Boo hoo, Anyone else had no luck finding PT nanny applicants via nannyjob etc?

[Furzella]

I'm looking for a new nanny, Mondays to Wednesdays, live out. Last time (when I was a nanny virgin) I went via agencies, had lots of great candidates to interview and picked a fantastic girl who's been with us for two and a half years. The agency charged us about £750 I think at the time and I winced, swallowed and paid up.

This time, partly after reading lots of people on here saying that the agencies were money for old rope, I decided to try independently first and have advertised on nannyjob and familiesonline. I've only had 1 applicant so far and she was unqualified and looking for full time live in. I expected to get applicants who didn't fulfil the criteria but was surprised to get nothing else at all. Has anyone else looked for a part time nanny via these routes? Have you any tips?

Keep advertising on nannyjob, thats the site most nannies will look for jobs.

Also have you tried gumtree? This too is popular with nannies. good luck

I'm in the same situation at the moment. I've had luck with ads in the local paper in the past but this time I'm trying Gumtree. About 10 responses so far.

I will give gumtree a go and probably give nannyjob another shot in a couple of weeks. It's all a lot cheaper than an agency so I guess maybe I need to keep trying until something comes up. Maybe people are still in the holiday mood and once September starts more people will be around.

I think the holiday season is your problem. I would also recommend gumtree.

Live out part time makes it a bit more difficult, but I would think you should get better luck than 1 applicant.

I got more applicants on gumtree than nannyjob but they were mainly unqualified, poor written English and had not read the job description properly. Had more luck posting on local netmums site but noone quite right.
Gave up sifting through in the end and went for an agency. Having said that some of the Central agencies were completely rubbish probably due to us living in the sticks. A more local agency did the trick and we have found someone fab.

When reposting your advert, modify it a little if you find you get undesirable applicants. Sure some applicants may not read the advert properly, but with luck if enough is specified in the advert, you should get applicants who at least meet the criteria.

Given the low cost of internet advertising, place adverts in as many places as you can. Also, if you need a live-out nanny, don't forget to advertise locally as well - such as newsagents windows, where you can put a little about the job, contact info, plus the URL of one of your internet ads - so that local applicants can find out a bit more before they call/email you.

Good luck. If it helps, as a nanny, when job hunting my first port of call is the nannyjob database.

which area are you in?

Simply Childcare magazine is also a good route!

Thanks all - sorry, have only just got back to the laptop after end of hols pandemonium.

Eleusis - I was hoping it was just the holiday season. Certainly in my normal working life no one ever recruits in the summer, so maybe if I try again in a week or so I might have more success.

LadyG, we had much more success with the specific South West London agencies [omega2 we're in Furzedown, just south of Tooting Common] rather than the central London or nationals last time, partly because I think they could match candidates to families better as they have a good sense of the areas. Someone who wanted a job in Knightsbridge in a multi-floored mansion would not want to be my nanny!

Nannynick, I was pretty specific in my ad, as I know exactly what I want! But I think your idea of advertising locally is a good plan and in fact this morning my lovely cleaner told me about a friend of hers who's a trained nanny who might be interested - crossed fingers.

I hadn't thought of trying Simply Childcare magazine, chelseamum - bon plan.