All The Strict Rules The Kardashians' Assistants Must Follow
Do you dream of being on the Kardashian-Jenner payroll? Well, there are a few guidlines you will want to keep in the back of your mind if you are serious about becoming an assistant to the tight-knit family. While it may be an exclusive scene, the Kardashian crew is no stranger to bringing on employees, with a source joking Radar Online in 2016, "Kim has had more personal assistants than she has men! Literally more than 15. It is ridiculous." And it sounds like it's a case of like mother, like daughter. "Kris has had a lot of help come and go through the years," the tipster added. "When she first started on TV, there were only two or three personal assistants for the entire family. Now she has tons just for herself... it's insane!" Hey, if you can afford it, why not, right?
But there are strict rules you need to follow, or you could very easily end up on the chopping block. Kris has even admitted she's not afraid to say goodbye to bad staff. As she told Kourtney Kardashian in a 2019 interview for Poosh, "You have to face the fact that person might not be the right fit and then very kindly say, 'You're great, I wanted this to work, it didn't work out, I wish you the best.' And try to make it a positive experience."
So how does one go about steering clear of the aforementioned chopping block? Let's get into the dos and don'ts for working for the Kardashian-Jenner family.
Be someone the Kardashians can trust
The Kardashian-Jenners are some of the most famous people on the planet, and to work for them is to get a peek behind an incredibly exclusive curtain. But if you can't respect the family's boundaries, then it may not be the gig for you. "[T]o the best of my ability, we try to have people on our team who have our back, who we feel that we can really trust," Kris Jenner told HuffPost in 2018 of what she looks for in an assistant. "It's about being discreet and being private and learning... If somebody has something that's happening in your life at the moment and it is a private thing, then somebody [would need] to have a lot of respect for that." Seems fair enough, no?
Kylie Jenner's former assistant Victoria Villarroel has also said that discretion was a top priority from day one. As she revealed on The Kylie Jenner App, Kylie pretty much poured her heart out to her when they first started working together. "[Kylie] said, 'Close the door. I want to tell you my deepest secrets.' We just talked forever. I think that's when we bonded," Villarroel recalled.
As for how Villarroel landed the job in the first place? The long and short of it, she simply clicked with the reality star. As she shared on a 2019 episode of the "Girl Cult" podcast (via People), "We just got along. I'm not a crazy person, I'm trustworthy. We just liked each other."
Keep up with the Kardashians' hours
Sleep? What's that? Anyone who wants to be a Kardashian assistant is going to need to keep up with the Kardashians... literally. The famously career-driven Kris Jenner has said that her assistant would need to be ready to work constantly, because her schedule never seems to slow down. "It's really nonstop, 24/7 brainstorming and creativity and just trying to get organized and really pack a lot into a day — being there nonstop with all engines blazing," she told HuffPost. She also revealed in a 2019 Poosh interview with Kourtney Kardashian that she wakes up at 4:30 a.m. every day and starts checking her emails pretty much the moment she opens her eyes.
Working for one of Kris' children is no more lax when it comes to availability either. Kylie Jenner's former assistant Victoria Villarroel revealed the makeup mogul would reach out at all hours of the day when she was an employee. "She'll call me 2 a.m. I will answer. I don't really have set hours. It's pretty much whenever duty calls!" she said on The Kylie Jenner App.
And it sounds like it doesn't matter exactly what you're doing for the famous family, 24/7 availability is preferred. Jessica DeFino told Vice in 2022 that when she was an assistant on the family's apps, she was apparently expected to work hard at all hours of the day to make sure everything ran smoothly. "Days, nights, holidays, weekends, whenever and wherever I was needed," she said.
Don't add drama to the mix
If there's one thing the Kardashian-Jenners already have enough of, it's drama. And as Kris Jenner has made abundantly clear, when looking for a new employee, she seeks out someone who knows how to stay out of all the fray and won't create any unnecessary trouble. When she partnered with Bumble Bizz, the networking arm of the popular dating app, to hire a new assistant in 2018, she explained to HuffPost, "Listen, the reason that I went with Bumble is because it stands for some of the things that are important to me and that I also personally stand by, which is kindness and respect and equality, both on and offline. And I think that they're important qualities that I'm looking for in a personal assistant, just, you know, as a human being."
It can sometimes happen in such close quarters coupled with so much pressure though, as former Dash employee (for those who don't remember the early days of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," the sisters used to own a line of boutiques called Dash and the goings-on of the store was documented on the 2015 spinoff, "Dash Dolls") Stephanie De Souza admitted that competitiveness could bring the claws out. She told E! News in 2015 that Dash employees would often show what she described as "cattiness and jealousy."
A good Kardashian employee wears a lot of hats
The Kardashians need a well-rounded individual on their team, as being a Kardashian-Jenner assistant involves a little bit of everything. Victoria Villarroel revealed that when she began working for Kylie Jenner, her main role was more actually that of housekeeper. "I helped the house run. Like groceries, cars, everything just had to be perfect," she said during an interview posted on The Kylie Jenner App. "You basically do scheduling, travel, events. ... Or any appearance that she has, award shows, the stylists, booking all her appointments and keeping her calendar up to date."
Kim Kardashian's former assistant Stephanie Shepherd has also said there's lots of learning on the job, as roles change depending on what's going on with the family, such as preparing to welcome a new baby. "I was doing her whole schedule, doing her laundry, booking travel, putting the stroller together and all of these things," she recalled to Refinery29 in 2017 of how she helped Kim prior to daughter North West's birth.
