Au pair recruitment

[OVienna]

I have posted on another thread but I need to ask a specific question again here and get some advice.

I would need an AP to start in late August/September. For various reasons but most importantly whether we might be moving to a radically different area of the country part way through the year, I would like to avoid recruiting until June. Do you think this is a crazy risk for a late August start?

If we AREN'T going, then I definitely want to recruit for another whole school year. If we ARE, then half a year would be fine.

The other location is far enough away that basically I think we'd have to recruit a totally new person. I can't see that the person would be happy settling in London and then being moved four hours away to a city where there are few au pairs. We'd really have to find someone willing and able to live there.

The other issue is a lot of the language school terms require payment through to February in our area (from a start in late Sept.)

Grr - in case anyone is wondering this is all to do with secondary school mania.

Not in UK but we started llooking for au pair mid Oct last year & had the one we wanted by mid Nov, we could've had someone less suitable earlier.

I usually do it three months in advance. But actually this time, out original au pair fell through (VISA issues) and so it was only 2.5 months.

I always think its best to clear expectations first, so yes, I think you should wait.

You'd actually be amazed how many au pair there are in cities outside London. We live near Beaconsfield and there are maybe a couple of hundred au pairs within a 3 mile radius. Most commuter belts are the same.
Most cities/towns have Facebook pages for au pairs you could check what the local au pair situation is like before you move.

I usually recruit in June for Sept. Always loads of great candidates still available.

Your location is often a major deciding factor for APs - so as Karoleann states - you should wait.

There are far more APs looking than host families, so don't worry too much about timing. When I have been let down in the past, I have actually managed to search, interview, check references, make the offer and collected them from the airport within 2-3 weeks. This has happened twice to me and the APs have turned out to be absolutely wonderful.