Hired or Fired? Nanny candidates...

[WhatTheWhat]

We have two possible nanny candidates, are they Hired or Fired, in your view?

Job is looking after little boy twins (1 yr) sole charge three days and shared care of the twins plus older sister (3yrs) on two days. Total hours 60. Salary is at the top of the local range. Position is live-in or live-out, but no change to salary either way. Must be able to cook. Nursery duties only. We'd like our nanny to stay with us for several years.

Candidate One: energetic, seems keen on the job, wants to move to our area to be near family, has held two long-term jobs, great references, wants 'at least' the top of our salary band, wants the hours to be reduced to 50 per week, isn't entirely happy with the shared care element, it's not entirely clear whether she can cook - the thing she made at interview was pretty vile, but who knows whether that's usual, seemed to be good at playing with the kids.

Candidate Two: mature candidate, has experience with twins, really keen on the job, happy with the salary, happy with the hours, not yet sure if she can cook as awaiting final interview, happy to live-in and rent out her place, happy to work on a shared care basis, not very sparky and seemed more of a 'soft-play' kind of nanny than a 'finger painting at home' nanny. Although she said she really wants to work closer to home, the agency has said she's not the type to job-hop. Great references and one long-term post. Currently unemployed and working in a hotel.

So: Hired or Fired?

I don't think a young nanny that has little cooking experience would be a deal breaker for me. We all learn at some point and very few people would be so bad at cooking that they couldn't follow some simple recipes from a cookbook or your written instructions of a favourite recipe. I think it's worth asking the nanny to come up with a weeks menu plan (lunch & dinner & snacks) as that shows whether she has much idea about nutrition, what constitutes a balanced meal and whether she's thought about how to get the '5-a-day' into the children's diet.

Little story for you As a 17 year old nanny I went into work one day and Mum told me she was taking the children to visit some friends for the day. She asked if I would do a few jobs and make a shepherd's pie for their tea and then I could leave early. Well, shepherd's pie wasn't something I'd really eaten at home as my Mum has an aversion to mince. But I didn't admit to it as I didn't think it could be that hard to make. So I duly boiled the potatoes and mashed them. I fried the mince with some onions and carrots, tipped them into a bowl and put the mashed potato on top. That's right - no oxo cube or gravy of any sort! Mum never mentioned it to me and never asked me to make shepherd's pie again It was several months later when reading a cookery book that I realised my mistake

Ebb - I just checked our agencies (except the one that doesn't let 'outsiders' search their adverts) and the adverts are correct.

nbee84 - we'd probably be OK with that as ours are too little for stock cubes!

Oh that's good. I PM'd you before reading your last reply so please ignore me.

i would say no to no 1 as she wants the hours changed - then again my motto is dont ask, dont get

im assuming its 7-7 5 days a week - but if shared care, couldnt you do 8-6 or even 9-5 on two days - hence making 60hrs into 52 - or even 4 days and you have one day alone ...........

no 2 doesnt sound all bad and maybe had had bad experiences looking after parents children so simply stating whats she does,ie nursery duties

avoid the one with driving offences - one yes - many nannies i know have points for speeding, but several strikes is bad

look for someone else

I would definitely not recommend asking anyone to bake a cake for an interview. Quite apart from not knowing oven, etc, baking and cooking are completely different things. I cam cook quite well but I have never been able to bake except from a box.

Nbee that shepherds pie doesn't sound that bad, you did have carrot and onion.
Think you are too hard on yourself

Whatthewhat did you mean no.1 didn't seem to be a 'put a mug in the dishwasher' sort or no.2?

That's how I make cheese sauce in the microwave - impossible to burn :)

Op - you want the nanny to actually MAKE the pasta ???? As in not use a packet of dried???

Yes microwave sauce is great when in a hurry.

And make pasta -? Really?

Actually I think baking a cake would be good at an interview...see if she gets the DC involved or not. Very telling.

I have know people ask nannies at interview if they can cook cheese sauce or not. Apparently if you can make a white sauce you can make anything.

I can whisk up a cheese sauce with my eyes closed, but please don't ask me to make custard. I never know how thick/thin other people want it.

I don't put stock cubes in my shepherds pie. Although I don't actually make shepherds pie as I don't eat potato...but same principle.

Personally I could deal with someone who was upfront and said they couldn't cook. It's people who have a tendency to overinflate their abilities that concern me and cooking is an easy test without people feeling too offended. If they say they can cook and can't then they either don't want to admit to a weakness, which isn't great, or they've overstated what they can do either deliberately or be ause they genuinely feel they can And if they overstate one thing they may have overstated another, like their swimming ability which would be a dealbreaker but I can't ask them to come swimming at interview!

