Jean Plasabas – Executive Assistant

Being a Virtual Assistant has always been my dream job. Aside from a well-compensated salary, I really love learning new things. So, for the past few years, I’ve been seeking a Virtual Assistant job. But with a lack of experience, I haven’t found any.

So, I decided to go back to school and studied Computer Programming. After graduation, I decided to go back to seeking VA work. But for the same reason a few years back, I wasn’t lucky enough to land a job. Some employers valued the experience so much.

II decided to stop pursuing my VA dreams. I worked for a manufacturing company. I was happy and loved my work. Until I got pregnant with my third child. I had 105 days of maternity leave. I was thinking of ways to earn money at home.

I bought a second-hand computer to start up. When I got an internet connection, I started seeking through Facebook jobs some work-from-home jobs. But most of the job posts are for Customer Service Representative. I tried my luck, got interviewed, but because of my lack of fluency in English, I wasn’t hired.

After my maternity leave, My company called me to go back to work. But I had a problem. My mother is too old to take care of my baby. My husband is also working and my 2 children are not responsible enough to take care of their younger brother. So, I had to quit my job.

I pursued seeking a home-based job to help my husband feed our family. I joined some Facebook groups that can help me land a job. I watched youtube tutorials just to gain knowledge of some VA skills. I created my Upwork account and online jobs.com account. That’s where I found my first client.

My client messaged me that he needed me for his project. He invited me for an interview. I gave it a try and luckily, I was hired. But the problem was when the project was done. He didn’t pay me. But for me, it’s okay since I gained experience from him.

I used that experience to find a new job. After a month, some job-hiring posts caught my attention. It said that they are looking for a professional data/ web scraper. Even though I don’t have experience with that, I emailed the person who posted the job. I told her that I am interested. She answered my email with some instructions.

They want me to obtain some data of Criminal and Immigration Lawyer from Martindale.com and the Avvo.com website. I gave them my gathered information. After three days, they messaged me that they were impressed with my work. They interviewed me via Zoom. Sadly, I didn’t get the project because I don’t have a Web Scraper.

I made that a motivation to learn something new. With the help of Google and Youtube, I discovered new skills. At the moment I know how to use Data Scraping like Octoparse and web scraper. That’s also the reason why I learned to use CRM software like Hub spot and Zoho. CRM management is very valuable to Data Scraping and Data Collection jobs.

With my newly learned skills and my experience in Data Scraping, I decided to try my luck as an Upwork Freelancer. I was hired to do some Data Collection projects. I gathered data for a dentist. That was my first project for Upwork. A month after my first freelancing project at Upwork, I was hired by Ring Virtual to do some research and copy-paste jobs for them.

I realize that being a VA is not only about decisions. It is also about how motivated you are to acquire new talent and skills. And how committed you are to become a VA.

There’s a certain amount of luck in my whole journey, but more than that, it has been consistent work – research, learning, talking, interviewing, failing, some great wins, some mistakes, some serious anxiety, and some real satisfaction.

The best part is, I am absolutely loving it and the stress from my employed job has gone. Yes, there’s a different kind of stress but nothing like what it has been. It’s also such a fabulous feeling when someone comes to you and wants you for what you can do for them

The fact that I can kiss my children and take my one-year-old son and my future dreams is my powerful motivation.

For a copy of Jean’s resume please click here.