Khloé Kardashian found out she needed to be a jack of all trades the hard way when she playfully took on the role of her mom's assistant during a Season 18 episode of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." From scanning documents to sampling all the office snacks (how else are you supposed to check the freshness?), Khloé took on whatever Kris threw her way. "I'll do it with a smile and my little assistant shoes on," she quipped.
Time management is crucial
To borrow a line from the hit single by "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" alum Kim Zolciak-Biermann, don't be tardy for the party. Not when it comes to the Kardashians, at least. It turns out the family are no fans of employees who don't have good timekeeping skills, as "Love & Hip Hop" star Erica Mena has shared. Mena worked for the Kardashian sisters in their Miami Dash store before becoming a reality television star in her own right, and noted she butted heads with Khloé Kardashian over her punctuality. "I was late a few times and Khloé wasn't having it. I think Khloé took more offense to me being late and [thought] that since I was friends with Kourtney [Kardashian] I was taking advantage of it and that wasn't really the situation," she explained to Vlad TV.
The Kardashians have also spoken out about how much they hate lateness a few times before, including when Kim Kardashian told Interview in September 2022 that not being punctual is the thing that stresses her out more than anything else. "I hate being late. That's the one thing where I'm just like, 'Oh my god I need my CBD pen. I'm freaking the f**k out,'" she said. The sisters have also feuded before when it comes to tardiness, with Khloé famously majorly falling out with Kourtney during a 2018 episode of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" when she was not on time for an event.
Be prepared to become an honorary member of the family
If you are welcomed into the Kardashian-Jenner world, it sounds like the line between work life and personal life can get a bit blurry. Kim Kardashian's former personal assistant Stephanie Shepherd told Refinery29 in 2017 that anyone working for the family will need to be sociable and ready to bond with, well, pretty much the whole squad. "Everyone who works for the Kardashian family is part of this little tribe — assistants, makeup artists, housekeepers, security. We get each other Christmas presents, we take care of all the kids like they're our own kids. It's truly one big extended family," she shared.
But don't think that the Kardashians will go easy on their employees just because they've grown close to them. Former Dash employee Caroline "Alien" Burt, who appeared on the "Keeping up with The Kardashians" spin-off "Dash Dolls," told E! News in 2015 that the family wasn't afraid to let them know if something they did was sub-par. "You'll forget something and you won't even know it, but you'll get in trouble for it," she shared.
Don't forget to tackle the less glitzy tasks
Former assistant Stephanie Shepherd has said that working with the Kardashians isn't necessarily always as fun and exciting as it may appear on TV; when she was still on Kim Kardashian's payroll, she had a lot of tedious behind-the-scenes work to tackle. Needless to say, there is quite a bit going on in the Kardashian-Jenner empire, and it takes a village to keep things running smoothly. "I think everyone thinks this job is super glamorous — and I can't lie, it is. Truly, this family is so much fun, and we go to some amazing places and do some incredible things. But don't forget that when you're an assistant, with all of that glamour comes schlepping the bags and the suitcases and taking the fall when the car doesn't show up or the flight is delayed or something goes wrong," she told Refinery29 in 2017.
But while a Kardashian assistant is likely to be found working on the logistics of the glamorous events behind the scenes, that doesn't mean you get to slack in the fashion department. Former "Dash Dolls" stars Durrani Popal and Stephanie De Souza told E! News in 2015 that they were expected to maintain a presentable look while they worked at the sisters Dash stores because they were faces of the glam brand. As De Souza said, "You need to look good, all the time."
Be up for helping out with the family's many pets
If you want to be a part of the Kardashian-Jenner workforce, you're probably going to need to be comfortable with dogs — and even the odd pig. A source told Radar Online in 2016 that the family's assistants are often required to take care of their animals as well as their more standard everyday tasks, claiming, "Every time anyone in the family gets a pet the assistant has to take care of them. Walking dogs, changing kitty litter, potty training — it's a huge burden for the rest of the family so the job falls on the assistant to do all the dirty work." The Kardashian-Jenner family has seen a lot of dogs over the years; Kylie Jenner's boyfriend Travis Scott couldn't even remember the names of her four dogs in a July 2018 GQ interview.
But it's not just canines that Kardashian assistants should be able to take care of. As a source told E! News in 2012, Kim Kardashian ended up giving a kitten named Mercy to Khloé Kardashian's assistant Sydney Hitchcock. Evidently, Kim realized she was allergic to the cat after receiving Mercy as a gift from then-husband Kanye West. Sadly, Mercy died shortly afterwards.
Keep the salary expectations to a minimum
If you're working for the Kardashians or Jenners, you're working with millionaires (and at least one billionaire), but you maybe shouldn't expect to be paid like one. Jessica DeFino, who was an assistant editor for Kardashian Jenner Official Apps, claimed to Vice in 2022 that her pay was apparently so paltry that there were times she couldn't afford gas. "[The wages were] low and laughable in LA, especially considering my experience," she told the outlet, claiming her salary was around $35,000 a year even though she worked around the clock to make sure the reality stars' apps met their needs.
What's more, in 2017, there was a rumor that salary may have been one of the reasons Kim Kardashian parted ways professionally with Stephanie Shepherd. "Kim had been paying Stephanie $65,000 a year. She'd been working for Kim for three years with no raise and knew it was time to ask," an insider claimed to Life & Style, purporting that Shepherd supposedly wanted another $20,000. Shepherd stopped working for Kim shortly after, with People's insider claiming it was Kim's decision, but didn't clarify if salary played a part. "She was a good assistant but when Stephanie wanted to transition into a larger role with Kim's brand and businesses, it just didn't work," the insider said. Since leaving the company, Shepherd has remained friends with Kim and Kourtney Kardashian.