How To Become A Personal Assistant: Your Ultimate Guide

You're sitting at your desk at work, dreading doing the same thing day after day. So you start thinking about other careers that aren't so monotonous. You head to the break room and look up how to become a personal assistant.

Personal assistants must have this glamorous lifestyle filled with travel and luxury. One day, you're in New York, and the next, you're on a plane to Paris. Working with the rich and famous has to have some perks, right?

While some personal assistants travel a lot, not all of them do. Whether you work for a celebrity or an average person, life as a personal assistant is anything but monotonous.

If you want a job or career filled with routine, then you probably shouldn't become a personal assistant. However, maybe you love doing something different each day. If that's the case, then you need to know how to become a personal assistant.

The life of a personal assistant can be hectic. Each client you work with will have different needs. And those needs will change daily.

Part of learning how to become a personal assistant is understanding what they do. A personal assistant is someone who can help you with anything you need.

Whether you need full-time help or just a few hours of support per week, you might want to hire a personal assistant. If you like helping people with their daily lives, then you should learn how to become a personal assistant.

Personal assistants run errands for clients. They can also help with a client's professional tasks like emailing or scheduling appointments.

The sky's the limit when it comes to a personal assistant's responsibilities.

Another important part of any career is the schedule. Some jobs are strictly Monday through Friday during regular business hours. If you work as a personal assistant for a business executive, your schedule might be similar.

But depending on the work you do and the clients you have, you will probably have to work evenings and weekends. If there's a schedule you prefer, you can target your job search to fit your needs.

What Makes A Good Personal Assistant?

If you want to know how to become a personal assistant, you should also have a few essential skills or qualities.

First, you have to be flexible. Clients might need you to change something at the last minute. They might realize they're out of groceries, so you have to run to the store.

Or perhaps they need something done outside of your work schedule. While you should definitely have boundaries, you also need to do what you can to please your client or boss.

Next, you have to like working with people. It sounds obvious, but as a personal assistant, you'll be working very closely with your client or boss. If you don't like working with people, you probably won't enjoy working as a personal assistant.

Finally, you have to be organized. Some people hire personal assistants because they themselves aren't organized. Clients may throw things at you willy nilly, and you have to be able to keep track of everything.

To many people, a personal assistant seems like a pipe dream. "Only super-rich people hire personal assistants."

While tons of wealthy people have personal assistants, even us normal people could sometimes use some help.

Anyone who's busy or overwhelmed could benefit from a personal assistant. Yes, anyone.

Who Hires Personal Assistants?

Anyone with a busy schedule or a long list of errands and tasks could hire a personal assistant. If you've ever hired help with your lawn, housekeeping, or childcare, you've hired a specific type of personal assistant.

Mowers, housekeepers, and babysitters all help you in some way. They're just each a specific type of personal assistant than a general assistant.

Do Regular People Really Need Personal Assistants?

It may seem like personal assistants only work with the rich and famous. But even regular people can hire an assistant.

A typical adult may not need full-time help, but they could hire a personal assistant for one or two days per week. Plenty of people might want help running errands like grocery shopping or to pick up dry cleaning.

So while the full-time gigs are probably going to be with someone rich, you can find part-time work just about anywhere.

If you want to help ​​pe​​ople live their best lives, you should learn how to become a personal assistant. Luckily, this is one career that doesn't require much special training.

No two personal assistant jobs are exactly the same. Some might focus more on errands, while others will be more administratively focused.

If you're ready to build a fulfilling career helping people with their daily lives, you should learn how to become a personal assistant.

Do Your Homework

Before you set off on any career path, you should learn about what you're getting yourself into. Working as a personal assistant isn't easy. Plus, there are tons of specific paths you can take as a personal assistant.

Maybe you want to work with families that have kids. Or perhaps you prefer to work with business people with no kids. You could also work in a specific neighborhood.

To learn about how to become a personal assistant, you can read various books about the career. Some books focus on the career aspect.

Others focus on working as an assistant as well as hiring one. That can be helpful if you want to know what a client might be thinking.

If you know anyone working as a personal assistant, you can also talk to them about their personal experience. Of course, no two personal assistant jobs are the same. But it can be nice to get some insight from someone who's been there, done that.

Lastly, you should look at your local market for personal assistants. Figure out how many people work as assistants and what they do.

Your area might have a greater need for assistance with errands. On the other hand, there might be a greater need for help with scheduling appointments or sending mail or email.

Understand The Job Requirements

We've already mentioned that each personal assistant job is going to be unique. No two clients have the same exact schedule. Every client has different things they need help with.

But there are a few requirements that will help you land your first personal assistant job.

Of course, you need to work well with people. If you have any customer service experience, that's great. Or maybe you've worked as a teacher.

You also need to be good at solving problems. Plenty of high school and college classes involve solving problems. But you need to be able to solve problems as they come up.

Maybe the store is out of your client's favorite shampoo. In that case, you need to decide if you should go to another store or buy a similar shampoo.

Before you apply for a personal assistant job, be sure to read the description. Not only will that show that you can read and follow directions, but it will tell you the specifics of the job.

Just because you've worked one personal assistant job doesn't mean that you're going to like or want to work another.

Consider Virtual Assisting

If your area doesn't have much of a need for personal assistants, consider working as a virtual ​​assistant. You can help people all over the world. However, you are limited to what you can do on a computer.

Virtual assistants typically don't run errands, unless a client needs to order something online. As a virtual assistant, you'll probably do a lot of administrative work like scheduling or emailing.

This is a great way to start working as a personal assistant, even while you still have another job.

Tell People

Once you know how to become a personal assistant, it's time to do it. Now's the time to tell people that you're looking for work.

You can start by telling family, friends, and neighbors. If you want to network further, you can ask stores if you can put up a poster showcasing your services. Websites like Nextd​​oor allow you to connect with people in your area.

Get the word out to as many people as possible, and that will help you get leads more quickly and easily.

Start Working

Once you land your first gig, congratulations! You're now a personal assistant.

Becoming a personal assistant isn't easy, so be sure to celebrate your accomplishment. You now know how to become a personal assistant.

After you start your career as a personal assistant, you have to keep learning. The world is changing, and you have to stay on top of things to help your clients.

Your client's needs and schedule will probably change, too. So you'll have to adapt to those needs. As a personal assistant, it's your job to always be willing to help your client in any way you can.

What has you interested in becoming a personal assistant? Tell us your story in the comments!