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?

What you can always offer a trial day instead of expecting a nanny to stay for a long time at initial interview. I agree with others initial interview is usually an hour-ish, and most nannies line up several over a couple of days especially if they need to travel so I don't think that was unreasonable of her at all.

A trial day / morning / afternoon is good also as you can ensure s/he really wants the job, will show up punctually for a second time, etc.

Whatthewhat - from a nanny's perspective I would expect the initial interview to be only about an hour long and would keep my schedule clear for a 2 hour time block in case it over ran. Very often the children are not introduced at this stage. If the interview had gone well I would then be expect to be invited back for the morning/afternoon to meet the children and would obviously allow a much longer time slot for this.

In this instance the nanny had to travel a long way for interview, so it was only ever going to be the one meeting.

Also, this had been dragging on so long, we didn't have time for lots of face to face, so initial interviews were by phone.

I think interview length can vary depending on the time of day. I've certainly had an interview in the past during the day, where by I ended up staying 3 maybe 4 hours. It wasn't all interview, it turned into playing with the children, then joining the family for a light lunch, sort of just gelling with the family. Needless to say I got the job

Part of the process is getting to know each other, so the more time that can be allocated to that by all parties involved the better. However time is precious, so it depends on what the people involved have planned for their day.

WhatTheWhat do you need someone with prior nannying experience? You may find someone with nursery experience would accept a lower starting salary with a view to it increasing once they have showed they have staying power and can adapt to the job. Someone who has worked in a nursery baby room may well be experienced in dealing with several babies/toddlers at the same time.

An hour for the first interview and then longer for the 2nd interview

Several nannies I knew went for a job and they all stayed over 2hrs but all wanted to escape leave after a few mins as knew Job wasn't for them but didn't know how to leave politely

Obv harder if nanny has a long way to travel

So what are you going to do op?

We're going to keep looking - I have arranged things with work, so that I have a few more weeks' leave - so no longer time-critical. Phew.
Do you know, I have been in that same "we know it's not going to work, but we booked a longer interview and can't boot you out after 30 minutes" situation. Would most nannies prefer if the potential employer pressed the red button half way through - seems a bit harsh?
Also, the first and second interview thing starts getting rather expensive as everyone wants contributions to travelling expenses (not unreasonably) and as the job was live-in, people were travelling quite a long way on occasion.
We're going to switch to live-out, which means they have to be nearby(ish), so we will be able to do more normal interviews this time.
Also, I have just heard a friend of a friend's nanny is going to be available soon - personal recommendation - brilliant!

I know this is a zombie thread but I came across it while looking for the cheese sauce in the microwave recipe and are intrigued as to what you did in the end, WhatTheWhat?

I was once at an interview - definitely didn't want it - and saw the mum gesture to her temp nanny to wind things up. She then showed me round and kept me there for 45 minutes longer. Why, God knows.

Keep looking