The scenario-based executive assistant assessment
Interviews show you who presents well. This shows you who performs.
The Core Standard is the scenario-based executive assistant assessment that simulates a realistic EA working day. Employers commission it to see a candidate at work before making a hire. EAs use it to prove what interviews never capture.
Watch the overview
Hiring an EA?
Commission a scenario-based assessment for your candidate.
One candidate, one scored report, 48 hours. Three levels from £495 +VAT. Commission online in under five minutes.
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Three steps. A report in 48 hours.
Commissioning is self-serve. You do the first step; we handle the rest.
Commission
Choose the level and pay. We invite your candidate by email, the same day.
They sit the simulation
A realistic EA working day, 60 to 90 minutes depending on the level. The same scenario, every candidate.
You get the report
An expert‑reviewed competency report, scored and in your inbox within 48 hours.
A candidate can interview with poise and fall apart in the first week.
CVs tell you where someone has been. Interviews tell you how they present. Neither tells you how they’ll actually handle your priorities, your stakeholders, or the pressure of the role.
The Core Standard puts candidates inside a realistic working day and scores them across five dimensions that actually predict success.
- Prioritisation. What gets done first when everything is urgent, and whether the principal’s agenda stays front of mind.
- Judgement. Catching the clash in the diary, the risk buried in an email, and the thing the principal has not said yet.
- Communication. Writing in the principal’s voice: concise, warm, and right for the audience.
- Execution. Turning a half-sentence brief into a finished result, and closing the loop so nothing slips through.
- Partnership. Working as a genuine partner: anticipating needs, holding relationships on the principal’s behalf, and earning the trust to act in their name.
Every pillar is scored 0 to 100 against behavioural anchors, and senior seats add further dimensions suited to the role. Read how each pillar is scored in the methodology →
We don't test answers.
We test approach.
Mindset. Instinct. Professional energy.
The things that actually predict whether an EA will thrive.
What the candidate actually does.
No multiple choice, no typing tests. They are dropped into a realistic EA working day and have to make real decisions, in the order a real day throws them. You see how they think, not what they have rehearsed.
Inbox Triage
Sort through conflicting emails. Identify what's truly urgent versus what feels urgent.
Rank Priorities
Given the context, rank competing demands. Explain your logic.
Navigate Conflict
Your principal's instruction conflicts with an opportunity. Choose. Justify.
Communicate
Draft a response. Tone matters. So does clarity under pressure.
Send a link. Get a competency report.
Sequenced the morning around the board papers without being asked, and flagged the diary clash before it reached the principal. Calm, clear written voice under pressure.
Strong triage instinct. Handled the curveball without escalating prematurely. Ready for a step up.
Comprehensive Insight
Your candidate sits the simulation; you get a written report that breaks down how someone performed across the five core pillars: not just what someone chose, but how they approached it. Expert-reviewed and in your inbox within 48 hours, built to sit alongside your interview notes and references.
Each of the five pillars is scored 0 to 100 with an overall band, alongside narrative feedback on how the candidate made decisions, a benchmark against other EAs at the same level, and a reviewer recommendation calibrated to the seat you are hiring for. Higher levels add further competencies matched to the role.
See a full sample reportOther methods tell you who someone is.
This shows you how they work.
- Rehearsed answers
- Confidence under low pressure
- Past experience, narrated
- No live decision-making
- No tangible artefact
- Self-reported tendencies
- No real-world context
- Generic across roles
- No behavioural evidence
- Algorithmically scored only
- Live decisions, time pressure
- EA-specific, level-calibrated
- Behavioural evidence captured
- Expert reviewed
- Detailed competency report
EAs who sat it, in their words.
The day felt realistic. There are times when your exec isn’t available and actions need to be made in their absence, and the tasks were all scenarios I deal with on a regular basis. It challenged me in a good way.
It didn’t feel like a series of separate exercises. It felt like one realistic day where earlier choices had consequences. What surprised me most was how real the pressure felt, even knowing it was a test.
The three EA levels
Operational EA, EA to Senior Leadership, and Executive Business Partner. Each is a different job, set by who the assistant supports and how much judgement the seat demands. See the three levels and pricing on the employer assessment page →
Not sure which fits? The finder below places the role in under a minute.
Which assessment do you need?
Answer a few quick questions about the role, the principal, and the candidate's experience. We'll recommend the right pathway, the right scenario, and the right price point in under a minute.
Who will this person work for?
Two ways to use the standard
Employers commission an independent, expert-reviewed report on a candidate they are hiring. Candidates sit the same assessment themselves and own the result. Different deliverables, different jobs, priced accordingly.
The executive assistant assessment for hiring.
Three levels, from Operational EA to Executive Business Partner. Commission online, we invite the candidate, and your report lands within 48 hours. Team benchmarking sits alongside.
TCS Certified.
Sit the assessment on your own terms. One sitting, scored against every level of the standard, with a full report, Recruiter Summary, badge, and certificate you own.
Prefer to talk first? Book a 15‑minute walkthrough →
The three we are asked most.
30 years. Both sides of the desk.
The Core Standard wasn't built by a tech company or an HR consultancy. It was built by a specialist EA recruiter who has placed hundreds of EAs and an award‑winning C‑suite EA who has lived the role. Nearly 30 years in this exact space.
Lily Shippen
Lily founded Lily Shippen Recruitment at 22 and built it into one of the UK's leading specialist EA recruitment agencies. Over thirteen years in the industry, she has placed hundreds of Executive Assistants across every level, from first‑role operational EAs through to C‑suite support. Every employer report is reviewed and signed off by her personally.
Emily Partridge
Emily is a former C‑suite global EA and EA Team Manager whose career has been spent at the highest level of the profession, and is the Managing Director of eavolve. She co‑authored the rubric behind The Core Standard and brings an expert, lived‑in perspective to how the work is actually done. She does not just know what the job demands; she has done it.
"The right assessment captures how someone thinks, prioritises, handles pressure, and manages influence. Evidence that CVs and interviews rarely reveal."
Hire. Develop. Assess.
Lily Shippen recruits. eavolve® develops. The Core Standard assesses.
Together, an ecosystem that supports EAs and the businesses that rely on them. From hire, through development, to measurable performance.
See what interviews can't.
One assessment. 60 to 90 minutes, by level. A detailed competency report within 48 hours.
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