outsourcing Angel, a VA recruitment company based in Australia.

Virtual assistants are independent contractor providing administrative services to clients while operating outside the client office. Many are usually engaged in secretarial or office management work.

Podetti said that many small companies in Australia are looking to expand and the cheaper way is to look for outsourced VAs.

She said many of the VAs are engaged in marketing while some are into accounting, bookkeeping, and graphics.

The company Outsourcing Angel helps recruit potential VAs and matches them with clients. It also trains VA prospects and orients the companies hiring the VAs.

It has employed 60 Filipino virtual assistants with 12 VAs in Davao City.

“We are looking for people who are definitely, honest, friendly, love what they do, hardworking and who do not look at money before work,” Podetti said.

She said the VA job is an equal opportunity employment, as it doesn’t discriminate age, sex or disabilities.

“We have VAs who are 50 and 60 years old,” Podetti said. “Some of the VAs started at around 18 and 19 years old.”

A VA for an Australian client earns around Aus$ 600 (P22,800) to Aus$ 1,500 (P57,000).

VAs don’t have fixed working time, depending on the client’s package. Some clients can have 10 hours a week, 20 hours a week or 40 hours a week.

The company can also adapt to the work schedule of the VA.

Among the advantages of VAs are flexible working time, the ability to work anywhere.

“If you are a mother, if your kid got sick you don’t have to seek the permission of your boss to be absent from work. Because you can work at home,” Podetti said.

Aside from having laptops or computers the minimum internet speed for a VA is about 2 mbps. The software used in VA work is supplied by the client.

“Our goal right now is not just to get more VAs for us we just try to help more people become VAs and encourage you to be a VA,” Podetti said. (PIA/RGA)