Asking potential nanny for resume?
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Anonymous
| I'm in the process of searching for a nanny for the first time. Someone responded to my short post. Should I ask for a resume or what is the next step for getting more information? |
Anonymous
| You can ask for a resume. Lots of nannies don't have one, but if your candidate does that is a good sign of someone who takes their job seriously. As for the next step, I'd schedule a phone interview. During the phone interview tell the candidate about your family, reiterate information about the job, then ask questions that get at your deal breakers and ask them if they have any questions. This helps both of you assess whether an in person interview is worth the time, and whether you could be a potential fit. Then move on to in-person interviews with your favorite 2 or 3 candidates, then look at references for 1-2 candidates, and offer the position to your favorite. |
Anonymous
Ask for her phone number and set up a time to talk. Ask her questions. Many great nannies will not give out their resumes before meeting the potential employers especially on an online ad. Too much personal information on a resume. |
Anonymous
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Sure, ask for a resume, but as a pp said, many nannies don't have formal resumes. So you can respond w/ some more information about the position and ask them to send you a resume or work history and then plan to set up a phone call to talk more.
If you tell them enough about the position you can ask them to say confirm that they are still interested and then ask them to talk about why this might be a good fit for them. However, this will only work with people who are fluent in english (unless you are fluent in their language). So if you have candidates for whom English is a second language you'll need to do more of this over the phone or in person. If fluency in english is required for you though, this can be a great way to ascertain that without spending a lot of time in interviews. |
Anonymous
| The next step is a telephone interview, OP. The resume will not help you at this point. You will get a great feel for the nanny candidate in talking to her for fifteen minutes. Then, if you like her, ask for a resume and set up a time to meet in person. |
Anonymous
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You definitely want to phone screen next. A conversation will tell you much more than a resume will at this point.
If you click during the phone screen, schedule an in-person interview and ask them for a resume at the interview. You could have someone who speaks no English send you a perfectly written resume, only to find that her cousin wrote it for her. Meanwhile she is sitting in your home and can't communicate with you or your child/ren. |
Anonymous
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1. application to ad
Tons of applicants, weed out obvious mismatches, including people that responded with one liners and/or didn't read the ad. 2. phone screen, and be prepared for the nanny to ask questions to determine if you have all of *her* deal breakers, just like you are doing for her Weed out any deal breakers, compile a list of questions that you feel would show you each candidate's philosophies and methods without tipping them to what your philosophies and methods are, choose the top 5-15 who match. 3. phone interview, ask for emailed resume, though some have contact info in the resume and so hold onto it until in-person interview You want to give a scenario and see what they think the ideal response would be. Then, give them some more information to make it more challenging, and see what they think they might do. Granted, it's not what they might actually do, but how they would respond can be very telling. Example: Four kids running in the backyard, they split up. Kid 1 runs towards the playset, kid 2 runs towards the side of the house, kid 3 runs towards the gate to the pool, kid 4 runs towards the garage. Extra information: pool gate might be open or child can climb, garage door might be open, child is young enough that climbing on the playset without adult to catch for a fall might mean a break, or there's an open gate at the side of the house. Decent nannies will immediately say that they would run after the kid going towards the pool, but upon receiving more information, what they choose and how they explain can be very telling. 4. in-person interview, expect to be handed reference list if contact info was not in the resume You want to get an idea of how well they present themselves, but be aware that you are also setting up the dynamic of a working relationship. If you don't dress in business attire, the nanny may assume that you want someone who will talk about her personal life and be less formal. On the other hand, if you do wear business attire, the nanny may assume that all personal details are inappropriate, and that the working relationship will remain just that, and you risk getting someone who will view it as simply a job and a paycheck, rather than loving the child(ren). There has to be a balance, imo, so that there are boundaries and no job creep, but so that the nanny will feel valued and secure loving her charge(s). Most nannies won't hand out contact info until they meet you in person. They have a finite number of references, and excessive calls can wear out the goodwill a family had when the nanny moved on. Overall, most of the information that a family will provide is positive, which is why the nanny is willing to use them as a reference. Ask for information about her professionalism, punctuality, examples of what she did in her off hours to prepare for their child, etc. Ime, the most useful are the examples of what the nanny did in her off hours. A nanny who doesn't do anything for her charge over the weekend is not as interested in the child and her position as a nanny who researched a new activity at the park or a new craft. Yes, some nannies do all of that research during nap time, but the best nannies are usually the ones who go above and beyond. |
nannydebsays
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I think you can do a LOT of screening and eliminating based on their application. That means, to me, that you talk on the phone one time, figuring out if you MAY be a good fit, and then call back only to schedule an in-person interview. Talking in person is the best way to interview, simply because you can see body language. If a person says something that sounds amazing, but won't meet your eyes while she speaks, that may be a red flag. And the bolded...Being a nanny is, at the core, a job just like any other job. If a nanny doesn't spend time planning out activities and such on her days off, that doesn't mean she doesn't care or that she will not go above and beyond. A nanny who keeps her personal time to herself is a smart nanny who knows that self-care allows her to be the best possible nanny she can be. Plus, do you want a nanny who is excellent at time management, and able to do her work during her actual work hours, or a nanny who is constantly having to play catch up on the weekends? Of course, if you prefer a nanny who spends her personal time planning her work week, you also need to be prepared to pay a higher hourly rate. If I took a job in which I was told (or figured out a few weeks in) that the expectation was that I plan out my weeks with the kid(s) on my off hours, I would figure an additional 5 hours of OT into my hourly rate calculations so that I got paid for the work I was doing at home. |
Anonymous
| I request a resume. You are not a professional if you don't have one. I'm not doing business with someone thst clueless. |
Anonymous
You lose, PP. I have a great resume and am a great nanny - however, I do not give out any personal information (including my last name) until I have met you in person and would consider accepting a position from you if offered. Your attitude will lose you the great nannies. You may want to reconsider. |
Anonymous
+ 1. I am a nanny and have a resume. I don't think being a nanny is an excuse to not have a resume or common professionalism. |
Anonymous
I'm a nanny and I think you're being ridiculous. Most jobs in any industry require an application and/or a resume to even get a call for an interview. It is YOUR attitude that will lose you the great jobs. PP won't have a hard time finding a great nanny who isn't a princess about giving out her resume. |
Anonymous
| I always offer to email my resume after the first couple of emails. My name is pretty common and I have a post office box so I'm not worried about a breach of privacy. I include family names (Smith Family) and dates but no contact information. |
Anonymous
Giving your resume to a complete stranger is much, much different than giving it to a hiring manager at a large, well known firm or corporation. As a nanny, you are handing a complete stranger (who could very well be lying about who they are) a piece of paper with your contact information. I have been a nanny for many, many years. I have an excellent resume that I share in a portfolio, along with my certifications, background and DMV check and business card AT THE END of an in-person interview. Nannies have to be really careful about who they give their information to. Very few people interview inside a stranger's home. If you are willing to fault someone for that, then you deserve to hire someone who will just hand their personal information to someone they've never laid eyes upon. It makes you wonder what they'd do with your child. If they don't value their own safety and security, they won't value that of your children either. |
Anonymous
Most jobs are not through the internet to a personal home. If I were to apply for a job at AOL or State Farm I would have no issues whatsoever sending my resume first. But with a nanny job on the internet I am giving my personal information to some guy named "Arnold P" or woman named "Helen S" who signed up at Care.com with no screening whatsoever and could be anyone. Maybe I have two great jobs - one full time and one weekend through care.com - and withheld my resume until meeting my employers on both. I am doing okay. |