Effective Interviews for Parents

You chose to hire us to save you time and effort throughout the process of finding a quality caregiver.
Once we’ve fully vetted a short list of applicants for you, the next step is for you to personally meet them face-to-face. The good news is that a great deal of the laborious work is already done. The agency interview, references and job history have all pointed to the fact that this may be an excellent candidate for your family. By now meeting with them yourself, it’ll give you a chance to select the very best fit for your family.

“2 for 2”

During the actual interview yourself, it’ll be important to keep a few things in mind. First, some nannies can be more shy or quiet in an interview but may spring into action naturally around children. Others can interview strongly at first but may have less of a natural connection with you or your children after meeting a second time. Therefore, we generally suggest a “2 for 2” approach—a two-part interview for your top two candidates. The first meeting should include just the adults, while the second physical meeting should be more of a working interview to meet the children and observe the interaction.

Step 1: Face to Face

When meeting the applicants for the first time, you’ll obviously want to cover the basics. A distraction-free environment is best so that you can concentrate on digging deeper with an in-depth interview. Although you’ll want to honestly fill the candidate in about the job and what your realistic expectations are, it’s also equally important to allow enough time to really get a feel for who the nanny is. Rest assured, we will provide you guidance before this step in the process along with a list of questions to ask and some sample scenarios to pose. You’ll also have a detailed report beforehand from each reference that covers information including work history dates, primary responsibilities and comments about how the candidates handled everything from medical needs to daily household duties.

Step 2: Working Interview

If you decide to move further and you’d like the nanny to meet the children, we recommend you then schedule a paid working interview for the day. This is anywhere from one hour to a full day’s work in which you can observe the children interacting in your home environment with the nanny while also getting to know the candidate on a more personal level. By exchanging roles with the nanny later in the day after the children are comfortable, this can give you a further glimpse about the nanny’s character, reliability, charisma and ability to forge a connection with your family.