As a man starting in the VA industry I would like to know what the established majority (Ladies) sees as our strengths and what we may need to overcome. I personally have worked in the daycare and nurse assisting fields before. They seemed to be very excepting fields for dedicated rookies!
Hi John, you know I don't really see any issues for men joining the VA industry...of course, I'm not a man, but there are actually more than a few (male VAs) doing quite well.
I'd have to be pretty darn sexist to find a difference between the way a man and a woman would provide VA services - I think the thing to focus on is not your being a guy but how to market your skills - that's the bottom line for the client and it's going to be the botton line for your practice.
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I wish you all the best and I don't believe this industry is genderized. If you perform a magnificent job for your clients I don't believe there will be any issues.
About 15 years ago, I worked with a male secretary. He was an excellent support person. I enjoyed working with him and he didn't have any problems in the role.
I tell my son in choosing his career to do what makes him feel happy; because if you aren't happy with what you are doing it will effect the rest of your life. Life is always too short to be unhappy.
Good luck and I hope you are happy in what you have decided to do.
Thankyou for the feed back. It is good to know their is such a positive and cooperative attitude in the industry. This is a great forum. I have had prospective customers who did not understand the concept of virtual assisting or male secretaries, it made me a little worried. Thanks for the encouragement.
I can understand that a percentage of your potential clients might be interested or even surprised to learn that you're a man but with the internet age opening the doors to so many individual reinventions I'm certain that the same applies to the administrative service industry too...
You could even turn the whole question in on itself and choose to use it to your advantage - build your company name and marketing plan around the concept!
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The entertaining thing (to me, anyway!) is that before women entered the workforce ALL secretaries were male!
I have worked with many male office support personnel and have every confidence that you will do just fine.
I agree that you should use the "reverse-gender" concept as a selling point "understand working in a man's world" etc. (hope that didn't sound too sexist )
Good to see Lily's comment here. I used to give presentations on the history of how things have changed and developed over the years in the secretarial roles and yes, men were definitely in that role first - women were considered not to have a strong enough constitution to work on a typewriter all day. How about that?
I think John you might have a distinctive advantage in that men are usually considered to have more technical knowledge than women. Why that perception I don't fully know, but it may well be advantageous for you - depending on the services you choose to provide.
I have always been the errand runner and clerk for my business's and many of my employers. Even so I never researched the history of secretaries. Thank you for the information.
Men starting in the VA industry?
- I think the thing to focus on is not your being a guy but how to market your skills - that's the bottom line for the client and it's going to be the botton line for your practice.
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Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
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