By Laura Vidal, Operations Manager at Asistente Virtual OK
To protect the privacy of the people involved, some names and identifying details in this story have been changed.
Some stories, even if they happened recently, stay with you because they confirm something years of experience had already been teaching you.
This is one of them.
Andrés runs an insurance company in the United States and has been a client of Asistente Virtual OK for about six months. When he started with us, he needed a Technical Grade Plus virtual assistant who could support him across the different activities of his operation.
From the start, we knew we had to find someone versatile, with a solid foundation and, ideally, previous experience in insurance.
Of course, anyone joining a company needs to be trained, especially during the first 30 days with your virtual assistant. Every client has their own processes, tools, priorities and ways of working. Still, when the assistant already knows the industry and understands how it works, the path usually becomes much easier.
We began the search, and Andrés interviewed several candidates. They all had interesting qualities, but none of them quite convinced him.
Until Idaly came along.
There was something about her
This November, I’ll mark eight years at Asistente Virtual OK. After so much time supporting hiring processes, placements, replacements and remote teams, I’ve learned that a résumé doesn’t always tell the whole story.
Neither does an interview.
Some people come across wonderfully on a video call but can’t sustain that same confidence in their day-to-day work. The opposite also happens: candidates who may not give the most impressive interview but have the attitude, commitment and potential to become indispensable to a company. That’s why, even with the right questions to ask your virtual assistant, it’s worth looking beyond the conversation.
With the Human Resources team, we’ve reviewed so many profiles and supported so many processes that, at times, it feels like we can read each other’s minds. We’ve learned to recognize certain signs: who truly wants to learn, who will commit to the client, who is willing to go the extra mile and who might come to feel the business as their own.
That’s exactly what we saw in Idaly.
I don’t know how else to explain it: we knew it was her.
We knew it in our bones.
Andrés had already ruled her out
The curious thing about this story is that Andrés hadn’t considered her his first choice. In fact, he had practically ruled her out already.
I was surprised he couldn’t see the potential we were seeing. So I spoke with him and asked him to reconsider her.
I kept telling him:
«Andrés, don’t rule her out yet.»
I asked him again why he didn’t want to move forward with her and explained what we had identified from Human Resources and Operations. I wasn’t trying to pressure him or decide for him, because the final decision always belongs to the client. My responsibility was to give him an honest recommendation, based on experience and on what we already knew about the profile.
It wasn’t immediate. I have to admit it took some convincing.
But in the end, he decided to give her the chance.
Before the first month was over, everything had changed
We didn’t have to wait long to know we had made a good decision.
Before the end of her first month, Andrés was already very happy with Idaly’s work. He had found in her exactly what he needed: knowledge, willingness, adaptability and a genuine desire to get involved in the operation.
The candidate who had nearly been left out of the process turned out to be the right person.
Andrés was surprised at how close he had come to overlooking her profile. He was also grateful he had listened to our recommendation. Today he remains satisfied with her work and, every time we talk about the service, he acknowledges again that choosing Idaly was an excellent decision.
For us, it’s also an enormous source of satisfaction.
Not because we want to say «we were right,» but because we know what a well-given opportunity can mean. Behind every profile is a person who wants to show what they can do, and behind every hire is a client who needs to feel confident in their decision.
Our job, very often, is to help build that bridge.
Experience also becomes intuition
When you’ve spent years working with people, you start to develop a particular intuition. But that intuition doesn’t appear by chance.
It’s built from hundreds of interviews, conversations, follow-ups, successes and also mistakes. It comes from watching how people behave after they’re hired, how they take a correction, how they respond under pressure and how they grow when someone trusts them.
That doesn’t mean we’ll always be right or that every story will end the same way. Every process is different, and no hiring decision comes with absolute guarantees.
Idaly’s case was special.
It was one of those moments when experience allowed us to see something that wasn’t so obvious during the interview. We identified a combination of attitude, preparation and potential that matched what Andrés needed, even though he couldn’t see it at first.
And that’s also part of the value of having support during the hiring process.
It’s not simply about receiving résumés and choosing the person who expresses themselves best. It’s about analyzing the profile, understanding the operation, listening to the client and recognizing which candidate could truly adapt to their needs.
Sometimes the best decision needs a second look
An interview is just a snapshot of a moment.
Nerves, personality or communication style can keep someone from showing their full potential right away. That’s why, before ruling out a profile, it’s worth looking a little further:
- Do they have the necessary experience?
- Do they show a willingness to learn?
- Could their way of working fit the company?
- Is there something in their attitude that doesn’t show up on their résumé?
- Does the doubt come from a real mismatch or simply from a first impression?
Today, six months later, Andrés has a stable service, and Idaly keeps showing why we believed in her from the start.
This story reminds me that selecting talent also means learning to see what isn’t fully visible yet. Sometimes the right person isn’t the most obvious one or the one who makes the strongest first impression.
Sometimes, it’s the one who just needs someone to say:
«Don’t rule her out yet.»
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