I often talk about how to excel in an interview situation and nail that top job. But what if the shoe’s on the other foot and you’re recruiting a PA for a senior position? How do you decide who’s right for the role?
You have many great CVs in front of you and it’s quite easy to pick off people who’ve got the experience that matches your brief. However, the next and most difficult part is the personality. Once you start interviewing it's down to who you would and could work with and, of course, who the manager would get along with – and that's where it starts to get difficult. You know the manager's former PA, they got on really well and had a long and happy relationship – until she left the company.
Now, should you try and recreate that, and find someone with a personality matching that former PA? You could get bogged down attempting to clone a personality, making the task of finding the right PA very difficult. Or you could select candidates with a blend of different personalities and appropriate skills and let your manager make the decision on who he or she would get on with best. Don't worry about trying to recreate a previous relationship. With a every new PA comes a different personality which could lead to a totally new take on a role, and an even better relationship could blossom.