Published: September 24, 2026

A useful work sample gives a candidate enough context to show how they approach the actual job. A bad one tests whether they can guess what the hiring manager had in mind. The difference is usually in the brief.

For virtual assistant roles, the temptation is to hand over a real backlog and call it an assessment. That creates several problems. The task may produce free commercial work, expose customer information, reward candidates who happen to know the company already, and take far longer than advertised. A fair brief uses a small, controlled exercise tied to one or two essential duties.

Decide what one exercise can prove

Start with a narrow question. Can the candidate organize competing requests using a written priority rule? Can they draft a follow-up from supplied facts without adding promises? Can they reconcile a short tracker and flag records that cannot be verified?

Do not ask one exercise to measure writing, research, spreadsheet skill, judgment, speed, tool knowledge, and cultural fit at the same time. When the output is weak, the team will not know which capability failed. Choose the duty that matters for the hiring decision and define the evidence it should produce.

For an administrative assistant, a 45-minute fictional meeting-pack task might test source use, sequencing, and exception handling. Give the candidate a sample agenda, attendee list, three scheduling constraints, and a clear deliverable. One conflict should require escalation. The exercise then shows whether the candidate notices the conflict and routes it rather than silently choosing a winner.

Use fictional or properly controlled inputs

Create names, organizations, account numbers, and messages for the assessment. Do not paste a live inbox thread into a candidate packet. Redaction can work, but only if hidden comments, file properties, links, formulas, and revision history are checked as well as visible text.

The Federal Trade Commission advises businesses to understand what personal information they hold, keep only what they need, protect it, and dispose of it securely. Candidate exercises should follow the same discipline. The company needs the assessment output and scoring evidence, not a permanent collection of every draft and screen recording.

Tell candidates how their submission will be used, who will review it, and when it will be deleted under the applicable retention process. Restrict access to the hiring team. If the task uses an external platform, confirm its data treatment before requiring a candidate to create an account.

Write instructions that expose judgment, not ambiguity

The brief should state the business context, requested outcome, supplied sources, allowed tools, time box, output format, deadline, and contact for clarification. It should also name actions that are outside the exercise.

For example, a candidate may draft three replies from an approved policy excerpt but may not send them, search for real customer details, or invent missing terms. If a source conflict appears, the expected behavior is to flag it in the deliverable. That boundary lets the team assess judgment without tricking the candidate.

Questions should be allowed. In many assistant roles, recognizing missing information is part of competent work. Decide in advance how questions affect scoring. A candidate who asks for the current template after the brief references one should not be marked down for failing to guess.

Set an honest time limit

Test the exercise internally with someone who understands the role and someone who does not. Include time to read, open files, interpret instructions, complete the output, and submit it. A manager who can do the task in 20 minutes after years inside the company has not proved that a candidate can fairly do it in 20 minutes.

State whether the limit is a strict cutoff or an estimate. If speed is not the main capability, avoid turning minor timing differences into a hidden ranking. Candidates may use assistive technology, have different hardware, or need an approved accommodation. Provide an authorized route for accommodation requests without asking the coordinator to collect medical information.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission discusses selection procedures and their relationship to employment discrimination law. Employers should use qualified advisers to review the process for the relevant jurisdiction and arrangement. Applying the same poorly designed test to everyone does not make it fair or job-related.

Build the scoring guide before sending the task

Write rating anchors against observable evidence. For a meeting-pack exercise, the criteria might include correct source use, handling of the schedule conflict, completeness of the agenda, and clarity of the handoff note. Define what meets the standard and what constitutes a material error.

Keep presentation preferences separate from required accuracy. A candidate should not lose points because they chose a plain layout when the brief did not request design work. Likewise, polished formatting should not conceal a changed date or missing attendee.

Have two reviewers score sample outputs before using the brief. If they disagree, revise the criterion or example. Do not wait until a real candidate is under review to decide what "good judgment" means.

Avoid free-work assessments

The output should not be usable as unpaid production work. Use invented records, expired scenarios, or a clearly isolated exercise. If a longer paid trial is appropriate and lawful for the arrangement, define compensation, ownership, access, supervision, and limits separately with responsible advisers.

A request to research actual prospects, clean a live customer database, write publishable campaign copy, or solve an unresolved operating problem benefits the company directly. Calling it a test does not remove that concern. A small fictional case usually produces cleaner hiring evidence because every candidate receives the same inputs.

Run the candidate experience from start to finish

Before launch, send the packet to an internal tester using the same delivery method. Check that links work without company access, documents open on common devices, instructions match the files, and the submission route accepts the stated format.

The invitation should explain why the exercise is used and how long it should take. Confirm receipt. Give candidates a monitored contact rather than a no-reply address. After submission, record delivery and move the work to the named reviewers. Do not leave an applicant waiting because a file landed in one manager's inbox.

If the company changes the brief during a hiring round, decide how earlier candidates will receive an equivalent assessment. Record the version used for each person. Quietly making the task easier after several candidates have completed it undermines comparison.

Review failures as process evidence

When many candidates miss the same instruction, inspect the brief. The wording may be unclear, a source may be missing, or the task may assume company knowledge. When reviewers repeatedly override scores, the anchors may not reflect the actual hiring decision.

Archive the approved brief, scoring guide, fictional inputs, version, owner, and review date. Revisit them when the role changes. Do not recycle an exercise merely because it already exists.

OnboardingEmployees helps teams connect virtual assistant role design, screening evidence, and manager handoff. Review virtual assistant screening support or request a staffing workflow review.

Questions about virtual assistant work samples

How long should an unpaid work sample take?

Keep it as short as the hiring evidence allows. Test the timing honestly and seek advice on compensation and hiring rules for the relevant location and arrangement.

Should candidates use their own tools?

State which tools are allowed and provide access when a specific system is essential. Do not require purchases or expose private accounts for a small assessment.

Can the team score clarification questions?

Yes, when asking useful questions is part of the role and the brief explains the process. Score the relevance of the question, not whether the candidate somehow knew an unstated answer.

What should happen to submissions after hiring closes?

Follow the approved retention schedule and applicable requirements. Remove copies from personal inboxes and downloads rather than assuming the recruiting system is the only location.

Continue building the workflow

Connect this process to the virtual assistant role brief, then use the virtual assistant onboarding checklist for the next handoff. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission explains that employment selection procedures should be job related and consistent with business necessity.