Where should I post a VA job description?

OnlineJobs.ph for the Philippines, Upwork for a global pool, and JobStreet or LinkedIn for regional reach. Every marketplace still leaves the screening, testing, and reference checks to you — budget 20 to 40 hours for a proper cycle, or use a placement service that has done it already.

What's a reasonable trial period for a new VA?

Two to four weeks of paid trial on real tasks. Unpaid trials filter out exactly the professional candidates you want, and one-week trials are too short to see consistency. Define the evaluation criteria in writing before the trial starts.

Why do I keep getting bot and copy-paste applications?

Generic titles and no filtering mechanism make your listing a target for mass-apply tools. The embedded-instruction trick defeats most automation, and scenario questions defeat the rest — a bot can paste a CV, but it can't reason through your refund policy.

Hiring

How to write a VA job description that attracts the right candidates

Post a generic 'Virtual Assistant needed' listing and 400 applications arrive in a week — nearly all of them copy-pasted, many of them bots, and the two good candidates buried somewhere in the middle.

The fix isn't a better job board. It's a job description engineered to make the right people apply and the wrong people filter themselves out. Three changes do most of the work.

1Define the actual workflow, not a title

'General VA' attracts generalists who can sort of do everything. A specific workflow attracts people who've done your exact work before.

Use the specific role in the title: 'Shopify Customer Service VA' or 'Legal Intake Assistant', never 'Virtual Assistant'.
Describe a typical day in five to eight concrete lines — the tickets, the tools, the volumes.
State the tool stack, the shift hours in your timezone, and the communication cadence you expect. Ambiguity here creates mismatched expectations later.

2Build in a self-filtering application task

One embedded instruction eliminates the copy-paste majority before you read a single application.

Bury a micro-instruction in the posting: 'Use the subject line: Green Apple — Shopify VA'. Applications without it get auto-archived, which typically removes 70–80% instantly.
Add two or three scenario questions from real situations: 'A customer demands a refund outside policy. Walk me through your reply.' Judgment shows immediately.
Ask for one specific past example, not a skills list: 'Describe a process you documented and handed to someone else.'

3Be transparent about metrics, money, and the trial

Vagueness about pay and expectations doesn't create negotiating leverage — it costs you the professional candidates who won't waste time on it.

State how performance gets measured: response-time SLAs, error rates, throughput. Strong candidates find clear metrics attractive, not threatening.
Publish the rate range and payment schedule. Listings with visible rates draw applicants dramatically faster and better-matched.
Describe the trial period honestly: length, evaluation criteria, and what full engagement looks like after.

The short version

Name the specific workflow, embed a filtering instruction, and publish the metrics and money. Those three changes turn 400 unreadable applications into 30 real ones with the strong candidates visible — or skip the posting cycle entirely and have a vetted match briefed on your business inside a week.

Common questions

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