The nanny hiring process

[Anonymous]

I am a FTM and have a newborn. I am in the process of talking to nannies and want advice on how to move forward. I have conducted phone interviews and contacted references. So now I need to schedule in-person interviews. After that interview, should I then ask them to come over again and spend some time with me and the baby to see how things go? Like a 3rd interview? I'm just a little clueless how to approach things from this point. Any advice is appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Yes, you need to schedule some "working interviews" now, but plan to pay their regular rates.

[Anonymous]

I've had very few people have me back for a working interview. The ones who did turned out to be nuts and the job didn't last long.

Really, go with your gut, your gut won't lie. Do a few emails back and forth to make sure she's fluent in English (if that's important to you) and more importantly to see how she communicates. Does she answer questions? Is she concise or wordy? Does she evade questions? Can she describe her past experiences? Does she address your ad or is she copying and pasting answers to multiple jobs?

Find some you like and do a quick phone interview (or the email can suffice.) Then take the 3-4 you like the most and have an in person interview and go from there.

[Anonymous]

After a phone interview, if you like a prospective candidate then you arrange a face to face interview.

It is best that you do not contact references until after a personal meeting as not to exhaust a nanny's references.

Plus contacting them prior to meeting the nanny is very pre-mature since at that point the nanny is basically a faceless stranger.

Good luck in your search OP!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After a phone interview, if you like a prospective candidate then you arrange a face to face interview.

It is best that you do not contact references until after a personal meeting as not to exhaust a nanny's references.

Plus contacting them prior to meeting the nanny is very pre-mature since at that point the nanny is basically a faceless stranger.

Good luck in your search OP!!

Agree. A face to face will weed out faster and easier. References tend to say short generic nice things.

[Anonymous]

I did paid working interviews (4 hours) for the top four. That weeded out two. Then I let my DH pick from the two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After a phone interview, if you like a prospective candidate then you arrange a face to face interview.

It is best that you do not contact references until after a personal meeting as not to exhaust a nanny's references.

Plus contacting them prior to meeting the nanny is very pre-mature since at that point the nanny is basically a faceless stranger.

Good luck in your search OP!!

Agree. A face to face will weed out faster and easier. References tend to say short generic nice things.

Yes, but the nanny is the one in the know here. I would never send my references out prematurely.