Questions to ask in an interview with an extension au pair

[Anonymous]

Hi all,
I am going to be interviewing an extension au pair tonight. This will be my second au pair. Any specific questions I should ask or issues to address that would be specific to the extension year?
Thanks!!!

[Anonymous]

1. What would you want to do differently in your 2nd year compared to your 1st?

2. What motivated you to not extend with your current family?

3. How do you think your 2nd year will be different?

4. What advice would they give to 1st years?

5. How would they adjust to different rules and expectations in a new family?

[Anonymous]

Why are you extending? What do you want to achieve/do/see/learn in your second year?

What specifically are you looking for in your extension family? How is what you are looking for different than what you looked for the first time around?

What have been some highlights of your first year?

What have been some of the biggest challenges of your first year?

What has been your biggest learning so far in the AP program?

Why are you interested in our family and our location (subtext: Is there a boyfriend or other draw bringing you to this area)?

[Anonymous]

I would dig pretty hard to find out if they wanted to extend with their current family but the current family wanted a change. My most recent au pairs have asked to extend, but we were only barely tolerating them at that point... In neither case, has a new host family asked to speak with me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would dig pretty hard to find out if they wanted to extend with their current family but the current family wanted a change. My most recent au pairs have asked to extend, but we were only barely tolerating them at that point... In neither case, has a new host family asked to speak with me.

I so don't get this. We matched with our first extension (in 12 years of hosting!), and I spent over an hour on the phone with his current HM, digging into EVERYTHING, including why they wanted to extend with him, why he didn't want to extend with them, what they wanted in their new AP, what rules or expectations they would change based on how he was with them (often families set new expectations based on something a previous AP did), etc. I cannot imagine not talking to the previous HF...

[Anonymous]

I’m looking for an in-country au pair right now, and there are a lot of extension au pairs in rematch. Guessing that adjusting to a new family / new set of expectations is hard. Or HF compromise on standards because they expect extension au pairs to be better. Or both, maybe? I’d spend a lot of time finding out what life was like with the first family and explaining differences and similarities before matching.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I would want to clearly understand what it is about OUR FAMILY that feels like a good match in terms of values, interests, personalities, etc. I think extension au pairs are often location shopping more than anything and the family is just a backdrop to the plans they have for the year.

[Anonymous]

We do not extend. Ever.

2 of our APs extended with different families and both ended in rematch.
One AP just wanted to stay in our area so she could visit with us all the time. She ended up in another part of country with 2nd rematch and was fine. The other just left.

Extension APs will always compare 2nd family to first. I think that is why they have high rematch rate.

We have easy gig, low hours, no weekends, ap has own car and we live in the fun part of Clarendon. You should make sure your schedule/perks are on par with first year or easier/better than their first year.

[Anonymous]

I find that extension au pairs can be quite picky about location and expectations about their second year since they feel they put in the time in their first year. So one thing I would definitely grill them on is location. We matched with an AP who really wanted to be in NYC but settled for the DC area because she said she liked our family. She asked to rematch two months later. I won’t be making this mistake again and will try to make sure the AP is actually excited about our area.

[Anonymous]

This is great perspective. I assumed that extension APs would be best because they know what the job is that they are getting into. Rethinking that a bit, and have also found it's important to ask if an extension AP rematched during previous placement (interviewed one yesterday who rematched once and is using her extension basically as a rematch - 6 months with each family).

[Anonymous]

Also make sure they're not following a boyfriend to a new city. One of our APs did that and never told the new host family, which I thought was obnoxious.