When I began my research into the world of Virtual Personal Assistants I was surprised to discover that in fact they are not what I first envisaged. In my own head, it was something that had been developed into some kind of AI Robot much like the robots featured in the recent TV show ‘Humans’. However from the first article I found from The Wall Street Journal quickly crushed this sci-fi dream of mine and these Virtual Personal Assistants were in fact people potentially from over seas carrying out your personal chores across the internet. I also assumed that this type of service was small when in fact there are several companies which focus on this job across the globe: JH Virtual Assistant (http://www.jhvirtualassistant.co.uk) and TimeEtc (http://www.timeetc.co.uk/be-a-virtual-assistant/) are just two examples.
I then began to wonder whether this was the future. As a student and not a business woman in the city I find it hard to imagine having any kind of personal assistant let alone a complete stranger half way across the world from me having access to personal details to my life. In the article written by Alina Dizik, she set out tasks ranging from health insurance issues and queries to finding a hotel to stay in across the 4th of July period specifically in Maine, USA (http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704198004575310710174207000).
I would argue that this form of job role raises several privacy and protection issues and potentially too many for it to become a trend in the business world, not to mention some what unnecessary. With people being employed across the world to manage the chores of others, it potentially limits the needs for the massive numbers of personal assistants across the country; the USA for example. It has also been said that the ‘competition is fierce’ for these roles as many individuals share the same skills and experiences as the next personal assistant.
However, I also understand from my research that is in fact economically beneficial to its users and the personal assistants as they no longer are needed to commute into the city or wherever their place of work is. This method enables people who have been in the role of personal assistants to do the same job from the comfort of their own home. With technologies such as email, Skype and other internet related resources, Virtual Personal Assistants have been more accessible than ever but are still a reasonably new concept in the UK.
Are there any Virtual Personal Assistants out there that could share their experiences?
K.
Coleman, A., 2015. How to set up a home-based virtual assistant business. The Guardian. April 23rd 2015. [online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2013/nov/25/virtual-assistant-small-business (Accessed 21 November 2015).
Dizik, A., 2010. Virtual Gofers Tackle Personal To-Do Lists. The Wall Street Journal. June 17th 2010. [online] Available at: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704198004575310710174207000 (Accessed 21st November 2015).
I then began to wonder whether this was the future. As a student and not a business woman in the city I find it hard to imagine having any kind of personal assistant let alone a complete stranger half way across the world from me having access to personal details to my life. In the article written by Alina Dizik, she set out tasks ranging from health insurance issues and queries to finding a hotel to stay in across the 4th of July period specifically in Maine, USA (http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704198004575310710174207000).
I would argue that this form of job role raises several privacy and protection issues and potentially too many for it to become a trend in the business world, not to mention some what unnecessary. With people being employed across the world to manage the chores of others, it potentially limits the needs for the massive numbers of personal assistants across the country; the USA for example. It has also been said that the ‘competition is fierce’ for these roles as many individuals share the same skills and experiences as the next personal assistant.
However, I also understand from my research that is in fact economically beneficial to its users and the personal assistants as they no longer are needed to commute into the city or wherever their place of work is. This method enables people who have been in the role of personal assistants to do the same job from the comfort of their own home. With technologies such as email, Skype and other internet related resources, Virtual Personal Assistants have been more accessible than ever but are still a reasonably new concept in the UK.
Are there any Virtual Personal Assistants out there that could share their experiences?
K.
Coleman, A., 2015. How to set up a home-based virtual assistant business. The Guardian. April 23rd 2015. [online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2013/nov/25/virtual-assistant-small-business (Accessed 21 November 2015).
Dizik, A., 2010. Virtual Gofers Tackle Personal To-Do Lists. The Wall Street Journal. June 17th 2010. [online] Available at: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704198004575310710174207000 (Accessed 21st November 2015).