The current Executive Assistant job market is tough and companies like Athena and Magic are claiming to offer top 1% EA talent at a fraction of the price of a US-based EA.
In fact, they specifically brand their VA offerings, which they call “Elite Assistants” and “Executive Assistants” respectively, as the top 1% of the global talent pool.
It's worth noting, they DO NOT position their offering as "Offshored Virtual Assistants that we have screened, trained, equipped, and track on an ongoing basis and marked up their labor costs significantly to make a profit while they accommodate your western hours in the middle of the night." - OK that might be a bit rough, but it's not necessarily wrong.
They DO position their offerings as directly competitive with US Executive Assistants. They also may pay a superior wage to what a virtual assistant in an offshored country might be able to earn, so it's not completely one-sided.
At first glance an EA might think, “I don't really care, these companies offshore VAs from countries like the Philippines that can’t match the communication skill, attention to detail, and personal touch that I deliver to my executives and wider organization!”, and you’re right, but could they be taking US EA jobs anyhow?
Growing Client Bases
These companies are both growing in the US Market - offshoring traditional EA, VA, and PA roles. These jobs aren’t just appearing out of thin air; although more people might be using services like this that couldn’t traditionally get hiring approval or afford a US-based EA. In fact, some notable CEOs have publicly gone on the record claiming they use several Athena EAs. Just take a look at their client testimonials. The amount of employees listed online at these firms show they are clearly in relatively high demand.
US EA Jobs Declining
With the noticeable amount of EAs rocking the green “open to work” pic border on LI and the consistent waterfall of layoff posts on the EA subreddit, one might wonder if they are more successful that we think…?
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics also reports a notable decline in "Office and Administrative Support Occupations" over the last decade if you pull the raw historical data. These trends aren't always clear but, as the profession is rapidly evolving and, if you follow us, we believe that Sr. EAs are not always trying to become Chiefs of Staff, but that a title like Head of Executive Operations might be the optimal and trending career path.
How Magic Positions
Top 1% Talent, Trained to be Even Better
Before working with you, your executive assistant goes through a month of rigorous training. They must prove themselves able handle new tasks on the fly, figure things out on their own, and use Magic AI (Beta) to be more efficient.
How Athena Positions
We’ve interviewed over 500,000 assistants so you don’t have to.
Athena Assistants have an acceptance rate <1%
This aggressive positioning into the US market combined with aggressive screening processes and equiping with a top technology stack is potentially undercutting the EU and US-based Executive Assistant Job Market. Please let us know your thoughts on this controversial issue on our LI thread for this blog.