What is a virtual office assistant?

A virtual office assistant is a remote contractor who typically handles the essential office administrative tasks that otherwise would be dealt with by a traditional administrative assistant. As a virtual assistant or VA, you primarily work from home, using your home office setup for remote work duties, including placing and taking telephone calls, typing documents, sending and forwarding emails, scheduling appointments, and managing social media profiles. In this role, you should be able to handle a wide variety of tasks so that your employers can focus on other responsibilities. However, you may also choose to market yourself as a specialist in a particular skill or area, in which case your duties would align more so with the industry or field you work in.