best place for nanny search? not finding good candidates

[Anonymous]

I am not having a lot of success with care.com and wondering where else to post my ad to find some good candidates. We pay well ($18-$20 for caring primarily for one toddler, generous vacation time, etc.) but I am looking for part-time and that seems more difficult than finding full-time help. I just posted an ad here on DCUM, but any other suggestions? I am in NoVa. This will not be our first nanny, but it's our first one in a very long time as our former nanny was with us for many years and I have recently taken a year off from work and am getting ready to go back.

[Anonymous]

I would suggest posting on a care.com/sittercity site, as well as your neighborhood listserves. If there is nothing wrong with your package (paying a good rate, offering at least standard vacation and holidays, as well as sick time) there may be something in your ad scaring off good candidates. Check your tone and see if you come off as extremely particular, demanding, or condescending. Not saying you are at all, just that if I detect a tone I don't like in an ad I will most likely not apply unless the package is out of this world.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, just re-read and I see you posted on Care. Try listserves!

[Anonymous]

We went through care as well as here and had a very difficult time finding quality part-time candidates. It's a grueling process and you just have to keep looking. Make sure you've also done whatever you can to get the word out via word-of-mouth.

[Anonymous]

I found my PT job through Sittercity, but the parents sought me out rather than me responding to their ad.

When they needed to replace their FT nanny I know it took them over three months of reaching out to candidates to even find people they wanted to interview. For the most part, good nannies are already busy and won't need to reply to ads often - contacting people whose profiles you like seems to be essential for finding the right nanny. Like PP said, it definitely is a grueling process.

[Anonymous]

Local listservs in and near your neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Op, I sympathize with you. We have also been looking for pt. I'm sorry to say we had no luck with listserves either. This has been much harder than finding a ft nanny....

[Anonymous]

Try sittercity.com.

[Anonymous]

We're in the same boat. We hired a nanny through a friend and she turned out to be awful. We've tried the listservs with little luck too. PT nannies are hard to find and good ones are even harder to find.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're in the same boat. We hired a nanny through a friend and she turned out to be awful. We've tried the listservs with little luck too. PT nannies are hard to find and good ones are even harder to find.

+1

[Anonymous]

We have focused our pt search not on folks needing ft and settling, but rather those available pt. I'm not sure where the earlier poster is going with the comment about bills.....not relevant.

The quality is simply quite different than ft pool of candidates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have focused our pt search not on folks needing ft and settling, but rather those available pt. I'm not sure where the earlier poster is going with the comment about bills.....not relevant.

The quality is simply quite different than ft pool of candidates.

Why do you suppose that is?
What might change that?

[Anonymous]

OP, any luck? Are you able to up your hourly rate maybe?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, any luck? Are you able to up your hourly rate maybe?

There is nothing wrong with the hourly rate she is offering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, any luck? Are you able to up your hourly rate maybe?

There is nothing wrong with the hourly rate she is offering.

Then why can't she get anyone, Einstein?