Au pair and interviewing

[giulia68]

I'd be grateful for any advice. We are hoping to find an Italian au pair to come to us in April ( I am an Italian) and have put an ad on Gumtree. A couple of interesting prospective candidates have got in touch but they are in Italy and not able ( I think understandably) just to come here for an interview. Is it normal to hire an au pair without having met her.. and if so how do I do phone interviews? Thanks for any help!

Hi Giulia
Am not sure how Gumtree works as I am in Ireland and it doesn't suit me here. I am in the process of hiring our new aupair through aupairworld.net - basically what I have done is put up my profile with enough information for aupairs to see if they like the feel of our family. Secondly, I have searched through the aupairs who are registered and either they have contacted me or I have contacted them.

Once I know that a girl is interested and her profile matches our family I have e-mailed an extended profile giving more detailed information about the children, ourselves and what it would be like to spend their placement with us.

I am now sending a short questionnaire to them to ensure their compatability and will follow through with a telephone interview based on the information we have exchanged and some additional questions.

There seem to be quite a number of Italian aupairs on Aupairworld.com so would suggest you register there too to see if any of the girls suit there.

HTH
Best of luck. I am in contact with two fabulous girls and hope one will be our next aupair.

Mishmash, thanks very much, I will do that and register. Sounds a sensible procedure. Good luck with finding your au pair! Cheers, Giulia