Reply to I thought I answered the questions decently, was told I "gave the run around" and was "too lectury"

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Reply to "I thought I answered the questions decently, was told I "gave the run around" and was "too lectury""

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, who told you your answers were exhausting?  Was it an agency worker?  If you are working with an agency and looking for a position that pays above average, I'm not surprised by this level of screening.  If the parents told you that directly I'm surprised by their bluntness.

For those of you who never bother with questionnaires, that is the kind of attitude that demeans your profession.  There are no licensing or educational barriers to becoming a nanny, so why shouldn't there be barriers to attaining a specific position?  Most professional jobs worth having come with a rigorous screening process.  In the corporate context, many positions require (explicitly or by custom) submission of a written vision statement.  Some even require an in-depth screening with a shrink.

The parents obviously had a bad experience with their last nanny and want to ensure a better fit this time.  They are looking for a professional nanny, not a glorified babysitter who will need a lot of day-to-day guidance in order to meet their expectations.  Some of their questions are a little too open-ended to yield productive answers, but I don't fault them for using a questionnaire.

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OP here again. I actually found this particular family through care.com. We first had an in-person interview -- the one where they (mostly the Dad) spent a lot of time venting about their current nanny to me. I got the impression from their questions/comments that she was rather young and they had micromanaged her either because they were either incapable of trusting her or because she was indeed incompetent. (From my personal reading of the Mom and Dad, I felt sorry for her and suspect the former.)

After the interview I had very mixed feelings. The hours, pay, and location were great. The two kids were adorable. But I've been around long enough to know that a true dream job depends a great deal on the nanny-parent relationship and I just didn't have a good feeling that the parents would be able to trust me enough to make that a good thing.

In spite of my misgivings, at the end of the interview when the Dad said that he wanted to email a more extensive list of questions, I agreed to participate in that next leg of the process. Later when I read the questions I knew that it probably wasn't going to work out but I figured I would answer the questions to the best of my ability anyway... like, maybe if I really sold myself well enough they would relax a little and things would turn around...

Always go with your gut. PP, to answer your question, it was the Dad who said that it was exhausting to read my answers and that he didn't think we would be a good match. Fair enough -- from the feedback on this thread I can see the mistakes I made and that I need to update my nutritional knowledge -- but like I said I do think I dodged a bullet and that they just had too much baggage from their current situation.[/quote]

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