Back to Blogging

Looking Back
Browsing through my old posts and I'm like "Oh man, my past posts are sooo STUPID".
Oh well. It's out there. It's done, move on.

Between 2016-2020
Got two kids, still married to Dave, still working full-time, and also dabbling in Airbnb hosting.
Posts to come!

100 Interview Questions for Nannies

When it comes to nannies/au pairs, you want to have a pretty good picture of whom you're dealing with to make sure the nanny is (1) Safe, (2) Honest, and (3) The Right Fit.  You need to plan on asking many questions to your candidate until you are comfortable making an informed decision.  

The thing I've learned with interviewing several nannies is this: If you are happy with the candidate's answers to questions you feel are most important to you, then that is a good thing.  


If you are not super certain after the interview, my suggestion is to keep looking because that feeling of uncertainty will not go away once the nanny is hired.  You want to have a feeling of certainty and need to have this to base you childcare decision on.  It may take time, and may have to interview more than one person but getting that feeling of certainty is so worth it because the parents who have it are so, so much happier when their kids are at home with someone they trust. 

Here are the ones I've come up with and used pretty much all of them in interviews. 


BACKGROUND QUESTIONS

• Tell me about yourself.  Where are you from?  What languages do you speak?  How long have you studied/practiced English?
• Tell me more about your childhood, what you studied, jobs you did, places you've worked?
• Have you lived anywhere else besides Utah? (If yes) Where? How long?  
• How long have you been in Utah? 
• Have you been to the United States before? (If yes) What year and how old were you?
• Why do/did you want to come to the USA?  Why Utah? 
• Do you have family here in Utah? Do you know anyone else here in the United States?  (If yes) Who, relationship, how long and where?
• (If your au pair needs to enter the US on a visa): Have you already applied for your visa?  When could you arrive?

FAMILY HISTORY QUESTIONS

• Tell us a little more about your parents.  How old are they and what do they do?  Married/divorced/widowed?
• What values did your parents teach you as being most important in life?
• In what ways are you like your mother?  Father? 
• What type of relationship do you have with your parents?
• Do you have siblings? (If yes) How many? What are their ages?  Do you get along well with them? 
• Have you ever lived away from your family before? 
• How does your family feel about you coming to the United States?  How do they feel about you being a nanny/au pair? 

QUESTIONS THAT RELATE TO A CANDIDATE'S PERSONALITY, MATURITY LEVEL, AND INTERESTS

• Why did you choose to become a nanny/au pair?
• Are you currently working for a family? (If yes) How much notice you will need to give them should you decide to leave for another job opportunity? 
• Why are you looking for a new position?
• Why are you interested in this position? 
• What are your plans for the future, school, life, travel etc?
• What are you looking for in an employer/host family?
• If hired, what will your priorities be during your employment with our family?
• What do you like to do in your free time by yourself? What about with friends? With family? 

PERSONAL HISTORY

• Do you have children?  (If yes) How many? What are their ages? What did you like to do with them when they were the ages of our children?  (If no) Is becoming a parent in your life plans in the near future? 
• Do you have a boyfriend?  (If yes) How long have you been together?  (For live-ins) Is he supportive during your stay as an au pair?  Do you think you will both be able to cope with the situation of being separated for a longer period of time? 
• What are your favorite foods?  Do you have a specific diet or open to trying out different food? 
• What we are paying a nanny to do is taking care of and being responsible for little children for an extended period of time.  It requires a lot of physical energy and also a lot of inner calm.  That being said, have you had any prior lengthy illnesses, physical or mental? (If yes) What? When? For how long? Are you in treatment? How long in recovery? What are you doing to stay healthy and be able to do the job? 
• Did any of your employers require you to have immunizations? 
• Do you practice a religion? 

