Au Pair World/agency

[OVienna]

Sorry this just to vent. I really don't have any clsoe friends with APs anymore who I can share this with.

Honestly, does anyone else think there must be a better way to sort out applicants on AP World? I have put some very specific things in my ad (length of stay for one, which I have stated is non-negotiable). I am getting the usual 'press send' crew who it would appear in most cases haven't even bothered to read it.

It's to the point I could in theory disregard 80% of the applications.

If I could afford it I would consider an agency.

Does anyone have any sensible ones to recommend?

I don't have any suggestions apart from perseverance.
How long do you want them to stay. If you're looking for 9 months or more it's harder to find. And those who do agree that length of time don't necessarily stay anyway.

Good luck. I really feel your pain.

I'm using au pair world and find it a crap site but am persevering as don't want to go the agency route!

I have found using an agency really worth it as have had 3 brilliant au pairs (and a total of 3 au pairs). Each for 1 year although the current one may stay longer.

Can you pls pm me who you are using?

have just pmed you.

Grand/upsee
I bet we are talking to some of the same people: are you looking for August? We started earlier than expected for various reasons. Yes, we are looking for someone for a whole school year. I've never had an issue with that before though and we've not (to date anyway) had someone leave early.

Aher thanks for your PM.

For the first time EVER I was sent a profile yesterday I'm not convinced was gen. The girl looked about 13!!!! Quite freaky really. It does make you think.

Also, getting quite a lot of gushing: "I saw your profile and all my dreams came true" applications. I have to remind myself that they are undoubtedly saying this to everyone.

I started looking on APW and whatever the other one is but I just couldn't cope with the volume of "applications" from people who were clearly not a match for what I had put in my brief. And the ones that looked right usually rejected my interest

I've used an agency in the Oxford area - is that any good for you OVienna? She covers quite a wide area (I'm not that near Oxford). She was recommended by the team who does au pair placements through the German YMCA in London (who couldn't do a placement for me because we are outside London).

Our AP has been utterly fantastic - she was supposed to be here the whole academic year, but sadly she's had a bit of a "finding herself" year and has decided APing isn't for her, and wants to move on and get on with her studies. We are looking for a new AP to start end of Feb, which is proving tricky - not a great time of year for it! also I'm quite picky, and the first AP has set the bar rather high!

I find AP world that initially a little depressing no one seems quite right and then suddenly from the pack emerges the right person. It just takes a little time and energy. Of course with an agency you pay them to do all that filtering.

OVienna. We've just recruited for a April start on au pair world and probably only 10% of the applicants didn't fit our criteria (mind you I do delete the ones that don't write a personal message without even looking at their profile).

It does help to state what you want several times. So our profile says independent about 6 times and on each section in bold I put the age we need 22-30 and the fact they must have 4 years driving experience.

I think you're a little bit early to recruit for August though.

I did try and use an agency initially, but unless you're in London they have few candidates and it tends to be the younger, less confident candidates who us the agencies. I suppose if they are younger they don't often have the confidence to do it themselves on au pair world. Anyway neither agency we used sent us any vaguely suitable CVs so I gave up and did it myself.

Karoleann
I would normally agree; it's a bit complicated and I probably shouldn't say too much on here but I originally went on with the intention of bringing someone on earlier.

We also have a very specific requirement which can take a longer time to search for.

I have previously had German au pairs and I do find that the ones who are super sure they want to be au pairs the following year are on there and looking by December.

We go for school leavers.