Screening profiles on APW - tips and tricks?

[MarasmeAbsolu]

I have posted before about our tricky AP. I was ready to sack her, but several acquaintance (DD's friends parents mostly) have spontaneously come up with little remarks on how good AP is with DD. So, while she still does nothing at home/refusing to engage in the cultural exchange element of being an AP, I decided that we'd keep her on.

I did not feel that the agency we used provided any of the help they'd promise in term of conflict. So I am following advice received here, and have set-up an APW profile to start thinking about the next placement (next summer start).

I was a little surprised at how limited the screening options on APW are, which means a lot of trawling. Also, within 10 minutes of the profile going up, we've received ten applications. How do you guys go through them? Any tip?
I am at the point where I am almost thinking to set up a wee questionnaire to better assess the AP's profiles!

I really hope that this time we'll find someone a little more in tune with our expectations...

I wonder if it's too early to look for a summer au pair now. They could change their minds between now and then.
Also it's hard to give tips without knowing what you're looking for. Each household has different needs.
E.g. I'm now looking for someone who's e educated and lived away from home. But that's not everyone's cup of tea. The trawling is exhausting so personally I wouldn't start so early.

I'm currently screening for an April au pair, my screening is they

1. Send a personal message.
2. Have all the criteria I need: age, driving, length of stay, level of english, wants to be independent. (it will be different for you.)
3. Mention children in their profile, i.e. they like children, experience with children.
4. Has a picture and the picture is (a) not pouty (b) they are not very, very overweight (c) they are not very beautiful (d) they do not have odd piercings or tattoos.
5. Have a degree.
6. They mention some outside interests (for some reason we seem to get on with au pairs who like horse riding - even though I do not like horses at all, but we do have 2 stables nearby)
7. Have lived away from home before.

Yours are going to be different, but do a list of things that are important to you.

Filter out what country you want to recruit from, that will make it easier. The spanish are often highly educated and older, but with limited english, the Germans often trainee teachers with english knowledge but not always confident speakers, the Scandinavians and Dutch speak perfect english but are often straight out of school, have a think about what culturally appeals to your family. I always look for someone who has lived away from home before as this solves lots of problems to start with. I wouldnt worry too much about appearance, our first AP had blue hair and piercings and was superb in every way.