QUESTIONS ABOUT A CANDIDATE'S GENERAL CHILDCARE EXPERIENCE

• What is your general child care experience?  Babysitting? Worked in a camp or daycare?  Have you ever worked with children the same ages as ours? 
• How many families have you worked for?  (For each family) Full time or part-time nanny? 
• How long have you been with each family you cared for?  What was the reason for you leaving?  Would you be able to provide references?  (Name and phone number of family worked for)
• How many children have you watched with each family and their ages during care? 
• What were your specific responsibilities with each family? 
• What was the most difficult part of that job with each family?  What did you like most about that job with each family? 
• Did you ever encounter an emergency while working for any of those families?  (If yes) What happened and how did you handle that emergency?

QUESTIONS ABOUT A CANDIDATE'S CARETAKING BELIEFS

• What do you like most about taking care of children? 
• What do you find the most challenging about caring for children?
• What kind of activities do you like to do with children who are the ages of ours?
• When a child becomes hard to control or our of control, screaming for no apparent reason or throwing tantrums - because all children do that at one point or another - How or what do you think is the best approach? 
• How long do you think should a child be left to cry? 
• Did any of your previous employers/relatives permit you to discipline their children? (If yes) What form of discipline?  (NOTE: if you do not want the nanny to discipline your children other than you the parent, you state this before asking this question so that they know this is the expectation in your family)
• What qualities do you think are important in a nanny? 
• What are, in your opinion the most important aspects of caring for a child? 
• What type of nanny would you want for your baby? 
• What are you most proud of when it comes to your job? 
• Would you pay a nanny according to her quality of service provided to her employer or based on her level of experience? 

OTHER QUESTIONS

• If we were to hire you, when would you be able to start? 
• Do you know how to prepare breastmilk/formula? 
• (If an au pair) What did the agency in your home country tell you about what to expect as an au pair? 
• (Explain all of your expectations of the job duties you will pay the nanny to do) Do you have any questions about the job duties or something we didn't address? 
• (Explain about Time Off/Holidays/Sick Days and whether those are paid or unpaid for the nanny).  Do you see any possible vacation plans that we should be aware about now during our interview?
• (Explain house rules if she is to live in your home)  Do you have any questions about house rules or something we didn't address about living in our home?
• (Explain your expectations about honesty and safety in the home) Is there anyone in your family or friendships that is dangerous that we need to know about?  Is there anyone in your family or friendships that have been arrested by the police? 

Last but not least:

• Do you have any questions for us?

It's True: You're Broke Because You Want To Be

I believe that within a modern society with a modern economy, people are broke because they want to be.  

Poverty is more a result of personal bad choices than we usually acknowledge.  Without acknowledging this fact we cannot adequately fight poverty.  

Poverty has little to do with our environment or race. If a person's fate in life is predetermined by his social and physical environment, then we should all still be living in caves. 

Pay close attention to the people you know that are broke and stay broke.  

You are capable of helping yourself by going out there and earning more money.
You need to earn more money, not expect others to give it to you.
Take responsibility for your own life.  It's your fault you're broke. 

It's not your depression or your anxiety's fault that things aren't going your way.
It's your fault you aren't following through on your applications which
is why you're still broke! 

Don't blame him or his job (or lack thereof) for the fact you don't have money.
It's your fault.  Get off your butt and go back to work!

They find blame for their misfortunes in everyone and everything but themselves and their lack of self control when it comes to money and their attitudes.  They deny their own responsibility in those choices.  

This is a relief

There is nothing more demoralizing than to convince someone they are incapable of taking care of themselves.  LDS gospel principles of church welfare and self reliance teach us the exact opposite of what society teaches regarding welfare and poverty. Some things they teach us. 

(1) Each of us has a responsibility to try to avoid problems before they happen and to learn to overcome challenges when they occur.  

I feel that so many members of the Church have a gross misunderstanding of this: Church welfare was set up to remind us that we are responsible for preventing need in the first place. We are responsible for preventing the outcomes that would make us go to our bishop or local welfare office for temporal assistance.  Church welfare wasn't created just in case we need it, a common belief I've noticed that is irritating. This attitude makes us void of personal responsibility and consequences for our decisions.  It destroys our temporal and spiritual progress. 

