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?

How Women Can Ask for a Raise Like a Man - Part 1

The number one thing I wish I had someone tell at the beginning of my career instead of later is this: that every time I was made a formal offer of employment, I do have the formality to come back with one counter offer.  

Looking back I pretty much shot myself in the foot the moment I stepped out of college.  While my external offers were huge increases in previous base pay, I could have asked for a little more of my offers.  Most of the time that I was interviewing externally, I simultaneously made it to final rounds at two companies and that really could have gotten what I needed or more.  

It never occurred to me I could ask for more after getting an offer.  No one told me this. I had never seen salary being approached like how I would negotiate for a car!  

What made it even more baffling is that not even my husband, dad, father-in-law, brothers-in-law, or uncles told me anything about counteroffers and negotiating--and they do it all the time.  I learned that men negotiate, women do not--but the question in my head was how come the men in my life didn't tell me this when I interviewed for my first job, and subsequent jobs after that?  

Why didn't my closest male relationships, the ones who provide, honor and protect me, teach me how to ask for a raise like a man?

A gender and leadership expert, Jeffrey Tobias Halter answered that question that kept mulling in my head for months.  He flat out explained that men do not connect the dots that the women they work with at the office is also another man's wife, mother, daughter or sister and I believe this is the case why didn't I get any advice or support.  It wasn't their fault, they just hadn't thought of it.  More on that HERE, it is a must read for any man that has daughters.  

Who then taught me this?  Other moms that worked. Not all of them though, because most of them leave before they leave.  Read "Lean In" to understand this concept more, it is honestly a fantastic and helpful book.  And "Lean In" was where I learned only 7% of female graduates counter offer their first job.  (My reaction when I read that statistic "Whaaat?  You can do that, ask for more money than what they tell you??  Darn!!")

Not long ago, I talked to a friend who's a working mom and shared some insights about salaries and raises, because I used to work at her current employer and remembered how much I got paid (peanuts).  It definitely was unsolicited advice, my bad habit, I try to mitigate it with a blog. 

A few weeks later, she followed up with me.  To my greatest surprise, she told me she had thought A LOT about what I said.  The result was that she went to her boss and ended up getting a raise and a promotion!  The thing that kept me up at night though was what she said after that:

"I wouldn't have done it if you hadn't reached out to me"

That time around, another woman received advice from another mom that worked.  This made me shudder.  
I wasn't told about it until I heard it from another mom, and my friend didn't know either until I told her.  I even confided in a colleague more senior than me asking if she ever asked for a raise or counter-offer her promotions.  Not even once. It had never occurred to her either that she could ask for more.    

I decided from there  I would go out of my way and reach out to other women, primarily mothers who work and/or graduated from college to not make the same mistakes I did with negotiating salary.  I would share anything and everything I've learned about salaries and negotiation.  

Why? Because chances are that no one told them yet either and they'll remain underpaid until another woman goes out of their way to tell them about it.  

While I work on Part 2, I want to ask these questions, no need to respond.  
Did anyone tell you about it?  Was it a man or a woman?

Why Part Time Work May Not Be Better for Young Moms

When I decided to go back to work full-time when Baby was 6 months, a common response I got was 

"Couldn't you just look at part-time jobs??"

Part time work was the first thing I looked at.  After a while I realized that part-time employment isn't what it's all cracked up to be, and decided to search for full-time employment instead.  I'm not saying that part-time employment has no value.   It can put a foot in the door for something better.  But more often than not, what you get in return for working part-time is not worth the time and the cost that it takes to earn part-time wages.  

I tell moms who are in a situation where they really need the additional income and still have young children at home, that part-time work, while well-intentioned, will not resolve their financial situation in the short and long term.  Their best bet would be to look at full-time employment and preferably in jobs where you get a salary, and not in jobs where you have to punch in and out for lunch or something gimmicky like direct sales.  

Here are problems I discovered that come with part-time employment which led me to reconsider and to go ahead with working full-time.

Consider this example. While the scenario is hypothetical, the facts are true.   
Two moms live next door to each other.  Both of them commute to work at the same place and both earn the same rate per hour.  

One mother is employed full time and the other is employed part time.  Here's where part-time starts to become a problem, financially.  

Transportation Costs:
The person that gets hit the most with the transportation expense is the part-timer.  What it costs for a full-timer to get to/from the job is exactly the same for the part-timer.  

Insurance premiums:
Both of them receive employer benefits.  However the health and dental insurance premiums for part-timers cost more per pay period than for the full-timer.  This is why you see more happy retired folks in part-time roles instead of young moms; they take the income, reap the social benefits but don't need to pay for health insurance because they're covered through Medicare.  

Childcare Costs:
Both of them have the same number of children with the exact same ages and go to the same daycare. Childcare tuition for full time, 5 days per week turns out to be less expensive per day than childcare for 2 and a half days.  This is because centers have to find more employees to ensure adequate child-to-caretaker ratios for all hours of the day they're open or get shut down.  Part-timer is hit again with the extra cost.  

After adding all the expenses for both moms, the full-timer comes out far on top.  

While the full-timer is working 40 hour weeks, she ends up earning and taking more in take home pay PER HOUR than the part-timer. These expenses are why so many mothers start and end up quitting part-time employment very quickly without realizing that they probably could have been far better off with full-time employment instead.  

Other problems with part-time employment:
The reason why benefitted part-time jobs are far and few in between across all industries is because an employer gets more value for one person producing in one job than two people producing for one job.  It's also a pain in the butt for an employer trying to get coverage for 200 hours of work managing 10 people instead of 5 people.  

