I’m hiring an executive assistant

Thank you to all the applicants! This position has been filled!

I’m hiring a new executive assistant to work with me at Etsy. All the details on how to apply are below.  I thought blogging about the role rather than posting a generic job listing might produce the best results. First, why is this position open? My current assistant Jen McKaig has been promoted to an awesome new role on our Values & Impact team, which is responsible for our B Corp work, among other things. Jen was instrumental in Etsy becoming a Certified B Corp and helped make the B Corp Hack Day a success (as covered by HBR), so I am excited to see her move on to this important work full-time but now I need a replacement. (Side note: earlier in my career, I thought having an executive assistant was a bit vain, but now I know that most companies would fall apart without them. Be very kind to them.)

A detailed description of the role is below, including a special note from Jen about what it’s like to do the job and work with me. It’s an awesome, demanding, and super-fun job.

The details:

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As the Executive Assistant to the CEO at Etsy in Brooklyn, you are my right-hand person. Being a CEO is an awesome but also demanding job and the Executive Assistant job is no different. Some of the most demanding days start very early and end very late, so keeping things running smoothly is key, and the cost of any misfires is high. Etsy is a fast-growing 400+ person company that requires all kinds of coordination on all fronts to keep the ship running smoothly.

Here is what you will be doing:

• My schedule has been called “crazy,” but there’s a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it. I will need you to make sure it all works and that my optimism doesn’t make me believe the impossible, i.e. that I can get from Brooklyn to uptown Manhattan in 5 minutes.
• You will keep my calendar in order when sometimes the time slots move so fast it feels more like a video game than a calendar.
• Organize travel and make sure all aspects of trips work seamlessly from start to finish. You know I like window seats and like to stay near mass transit when I can.
• Help me keep the broad range of personalities I work with every day at Etsy happy and engaged: artists, makers, investors, other executives, the Etsy executive team, and board members
• Schedule board and investor meetings amongst some of the busiest people in the world, then make them seamless technically, logistically, and culinarily
• I generally do the bulk of presentations and reports myself but the more you can help here, the better.
• In general, make the Etsy team as productive and happy as possible! I work for them, so you work for them, too.

Etsy is an inspiring place, without a doubt, and being my assistant has its perks. You will know more about what is going on in the company than almost anyone, plus there are plenty of fun tasks to be done. On any given day, you might be:

• organizing a board meeting and retreat in Berlin
• pulling together a meeting with people who are literally changing the world
• providing art direction for a company talent show, all while making sure you have good beer and that the kegs are tapped correctly and on time
• working with a group of craftspeople and carpenters to build out elaborate new meeting spaces brimming with Etsy goodness
• editing scripts and helping write the company’s April Fools Joke (see Etsy Acquires Portland)

You are:

• Professional. Etsy is a fun place, but also a serious business with a lot of moving parts. You know how to have lots of balls in the air that can’t be dropped. You’ve been an executive assistant before in a similar environment.
• Unflappable. Crazy things happen. You should be able to pause and laugh at them for a brief second before quickly taking action to make crazy problems disappear seamlessly.
• Passionate about Etsy. To be successful at Etsy you have to believe in what we are doing.

I asked my current assistant Jen to write a bit about what it’s like working with me. I’ll let Jen take it from here:

Even as I write this with the nervous excitement of just being promoted, I feel sentimental and sad to be passing on the torch. Chad is an outstanding manager/teacher/captain and you are a lucky individual if you get this position. That being said, let me give it to you straight — this job is important. I like to think of it as a body guard position, and the bodies you’re guarding are Chad’s time and the company momentum. There are hundreds of people, both internally and externally, who will want Chad’s time. It is your job to know what is important. You must be able to negotiate or counter requests with a firm respectful decisiveness. This is not hard (most of the time). You will be working with amazing people. You must also know how to prioritize both your time and Chad’s time, and then re-prioritize, because things will start changing from the minute you wake up in the morning.

This is an exciting role because you get to work with EVERYONE! Oh yeah, being a people person is definitely a prerequisite. There are hundreds of details to keep track of, from fun restaurants for the board dinners to the latest video conferencing software. While all of this is going on, guarding what makes Etsy special is vital. In our company values, we state that we believe fun should be part of everything we do. It turns out that fun takes planning and dedication, you should be mindful of this. The last thing I will say is this, you must know that when something looks like it can’t be done there is always a way, and it usually involves using your clever innovative co-workers.

Thanks, Jen! Remember, details to apply are above and you can start immediately.