I'm interviewing nannys for a part time position. DD1 has been in two different dc places -- one a home daycare and the other a center. I feel fairly confident in interviewing people as far as those settings, but what kinds of things have you encountered/questions would you ask if you could go back to the interview stage for a nanny?
Our employee pool will likely be college students.
TIA


Hmm. Good question. The nannies/au pairs that I have interviewed have not had English as a first language which has been a factor in the interview process and I have often had to rely on their written description of themselves and I have always looked for someone who described themselves as principally kind, caring, gentle vs. disciplined, athletic, or organized. Maybe you could frame a question with different adjectives and ask them to pick the one that most described themselves?
When I do talk with them on the phone, I always describe a toddler tantrum and ask them how they would deal with it. I also ask questions about babies and incessant crying. If I was speaking with an English speaker, I would probably describe a situation in detail that was particularly trying and ask them how the would handle it. Obviously, it is best to ask this before you explain what you are looking for!!
Good luck in your search!


We have employed two wonderful nannies (both post-college). Here are the questions we used in our most recent interviews.
We started all interviews by introducing ourselves, talking about the position, talking a bit about ourselves and our ds's nature. We talked about salary, our desire for at least a 1-year commitment.
One of the most important things we looked for was not in this list of questions: it was our gut reaction as we watched candidates interact with our son.
When we hired our nannies, we used detailed employment contracts that spelled out our obligations and the nanny's.
Also, in our job description and initial conversations with candidates, we spelled out requirements on which we wouldn't bend (we wanted someone with at least some childhood development education on the college level; someone with at least 1 year of nanny experience; someone comfortable with our politics and our values; dependable)
Anyway, here are questions we asked:
NANNY INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1) Please tell us a little bit about yourself (where born, raised, education, etc.)
2) Please describe your previous child care work experience (incl. why ended):
2a) What sort of child development education have you had?
3) What do you find most enjoyable about childcare? Most challenging aspect?

4) What do you see as your primary responsibility to a child this age?
5) What kind of activities would you do with our child?
6) How do you handle discipline?
7) What are your strengths as a caregiver? Your challenges?
8) Have you ever had to handle an emergency while providing childcare? How did you handle it?
9) What are you looking for in a childcare position? What sort of family do you like to work for?

10) What do you like to do in your free time? (NOTE: We didn't ask this if we weren't seriously considering hiring the candidate. This was to try and get a better sense of people we were really positive about. Since the nanny/parent relationship is such an intimate one, we wanted to hire someone with whom we thought we would genuinely get along and have common interests, values, etc.)
11) What questions do you have about this position or about us? Any concerns?


kerc, especially considering your climate, you might want to ask about what they might do on a day too cold/snowy to go outside.


kerc, especially considering your climate, you might want to ask about what they might do on a day too cold/snowy to go outside. :lol Included in my list of things to ask is something along the lines of "do you have warm enough clothes to take the kids out to play in the snow?" Because of course it is too cold only when it it sub-zero out.

kaydee -- thanks so much for your response. It has lots of good ideas in there.


The screening question I found most useful was, "What do you think babies Alex's age need?" (She was 3mos old when we started using nanny care 16 hours per week.)
The nanny we hired said that she thought babies Alex's age needed lots of physical contact, and they needed to be talked to. She's worked for us for five months now.


I just read a book, "protecting the gift" I wish I'd read sooner by Gavin de Becker. He has a list of great questions to ask. One was, "have you ever been in an emergency situation while babysitting" another was "have you ever abused a child"--he says good people won't mind this question and well, how would you feel if the interviewee said "define abuse". Also ask them what the best and worst kid they babysat was like. Also ask who their best friend is and what their relationship is like--imagine if the babysitter coiuldn't name anyone! He had more ideas, like asking references if they knew anyone else you could talk to--so you get to talk to people they don't list as references.
I recommend taking a look at the book, though it kind of scared the bejeebers out of me.