Executive Assistant
Job description, salary, sourcing, 15 interview questions and a 30/60/90 plan to hire an Executive Assistant in a German SMB.
At a glance
- Time to fill40–65 days
- Experience3–8 years
How to hire an Executive Assistant for your SMB
Before you write the job posting, settle three framing questions. They determine which profile you really need and help you avoid the most common scope mistakes at German SMBs and scale-ups.
Question 1: Executive assistance, office management or board secretariat? The three roles overlap in small structures but are not equivalent. The Office Manager steers the entire office for 20-100 employees: suppliers, premises, travel costs, internal events. The Executive Assistant mainly supports one or two C-level executives with calendar, travel, confidential matters, supervisory-board preparation and strategic correspondence. The board secretariat is a function in its own right in larger structures, focused on supervisory-board support, compliance and legal documentation. Blending the three in one ad attracts poorly matched applications. Specify the function already in the title: Executive Assistant (m/w/d), not generic assistance or a versatile office-and-administration profile, which says nothing.
Question 2: How many C-level are supported, and in what setup? An executive assistance who supports a sole CEO of a stable Mittelstand company works differently from someone who coordinates two C-level (CEO and COO, or CEO and CFO) in an international scale-up with a supervisory board and investors. The second configuration requires at least 5 years of experience in a comparable setup and a mature protective posture toward management. List explicitly: the number of people supported, the presence of a supervisory board, the international dimension, M&A or fundraising activity, confidential special matters.
Question 3: What writing requirements? The role writes constantly: briefing memos to the supervisory board, draft replies to external law firms, sensitive emails on management’s behalf, minutes. If these writing requirements are central, you have to include the strategic written task in the selection process and calibrate the salary at the top end of the range. If the role is more logistically driven (travel, calendar, expenses, less correspondence), the profile sits closer to the median.
If the three answers converge on a full-time Executive Assistant for an SMB or scale-up with an active management agenda (and not an Office Manager or a pure board secretary), see the ready-to-use template on the Job description tab.
Where to source this role
LinkedIn
€200-400 / month (Job Slots) plus Recruiter LiteThe strongest channel for Executive Assistants at scale-ups and in the urban Mittelstand (Berlin, Munich, Hamburg). Active sourcing via InMails delivers a markedly better signal than job posts alone, because strong profiles rarely search actively but respond to direct outreach from a managing director or an internal recruiter. Expect 50-70 % of qualified applications via LinkedIn when sourcing is run actively.
XING
ProJobs from €195 / monthStill relevant for Executive Assistants in the classic Mittelstand (mechanical engineering, industry, law firms, family offices) and for profiles with more than 8 years of experience. Especially in NRW, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. Job posts on XING often produce a better-fitting set of applications for an executive assistance role in the traditional Mittelstand than LinkedIn.
Page Personnel Office Team
Success fee 20-25 % of the annual fixed salaryA specialized recruitment agency with its own Office Team division (executive assistance, office management, commercial administration). Higher fee costs than a classic job post (typically 20-25 % of the annual fixed salary), but a very strong signal for demanding profiles: a pre-qualified shortlist within 2-3 weeks. Worth it when the role directly supports a confidential C-level or internal HR has no time for active sourcing. Robert Half Office Team covers a comparable space.
Referrals (internal and management network)
Internal referral program, bonus €1,000-2,000 on hireFor Executive Assistants, the personal network of the hiring managing director or other C-level executives is the underrated top channel. A direct referral pre-filters confidentiality, presence and culture fit and shortens the process by 2-4 weeks. Activate the network explicitly: a personal call from management to 10-15 comparable managing directors usually delivers 2-3 qualified profiles within two weeks.