I am not sure. Obviously we screen out people who can't answer the question "Why do you want to be an au pair?" (and about a third can't understand this question!) We ask them about their childcare experience and interests, whether they can do a bit of cleaning and put a wash on, whether they can do a bit of cooking, what their hobbies are, how they would expect to discipline a child, how their friends would describe them, how they plan to make friends in the local area, whether they plan to go to English classes, and so on.
The ones who succeed in the job have:
- Working mothers, indeed the more hours the mothers work, the better.
- Previous experience of paid work where they have had to graft a bit.
- A sense of humour.
- A good sense of organisation and a sense of focus.
Things that appear on AP CVs that strangely don't seem to impact on success in the role:
- Training as a youth leader.
- Experience of entertaining children in summer camps.
- Babysitting locally.
I think this is because this is highly directed work, either with qualified people telling them what to do all the time, or the kids are asleep, or the parents can be brought back at short notice if there are any problems.
My best ones were:
- Former ice cream seller from Switzerland who went on to become an economist.
- Trained nursery nurse from Germany x 2.
- Trained chef from Spain.
- Student from Switzerland who went on to become an oceanographer.
- Foodie from France who could make a meal out of anything.
- Teacher trainee from Germany, mid course.
- Serial AP from Norway - we were her third AP job!
Red flags from past interviews (people we didn't hire):
"I am very afraid of insects"
"I can't go out in damp weather because I get asthma"
"I want you to be my new family"
Retrospective clues it was going to go wrong:
Inability to organise bank account/SIM card for themselves
Arriving with hand luggage only (!)
Parents delivering them to our door (!!)
Turning up to have a leisurely breakfast in PJs when we are all dressed and about to leave the house - usually starts in week 2 if they are going funny.
Shouting at the kids
Reporting to me that my children are ill-disciplined and unresponsive to them after they have been bellowing at them repeatedly in an authoritarian way.
Scruffy appearance (e.g. turning up to school in old sports kit or poorly fitting clothes), bad haircuts and little care of skin/personal hygiene through not washing clothes often enough (usually an indicator they are socially unaware, with hindsight)
Weird way of looking at us, slightly unsettling, again socially inappropriate.Neighbours usually comment on this as well.
Sleeping during working hours (probably the biggest indicator - should always get rid of people caught sleeping on the job, apart form anything else dangerous for the kids)
Spending all evening every evening on Skype speaking to people back home
Things that do not seem to have as much impact as you would think:
Boyfriends/girlfriends coming to stay
Going out nightclubbing a lot
Doing additional babysitting for other people