I don't expect gourmet food btw, just edible and not under/overdone.

Re the shepherd's pie - surely the mince wouldn't taste good if it hadn't been cooked with some sort of gravy (I use the lo salt stock cubes that are around these days for little ones) Now that I do eat mince I can't imagine eating it just fried with onion and carrot, it needs some sort of liquid and to be cooked in it for a while to tenderise.

Ah did you not add any kind of liquid? I fry mine and then add so I guess it dirt if makes its own stock.... I can sort of see where you're coming from now.

least you didnt mix the pages up like rachel did in friends and make trifle with shepherds pie

classic episode

Don't negotiate on the hours as this nanny knew what they were before she accepted an interveiw.

The 3rd candidate sounds a bit dodgy on the driving front, I would either give no two a trial as she ticks quite a few of your boxes or just look for someone you feel will be more suited to your needs

The trouble with cooking at an interveiw is that most people get flustered when they think they are being put up for some sort of test; Even the cooks on the TV shows have the "Here is one I made earlier" thing going on in case of disaster

I would ask what kind of food she would consider suitable for your children's age group. That, at least will give you an idea of her knowledge of food and nutrition.

I thought only Italian ladies made pasta from scratch!

Dear God, make the pasta? Ha ha ha ha. Who do you think we are? No, no. I only ever ask people to knock up a little cheese souffle, maybe a beef Wellington and perhaps a hazelnut roulade to finish. Nothing major.
I would be glad if whatever gets made is not burned, broadly edible and still contained something akin to vitamins. And quell this rumour that we make people make cakes.
To be honest, before I make a job offer, I like to have spent some time with the candidate. Asking them to cook fills out a bit of time when they're around and about, doing something that they're hopefully good at and not sitting at our kitchen table feeling nervous. AND it tests whether they can cook. Win-win.
Number two is the muck in with the family type and number one said something about feeling dis-chuffed with her current family because they expected her to pack the dishwasher with their stuff as well as the kids' stuff. Have to say - that will be the norm in Villa del What.
No3 is out more because of the lack of experience with little ones than necessarily the CRB.

the dishwasher thing does sound petty but maybe her present family leave her piles of dishes from the day before I'm afraid I like this candidate less and less!

I don't think it's very professional to make negative comments about your previous /current employer at interview.

Agree sunshinenanny - it really makes me cringe to think that she would be likely to be saying such things about me when she moves on eventually.
Hilariously, this has pretty much resolved itself as we've had an email from the agency setting out No1's proposed hours of work, which are nothing like what we want. If it's this much trouble before we even start, I think we'll keep looking!
Might see if we can also bump the salary up a little bit. Problem is, we're also paying for nursery and if it all gets too expensive we will start eating into my other half's salary too, so going back to work makes less and less sense. Shame that it has taken me over 10 years to gain the experience and qualifications that I currently have. Perhaps I should lobby the government to make ALL childcare payments come under the salary sacrifice scheme - ie no double taxation. That's the killer, really. I pay tax and then pay tax again when I pay my nanny. And I only have my nanny so I can work and therefore pay tax. It's a nonsense situation.

Oh, just ditch no.1 already; she's coming off as bad news before you've even thought about a contract.

And YES to all childcare costs taken out of taxation.

I suspect Blondes was remembering the pastagate thread.

pmsl ebb - gawd i rem that thread of pastagate

Please don't rule someone out for a blemished CRB! See my thread for more details but I can honestly vouch for youthful mistakes and how the new law leads them to haunt you! Judge her character and just keep the driving offence thing in the back of your mind. 10 years is a long time.

Just thought i'd have my ha'penny's worth!

Well, as an update for those who've been kind enough to post: we decided No1 was worryingly high-maintenance and probably really wanted a different job. So "Fired". Number 2 came back for a second interview and it was rather dull, to say the least. She didn't really 'gel' with the kids, although her pasta and sauce was great.
Also, what kind of nanny, on a nanny-interview where the potential employer has said 'this is all about how you get on with the kids and how they get on with you', observes out loud that a child has a runny nose and leaves it at that. No 'where can I find a tissue' or 'let's wipe your nose', just 'well, there's a child with a runny nose. Nothing to do with me. Ho hum'. Extraordinary.
We wondered if we needed to offer more money, but we're already offering £25-£27k. Surely, SURELY that's enough to get someone good???
Luckily, we have Candidate 4 coming up apace from the rear. A late applicant, she seems hyper-competent, so I am not giving up hope yet.