I fill executive-assistant jobs at tech companies that pay up to $250,000 a year...

• Jessica Vann recruits executive assistants for companies like Okta at her company Maven.

• She says executive assistants are nothing like secretaries — they're the eyes and ears of a leader.

• All it takes to get the prestigious job is business acumen, communication skills, and proactiveness.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jessica Vann, the CEO and founder of Maven Recruiting Group. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I launched Maven in 2010 as a bootstrapped startup. I didn't know it then, but I was pregnant at the time, too. Before that, I graduated from UC Berkeley in 2003 and worked in recruiting for two Bay Area firms.

We specialize in recruitment of executive assistants for Silicon Valley firms and some adjacent companies in Miami and New York, including Okta, Opendoor, Instacart, 23andMe, and Palo Alto Networks. In spite of all the layoffs happening right now, we're not seeing many in this field. Top-performing executive assistants are viewed as valued assets, not as liabilities. After all, an executive assistant preserves a company's scarcest and most precious resource: the leader of the organization.

We have 20 staffers now and have stayed relatively boutique, though COVID-19 and the shift to remote work have allowed us to expand our business footprint and diversify our talent pool with people all across the country. Most executives and companies are adopting a hybrid-working model these days. There's definitely value to being in person with a role like this, because relationships are often the currency that enables executive assistants to be so successful and impactful — and that's a hard thing to cultivate without investing the in-person time.

C-suite-support salaries in tech vary depending on the nature of the firm

Salaries for executive assistants in venture capital tend to range from $115,000 to $170,000, plus bonuses. In startups and tech, salaries are generally $130,000 to 180,000 base with equity.