(2) We need to abandon immature strategies of blaming and victimhood and adopt a more self-reliant view of ourselves in the world.  

(3) Because of agency, we create our problems and therefore, we are capable of fixing them.  We're responsible for our situations and we can't just wish for something to happen.  We have to get up and do something about it.  Once we feel remorse for our poor choices that led us to being broke, we exercise repentance and change the behavior that made us broke, and prevent it from happening again.   

You Don't Have a Money Problem

Most broke people do not have a money problem: the money problem is a result of other problems! Discipline problems, self esteem problems, attitude problems, integrity problems, thinking problems.  Messed up priorities.  

Other Things
No amount of outside help like money from family, free rent,  Xmas presents from Secret Santas, or public assistance will help poor people out other than themselves.  Outside help tends to make the problem worse.  This is because before you can fix a problem you have to know you have a problem.  The sad truth is most of the poor people in your community or family you are trying to help, don't think they have a problem, so therefore they see no incentive to fix it. 

We do nothing for our broke friends and relatives when we tolerate their whining and moaning about what's wrong with their life, job, etc.  

We do our loved ones a favor when we cowboy up, look them straight in the eye and tell them, 

"You know what?  Life is your own damn fault.  It's your fault that you're broke" 

Long Term Benefits of Taking on Student Loans

Living in Utah, I've noticed that a lot of people around here are extremely debt averse when it comes to student loans.  So they consider working while in school and many people do. 

I do agree that having the cash ready for school is the best option.  This is why we opened a 529 account for our child.  (Don't do this until you are well on track to retirement first)

However.  

If you are a recent HS graduate that's single, no children to support, planning to attend an affordable program, and still come up short with paying for school, my opinion is that you will be much better off taking the student loans to meet whatever you need left to finish school in 4 years, rather than work full-time and take 8 or more years to finish an undergrad.

If you can finish your 4 year degree in less than 4 years, even better.  The concurrent enrollment with HS/community college is something more people should do instead of worrying about their social life their senior year.  AP classes and passing them are good too.  Take it from everyone that went on to finish college, and they will agree with me: At some point in college, you will be glad you took that advantage in HS and got your got classes out of the way sooner than later.  (College classes you want out of the way ASAP are US History, and math and English requirements at minimum.  If you are going on 18 months or two-year LDS missions, you will forget a ton of math if you hadn't taken math since junior year of HS...so please take 4 yrs of math during HS for your learning)

For everyone that isn't dropping out to be an billionaire entrepreneur or pro athlete (and congratulations if you are, none of this below will apply to you), the best long term money savings strategy is to get college out of the way as soon as possible and start acquiring real life post graduate work experience.  

Now why would taking out loans be a better option than working through school?  Who wants to leave school with debt? 

Let's consider the following that are true and keep them in the back of your mind:
1. Average wages for someone with no college degree aren't likely to increase much in a span of 8 years. 
2. Average wages for someone with a college degree are likely to increase a lot in 8 years.
3. Tuition costs and fees are likely to increase faster over 8 years than salary increases. 

Should you enroll part-time, the total cost of completing your degree will cost you as much or MORE money in the span of 8 years than for someone who took out student loans for the entire 4 years of school.  

"But Alina I'm working full-time at a company where they reimburse a good portion of my tuition!  I'll keep working there until I graduate" 

The truth is if your annual salary increases are lower than your annual tuition increases, you are losing money and the company tuition benefit isn't that great of a deal.  Jobs are an investment because they compound with interest annually (assuming you are at a decent employer that gives you an annual raise).  Smart investments will always trump the best deal.  While leaving school with no debt sounds great on the surface, getting more bang for your buck in 4 years, even with the loan interest and fees is better than paying rising tuition costs and fees over 8 years.

