A phone interview is a critical part of the matching process with an Au pair. Rarely are you able to interview an Au pair candidate in person, only in re-match situations where you live in the same location, or if you are willing to fly her to your home for a personal interview.
Here are is what you would want to accomplish during a phone interview.
1. Understanding her English skills. Why? Poor English comprehension skills and not being able to verbalize English can easily lead to misinterpretations and misunderstandings.
2. Evaluating her childcare experience is one of the main focuses of a phone interview with an au pair. As well as her love of children.
3. Knowing her driving experience is particularly important if your au pair needs to shuttle your kids around to school and activities. Even if you don't need a chauffeur' for the kids, your au pair still has to attend monthly au pair meetings that the counselor of your agency sets up, and she has to complete 6 credit hours (approx. 65 85 classroom hours, depending on au pair agency and school attended) of English as a second language type classes and other accepted classes at a post secondary school.
4. Ability and willingness to pick up after the kids (child-related chores) and doing some limited household chores around the common areas of the house that she spends time in during her workday'.
5. Ability to cook. For those host parents who are interested in the au pair occasionally cooking a meal from their home country, or just generally sharing cooking with host mom or host dad.
Because I am limited in space, I will only cover the first 2 points in this article. The remaining 3 points will be addressed in a later contribution.
Understanding her English skills
The best way to accomplish this is by always ask open-ended questions. That forces her to answer your questions in full sentences. It enables you to understand her level of English comprehension, grammar, vocabulary, and ability to verbalize English.
Evaluating Child Care Experience
How early in life did she start babysitting, the earlier the likelier that she loves children a lot. Which translates into the main reason/motivation to become Au Pair.
In General: Ask a lot of questions about the type of play, activities, projects, outdoor play, etc. she has done with kids. How many days per week/month. How many hours per day. To get an impression of the extent of her childcare experience.
And here are some relevant questions.
a. When did you start babysitting? How many years ago? How old where you?
b. How often did you care for (name kids that she babysat according to application)? Weekly? Monthly?
c. Have you ever cared for children all day or 7-8 hours? (does she understand what a full day of childcare is like)
d. How many kids have you watched and played with when babysitting? For how many hours? How many days, weeks, months? (can she handle 2 or more children at the same time)
e. What would you do if ie. 2 siblings fight with each other?
f. What kind of outdoor activities have you done with kids?
g. What do you play inside the house with ie. with a 3 year old? With a 7 year old?
h. What kinds of activities would you plan for a year old boy/girl?
i. What do you do when kids don't listen to you, don't follow your direction?
j. How would you get our children to like and cooperate with you?
k. How would your handle the following situation? Give specific problems, ie. if she/he doesn't want to put on shoes or clothes before going outside, food/meal struggles, etc.
h. How were you disciplined as a child? (she is likely to copy her parents' manner of discipline)
How do you discipline your babysitting kids?
Love of Children
a. Home many children do you want to have yourself later on?
b. Do you hug the kids that you are babysitting, either when you are arriving or leaving?
c. What do you do when a child falls down and hurts herself/himself?
If you would like to learn more about how to interview Au pair candidates, please visit the main menu in Au pair Selection Advice
Disclaimer: All information on this site is provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice provided to you by any health care or other professional
or organization.
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