Executive Assistant
Frequently asked questions about hiring for the Executive Assistant role, plus the mistakes that most often derail it.
Common hiring mistakes for this role
Four recurring traps when recruiting an executive assistance at German SMBs and scale-ups. The first three lead to a mis-hire, the fourth to under-hiring.
Confusing executive assistance with office management
The Office Manager steers the entire office for 20-100 employees: suppliers, premises, administration, 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 areas overlap in smaller structures but are not equivalent. A combined ad attracts either an Office Manager who is lost on supervisory-board minutes, or an Executive Assistant who does not want to carry supplier management. Frame the scope explicitly in the ad title and decide which of the two functions leads.
Not testing writing quality
Many recruitments rely on two classic conversations and never actively test writing quality. In practice the executive assistance writes constantly: briefing memos, supervisory-board minutes, draft replies to law firms, sensitive emails on management's behalf. A person who is eloquent in conversation but writes badly will damage management's external image. The strategic written task in stage 3 is the only reliable filter. Skipping it means hiring blind on a central requirement.
Not actively testing discretion
Discretion is not measurable on the CV and is often only asked about abstractly in a classic conversation (I can handle confidential matters). That is not enough. The situational question about the external law firm and the behavioral question about confidential information are the two reliable filters. Anyone who names concrete names, figures or matters from previous mandates in the interview has already breached the confidentiality rule; that is disqualifying. Add this test explicitly to the interview guide and communicate it to all interviewers.
Hiring too junior for a complex setup
An executive assistance who supports a sole CEO of a stable Mittelstand company is a different role from someone who coordinates two C-level in an international scale-up with a supervisory board, investors and M&A activity. The second role requires at least 5 years of experience in a comparable configuration and a mature protective posture toward management. A junior hire in this context produces stress on both sides and a move within 12 months. When the setup is complex, pay the upper corridor (60-68 k€) for an experienced profile, instead of 42-48 k€ for a junior profile who cannot hold the position.