A student loan facilitates not having to work many hours during the school year just to pay for the cost of tuition. You would need to work just enough hours to meet your expenses such as rent and food, which isn't much for a single childless student.  And if you aren't working, or just working a few hours on campus, there's really no reason to own a car and the added expenses that come with it.  You can take the bus (free or heavily discounted for most college students), walk, or ride a bike to class. 

If you're working full-time during the school year, most of your earned income will go toward to maintaining your car on top of paying your tuition.  Keep in mind that you aren't making rock star wages at this point.  

Ideally you should focus on school and then get a car to facilitate obtaining internships and securing better employment after graduation. 

By not working full-time, you can actually concentrate on what you are really in college for: to study for 4 years.  If you do well in school, you get paid for your grades with semester scholarships.  There are even plenty of scholarships that do not require a near perfect GPA.

Most people think they can't afford college because they weren't awarded a huge scholarship during HS and their life is over.  Not so, there are always scholarships in college.  My first scholarship as an incoming freshman was only $500, just barely enough to cover textbooks. Each year, I kept searching and applying for whatever scholarship I'd be qualified for, and surprisingly, the scholarship amounts got more generous the closer I was to graduating.  My last two years were tuition-free.  Searching and applying for any and all scholarships is almost a second job in itself so several people that work full-time miss out on this.  In addition, you need to be enrolled full-time to qualify for a scholarship.  

So what happens when you have a loan and a scholarship?  The university will take the loan, award you the scholarship, and refund any money left over back to you by mailing you a check.  You set this money aside to pay your rent and other needed expenses or loan payments in the future.  

What student loan averse people fail to consider is that the biggest expense for part-timing your college education is the lost opportunity costs for your wages to increase exponentially after graduating on time.  

As a recent graduate, you could be making less than someone who has been working longer, but still in school.  

To illustrate a real life example: me and my husband.  I took about 4 years to graduate and he did the 8 years or more track.  When we met in 2011, I earned less than he did when I finished nearly two years prior because he had more work experience.  I took out loans to facilitate finishing my degree program on time, while Dave continued to work full-time, be in school part-time with no debt after graduating.  He graduated 6 months before we got married in 2012.  He also began college before I did.  Both of us went to junior/community college first and then transferred to the University of Utah to finish, which did reduce the amount of what we both needed to pay.  Community college and junior college are great money savers, but you need to go in with the intent of transferring to finish the last two years of university.  

Remember how I said it's likely that salary increases a lot within 8 years for graduates?  The chances of your salary increasing exponentially within 3-5 years post college are extremely likely.  The key thing to consider is who experiences this increase first: the one who finished college sooner.  

While you could be making less right out of college, you have a very good chance coming out ahead of everyone that is still working through college.  What ended up happening was that I experienced my 1st major salary increase sooner and outearning my husband right before our wedding in 2012.  He too experienced a big increase to his salary after his 3-5 year post grad mark...but by then I experienced my 2nd major salary increase.  Yep I became the sugar mamma in this relationship ;-)

My first increase in pay made it possible to pay off the entire loan sooner than planned, and avoided paying more in interest.  My last loan payment was when Baby was born in 2013 and a few months later in 2014 was when my 2nd salary increase happened. 

Guys, as long as the total cost of your student loans are less than what you're earning your first year post graduating, you'll be able to pay the loan back without any problem during the repayment period and fulfill your return on investment expectations for a college education. So if you went to an inexpensive program, borrowed all 4 years, got scholarships, and the amount of the loans was $25k, that would mean you would need to earn at least $12.50/hr post graduation to make the loan repayment for 10 years.  

It is important to remember that salaries do not stay stagnant, they increase as long as you keep working and acquiring more specialized work experience.  Most employers value the 4 year degree.  

If you don't have other obligations to consider and want to go to college, your priority should be to finish your degree program on time or sooner.  So do not rule out student loans as a means to facilitate finishing your degree on time.