Lesson 4 of 9 · 7 min
A job post that filters on its own
Most Shopify VA job posts fail in one of three ways: too generic (“a virtual assistant to help with our growing business”), too long (twenty bullets that scare off strong applicants and do not deter weak ones), or filtering on the wrong thing (“5+ years of Shopify” disqualifies a sharp two-year candidate and admits a tenured mediocre one). Filter on the work and on evidence.
Six sections, in this order, 400 to 700 words
- One sentence: what they will own, and where you are.
- Why the role exists: the problem this hire solves. Say the founder is doing it today.
- What they will actually do: five to seven tasks with examples and a standard (“first response under four business hours, in our voice”).
- What success looks like at 30, 60 and 90 days, in outcomes.
- What you are looking for: skills and behaviours, each with the evidence you want (“link us a store you have managed”).
- Pay band, hours, and exactly how to apply.
Three screening questions for the form
- “A customer emails asking for a refund on an item delivered eight weeks ago, outside our thirty-day window. Walk us through what you would do and why.” Judgement and voice.
- “Describe a Shopify workflow you set up or improved. What was the problem, what did you build, what changed?” Real experience against theory.
- “What would you ask us before day one so you are productive in week one?” Preparedness.
Add a filter word: ask applicants to put “Shopify” in the first line of their cover letter. The guides report that most generic, copy-pasted applications miss it, which makes it the cheapest filter you will ever run.
Phrases that signal an undefined role
Rockstar, ninja, wizard. Wear many hats. Fast-paced environment. Detail-oriented (say what detail looks like instead). Self-starter (say what initiative looks like in your store). Competitive salary (state the band; vagueness reads as low).
We are looking for a part-time Shopify operations specialist to take daily operational work off the founder’s plate. Twenty hours a week, remote, with four hours of overlap with our day in [timezone].
We are a [category] brand doing roughly [orders] a month. The founder currently does order monitoring, support, listings, supplier coordination and reporting. That ceiling needs to come off so the founder can work on product and growth. This role is how.
Seeking a rockstar VA for a fast-paced ecommerce brand. Must be detail-oriented and a self-starter, comfortable wearing many hats. Competitive pay. Send your CV.
Where to post, by tier
For the two freelancer tiers: OnlineJobs.ph (Philippines, paid posting, high volume, needs careful filtering), VirtualStaff.ph (vetted, less noise), Upwork (global, more noise, use screening questions hard). For the trained tier and above: the Shopify Community forums (slower, higher signal), LinkedIn, and remote boards such as We Work Remotely. At the top tier, referrals and placement beat open boards.
If this is your second seat
Narrow the scope to one discipline, and put your first VA in the loop: a short joint working session with the finalist before the offer. They will see fit problems you will not, and the handoff between the two seats is where a second hire lives or dies.
Checked From the job description guide and the complete guide. The full copy-paste template is on the blog; the filter-word figure is the agency’s.
The six-section structure, the three questions, the phrase list and the boards are as the guides give them. The template above is shortened; the whole thing is in the job description guide. The guide says 60 to 70 percent of generic applicants miss the filter word; that is an observation from the agency’s own postings, reported here as “most” rather than as a statistic. The closing pitch in each guide is not here.