Cohesyve · Practice for candidates
Going for a Executive Assistant role? Find out how you'd actually score.
Run a Executive Assistant simulation built the same way employers build theirs, and get a full report showing exactly where you lost marks — before it counts.
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Overview
Executive assistant assessments are designed to be crowded. A diary with three conflicting commitments, an inbox where two of the messages are confidential, a trip that needs rebooking overnight, and an executive who is unreachable for the next four hours. What is being measured is judgement in the executive's absence — what you decide yourself, what you protect, and what you escalate. This page covers the formats and the scoring.
Why employers assess this role
The role runs on delegated authority, and the cost of poor judgement is felt directly by the person being supported. Employers assess because organisation is easy to claim and hard to verify, and because a written scenario reveals immediately whether a candidate reschedules the wrong meeting or handles a confidential message in the wrong channel.
What gets tested
The format
Duration
30–60 minutes
Question types
- Diary conflict scenario with a written rationale
- Inbox triage exercise
- Drafting emails on behalf of an executive
- Situational judgement on confidentiality and escalation
Levels
Entry · Mid · Senior
What you'll be asked to do
Resolve a diary conflict
Three commitments in one slot, all with a claim to it. Scored on the principle you apply and on how the people who are moved are handled.
- •Choose between a board pre-read, a client meeting and a one-to-one that has already moved twice
- •Rebuild a day after a flight delay pushes everything back four hours
- •Decide what to protect when an executive asks for two hours of clear time
Triage an inbox that is not yours
Messages of very different importance, some requiring the executive and some not. Marked on what you answer, what you forward and what you hold.
- •Sort a morning inbox into what needs the executive today and what does not
- •Draft the replies you would send without asking first
- •Identify the message that must not be forwarded internally
Write on someone else's behalf
A decline, a chase, or a difficult response sent under the executive's name. Scored on tone control and on saying no without causing damage.
- •Decline a speaking invitation while keeping the relationship open
- •Chase a director who has missed a deadline the executive needs
- •Reply to an external request the executive will not agree to
Handle disruption and confidentiality
Travel that falls apart, or information that arrives before it is meant to be known. Assessors look for the escalation call and the channel chosen.
- •Rebook a cancelled overnight flight around a fixed morning commitment
- •Decide what to do with a message about a restructure that arrives in your inbox
- •Determine what you would decide yourself while the executive is on a long flight
Cohesyve for candidates
Practise a Executive Assistant assessment before the real one
Run the same AI job simulations companies use to evaluate applicants. You get a scored report showing where you're strong and where you're not, plus what to work on.
Sample tasks — and what strong looks like
Three meetings now clash in the same slot. Resolve the conflict and write to those affected.
MidWhat strong looks like: States the principle used — external commitment, decision deadline, cost of delay, how many times a meeting has already moved — proposes concrete alternative times rather than asking for availability, and moves the one with the least consequence. Weak answers cancel the internal one by default and send a vague apology with no new time.
Your executive is unreachable for six hours. Triage the inbox and act.
MidWhat strong looks like: Separates what genuinely needs the executive from what needs only an answer, answers within known delegated authority, sends holding replies where a decision must wait, and leaves a short prioritised summary rather than a forwarded pile. Weak submissions forward everything and wait.
Draft a decline to a conference invitation the executive cannot accept.
EntryWhat strong looks like: Declines clearly in the first two lines, keeps the reason brief and honest, offers an alternative where one is genuine — a colleague, a later date — and matches the executive's register. Weak answers leave the door ambiguously open, which produces a second invitation and a second decline.
A confidential message about staff changes reaches you before it has been announced. Respond.
SeniorWhat strong looks like: Treats it as confidential regardless of how it arrived, confirms receipt privately to the sender, checks whether it was misdirected, avoids any diary or logistical action that would signal the contents, and asks the executive how they want it handled. Weak answers forward it for clarification.
How to prepare
- #1
Practise resolving diary conflicts by writing the principle you applied before the decision, because assessors mark the visible reasoning rather than the choice.
- #2
Rehearse rescheduling messages that propose two specific alternative times instead of asking the other party for their availability.
- #3
Work on inbox triage with an explicit line between what you would answer yourself and what needs the executive, since that boundary is what is being scored.
- #4
Practise writing a clean decline that closes the request in the first two lines while leaving the relationship intact.
- #5
Think through your confidentiality rules in advance — what you forward, what channel you use, what you never action in a shared calendar.
- #6
Sit a timed simulation covering diary, inbox and drafting together, because handling all three inside a short window is the actual test.
Common mistakes
Cancelling internal meetings automatically without weighing the decision they were meant to unblock.
Rescheduling without proposing specific alternative times, which doubles the correspondence.
Forwarding an entire inbox to an executive instead of triaging and summarising it.
Declining an invitation so softly that the request returns.
Making a calendar or travel change that reveals confidential information to anyone with visibility of the diary.
Waiting for the executive on a decision that clearly sat within delegated authority.
How it's scored
| Criterion | What strong looks like |
|---|---|
| Prioritisation judgement | A consistent principle is applied to conflicts, and the consequence for the party being moved is acknowledged. |
| Delegated decision making | The line between acting alone and escalating is drawn deliberately, and routine decisions are not pushed upward. |
| Written tone | Messages sent on the executive's behalf are clear, appropriately senior, and decisive without being blunt. |
| Discretion | Confidential information is contained, and no logistical action inadvertently signals what has not been announced. |
| Anticipation | Second-order consequences are handled unprompted — travel time, briefing papers, the meeting that now has no pre-read. |
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an executive assistant in-tray exercise contain?
Usually a simulated diary and inbox with built-in conflicts, at least one confidential item, and a travel or logistics problem. You are marked on triage, on the escalation line you draw, and on the quality of what you draft.
Will I be asked to write as the executive?
Very often. Drafting a decline or a chase in someone else's voice is one of the most reliable differentiators, because tone control is difficult to fake and easy to assess.
How much software knowledge is tested?
Little, beyond ordinary calendar and email competence. Assessments concentrate on judgement, because tool familiarity is quick to teach and prioritisation is not.
How do assessors test discretion?
By planting an item that should not be forwarded, or a diary change that would reveal something unannounced. Candidates who notice it score well even if the rest of their triage is ordinary.
Would practising a simulation help before the real one?
For this role it usually does, because the exercise is short and the volume is deliberately high. Cohesyve includes five free scored assessments a month, enough to run a full diary and inbox simulation and read how your judgement calls were marked.
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Cohesyve · Practice for candidates
Practise a Executive Assistant assessment now — free.
Five scored assessments a month, a full report on every run, and a learning pathway built from what you got wrong. No card required.
5
free assessments a month
$0
no card required
Full
scored report every run
Every
question type included
5 free assessments a month · No card required · Pro from $16/mo
For hiring teams
Hiring for a Executive Assistant role? See how your applicants perform before you spend interview time.