Job interviews are always important, but that’s never more true than when you’re interviewing as a nanny. Parents have understandably high standards for the person they’ll entrust their children to. And even if you work with an agency rather than directly with the family, parents will often want to interview you before letting you in their home.
The nanny interview is your chance to show parents that they can trust you with their children. Whether you’re an experienced nanny or just starting on the journey to becoming a professional nanny, your career success hangs on building rapport and having good answers to nanny interview questions.
Fortunately, to riff off of one of the world’s most famous fictional nannies, a little bit of preparation helps the interview go smoothly. Keep reading to discover the nanny interview questions you should prepare for, along with tips and tricks for answering them.
How To Prepare Answers To Nanny Interview Questions
These four tricks will help you answer nanny interview questions, whether you’re preparing them ahead of time or you’re put on the spot by an unusual question.
Understand Who You Are
The better you understand your strengths, weaknesses and nannying style, the easier it will be to give compelling and convincing answers. As an added bonus, it will also help you recognize when a family is a right (or wrong) fit for you.
Make sure you can link these points to why they make you a good nanny. For example, you’re an empathetic nanny and find that when upset children feel listened to, they often calm down quicker.
Prepare STAR Anecdotes
The STAR — situation, task, action, result — model will help you share anecdotes in a structured way that highlights the importance of your actions. For example:
A child you were caring for developed a fever of 104°F (situation). You knew the child needed medical attention, and you also had to alert the parents (task).
You rang the parents and, since neither answered, left a voicemail, sent an SMS and left a note on the kitchen table. You then drove the child and their siblings straight to the nearest medical center. Fortunately, you had the children’s medical details and the parents’ health insurance information saved from your first meeting with them, but you double-checked that you had them before you began driving (action).
It turned out that the child had an ear infection, and the doctor was able to prescribe medicine. You updated the parents, and this time they answered your call. The child recovered from the ear infection within a few days (result).
Practice Answering Nanny Interview Questions With A Friend
By practicing with someone, you’ll reduce the likelihood of tripping over your words when answering nanny interview questions in a job interview. Plus, you’ll get valuable feedback on your answers.
Use Relaxation Techniques
There are few things more unnerving for parents than a nervous nanny. After all, you’re supposed to be looking after their children. They want you to be calm, composed and in control of the situation.
Unfortunately, most of us get nervous during job interviews — even if nerves never affect us once we’re on the job.
So, make sure you have some relaxation techniques to help you feel less nervous. These could include:
- Breathing exercises
- A pre-interview pep talk
- A good luck ritual
- Smiling and faking calmness
What To Do When Asked An Unexpected Interview Question
No matter how well you prepare for an interview, there’s always the possibility that a question will surprise you. The key is to stay calm.
You can buy yourself time to think by taking a sip of water (make sure to bring a bottle with you just in case) and using phrases such as:
- That’s an interesting question.
- Oh, nobody’s ever asked me that before. Well, I would say that…
- Just to confirm, you’re asking me if “[rephrase question]”?
Make sure you understand what the parent or interviewer is hoping to find out. Then, answer by drawing on your understanding of who you are and your STAR anecdotes.
Common Nanny Interview Questions You Should Prepare Answers For
- Have you worked with children of our age group before?
- What do you think is required when working with children of this age group?
- What do you think the difference between a nanny and a babysitter is?
- Why did your last nanny or childcare position end?
- Tell us about your most challenging nannying experience.
- What’s your most rewarding nannying experience?
- What kind of nanny are you? E.g. Are you strict or easygoing?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses as a nanny?
- Our child is [personality trait]. How would you handle that?
- What is your philosophy on politeness?
- What is your philosophy on discipline?
- Do you have experience with children who are neurodivergent?
- Do you have experience with children with disabilities?
- How do you handle food intolerances?
- What is your philosophy on nutrition?
- Are you comfortable administering medicine, if required?
- As a nanny, how do you respect cultural differences?
- What is your philosophy on children’s playtime and noise levels?
- How will you ensure your time with the children helps them develop a wide range of academic, social and motor skills?
- What do you do when children misbehave?
- How would you respond to children being violent?
- Do you have experience working with multiple children? How do you handle it?
- Do you speak additional languages, and if so, can you use them with the children?
- Can you work around the house rules?
- What would you do if you received seemingly contradictory instructions from the two parents?
- What would you do if you didn’t feel that you were connecting with a child?
- Are you able to drive children to events and playdates?
Impress Parents and Agencies With A Tailor-Made Resume
A professional, polished nanny resume will help you not only get invited to interviews but also start them off on the right foot. Parents will have already formed a positive first impression of you, and often will just be looking to see if there’s a good connection in person.
Your resume needs to highlight your unique skills, experiences and background, while also being customized to the family or agency in question. It should be professionally laid out, concise and easy to read. And, if you’re applying to agencies or through websites, it must be machine-readable.
Writing an eye-catching and optimized resume doesn’t have to be complicated, however. We’ve got a wide range of nanny resume templates for all experience levels and nannying styles.
These nanny resume templates are easy to adapt to your own background, especially with the help of our resume builder. It will suggest the ideal structure based on key details about your professional background, in addition to recruiter-suggested phrasing for your skills and experiences.
With our resume builder and templates, you can rest assured that your resume will be professional, polished and machine-readable. It takes just 10 minutes to create, so build your resume now and set yourself up for interview success.