How to Prepare For and Conduct an Au Pair Telephone Interview?

How to Prepare For and Conduct an Au Pair Telephone Interview?

Selecting an au pair offers the chance to find the perfect child care provider for your home. You will need to interview the au pairs you think might be a good match for your family over the phone, which lets you learn more about them, explore their child care background and discuss what you both are looking for out of this experience.

You should prepare for your au pair interview beforehand to get the most out of it. Here are a few tips for getting ready for and actually conducting the interview.

Write out a List of Questions

You want to ensure you don’t miss any topics you want to cover in your interview, which is why you should have all your questions written out beforehand. Here are a few areas to ask about:

• Prior child care experience
• Whether they have been away from home before
• Education and family background
• Why they want to be an au pair
• Discipline style
• Health

Ask Questions Specific to Your Family

In addition to asking more general questions of your au pair candidate, you should also cover things that relate directly to your family. Say you have a child with asthma. You should ask if the candidate has ever administered an inhaler, if they feel comfortable and have experience caring for a child with a special need and if they smoke. These answers could help you rule someone out as a potential caregiver.

Discuss How to Handle Challenges

No au pair experience will be 100% smooth. You want to know whether your problem-solving instincts match those of your au pair. Offer hypothetical emergency or high-stress situations, and ask the candidate to respond in order to gauge how they would react to distress.

They may not give a “wrong” answer, but you may realize through your conversation that another candidate may be a better fit for your family and the way you deal with things.

How to Conduct an Interview for an Au Pair

Here are some tips to conduct an interview for your au pair:

• Be courteous and keep in mind English is their second language. Don’t speak fast or use big vocabulary words. Talk in simple language without using slang.
• Don’t try to make your family seem perfect. If you have concerns about your children’s homework or other issues, they are going to come out sooner or later with anyone who lives with you. Be honest about your situation so the au pair understands what they are coming into.
• Take notes throughout the interview so you can reference them later. This is especially helpful when you conduct multiple interviews, as you may get answers from Candidate 1 and Candidate 2 confused. You don’t want to make a choice based on incorrect information.
• Allot sufficient time for the interview. This is a big decision. Don’t cram the interview in while driving home from work or standing on the sidelines of your child’s soccer game. Find a quiet place where you can concentrate and devote at least an hour to the interview.

When you follow these guidelines, you will have a productive and informative interview that will help you make your choice. Remember, you can always contact EurAupair if you have any questions about the process.