Part-timers reach a cap in what they can earn per hour, especially in entry-level jobs.  The wages for full-time positions more often than not, pay a lot more per hour than part-time wages, around 30-50% more!

Also, people who are broke, or on public assistance work less hours on average than the middle class and the affluent.  So if broke is where you want to get out from, then cowboy up and work more hours by obtaining stable, full-time employment.  

  

"I Feel Guilty About Wanting to Leave My Job"

I love the Mormon Messages but this is not my favorite one I've come across, "You Never Know"  You can watch it HERE People have commented their mixed feelings about the video on whether the mom should have Just Said No, or give praise for going out of her way to help others even though her hands are full as they were, and feeling bad thinking she didn't get what she wanted done but in end it turned out to be a good day because you never how you never know how much you made a difference in people's lives but that is none of what I want to talk about.  

What I want to talk about is the scene where the mother meets up with her sister at the park. 

Based on the conversation, her sister is not happy at her current job.  Emphasis added on lines in particular. 

Mom: So what are you going to do?
Sister: I don't know.  Everyone is looking to me to help them.  But I don't want to stay there if I'm not happy.  But at the same time I don't want to abandon them.  I really just want to think about myself, but I can't.  
Mom: That's frustrating.  That makes ME angry.  Like today--.
Sister: --I know.  I don't want to bother you with it though. 
Mom: No, you're not bothering me with it.  But Heidi, if you left, who else would be able to help them? 

Oh dear, what will her employer and team do without her??  
My response: her employer and teammates will be fine anyway if she decides to quit! 

Let me explain how.  

It is the responsibility of her current employer to resource the work it has committed to accomplishing.  As part of that responsibility, the company has a duty to adapt when (not if) resources change.  The company's options include replacing, reprioritizing or reshuffling the work stream.  However, resolving this situation is NOT Heidi's fault or her responsibility.  That's the problem I saw in the job scene, the message portrayed it as being her problem.   Women in paid jobs following this approach actually set themselves up for career hindrance.  

In fact, many women have a big problem feeling guilty about leaving their jobs for something better.  They end up staying and get paid peanuts to their male counterparts for years.  

Are any of you facing a similar situation in your paid jobs?  You can think about it this way: 

First: 
Just because you're leaving or wanting to leave the company/division/department and that causes a change in the status quo, it isn't your responsibility to fix it or that you're causing the team to suffer.  The cause of the team's suffering is the choice that the company made, ultimately, because they have the responsibility to work through resource changes.  

Second:
Good employers/bosses/colleagues/teammates never take someone leaving a job personally, and if an employer does take it personal, then you might as well wonder what else do they take personal with you and why on earth you want to work for someone like that?  I mean, they don't take it personal when they have to layoff employees.  

Third:
You have to do what is right for your situation, and you should feel no guilt if you give proper notice.  Only exception to this is if the reason for leaving was due to being treated very poorly on the job (I'm talking things like harassment, discrimination, bullying and nothing was done from the employer's part to resolve it) then you don't owe them any notice.  

Fourth: 
People might struggle at first when faced with filling your shoes if you were a good employee, but someone always steps up.  It is not your job to worry about the company after you leave.  Don't feel guilty at all.  

Fifth:
Ultimately you have to make the decision that works best for you and really figure out if it is an opportunity that will better you.  You spend most of your waking life at a job. Why waste your life being unhappy going to/from your work??  I promise you guys, there is no better sense of joy when you find yourself at a job where you look forward coming to each day and leave from work feeling accomplished in what you've done on a daily basis.  

Sixth:
Instead of telling Heidi "If not you, then who?" I'd tell her to put her career and best interest of her family above loyalty to  people who didn't care if she worked there or not.  It will also be a good time to ask for a raise, which is probably the bigger issue at hand.  

Finally:
I'd tell her that if she doesn't take this new opportunity, or even try to look for new opportunities, someone else will and her current company will know that they can leave her right where she is for a very long time and her loyalty will keep her there.  

How Salary is Really Determined

Most people come to the wrong conclusion that going back to grad school will increase their earning power.  

I'm not talking about advanced degrees like medicine, dentistry, or law where you have to have the degree to practice that sort of profession, or degrees where you really want to be a university professor, but degrees such as MBAs, MAs, and any other degree that is not really demanded by the market.  

Now I sound like I'm speaking heresy because I do not have an advanced degree myself, but I did seriously consider getting an advanced degree at one point.  When I was close to finishing college, I came to that wrong conclusion myself.  

Before graduating, the program director for the scholarship program I was in said to all of the scholarship recipients: 

"Stick with the last 2 semesters*, 

it will make a difference in your pay."  

*referring to MIS, MS in Finance, and MAcc

However, other things came in the way so I didn't apply straight out of undergrad.  Thank goodness other things did come my way because with more life experiences, I was able to do more objective research of considering whether it would be worth my time and money going back to school.  

I am more convinced than ever that going back to grad school is not an investment, it is a waste of money and lots of money.  Now, in all fairness, people who have graduate degrees earn more...BUT THE DEGREE ITSELF IS NOT THE CAUSE OF IT. 

Everyone must learn before going back to grad school is how salary is determined in the real world, not what you study in economics class, and especially not from college admissions people (what they won't tell you is that they need your money).  You may just discover a more cost-effective way to make yourself more marketable without going back to school!  

Salary Determination Primer
The first thing to keep in mind, is that all employers have a budget of what they can pay someone for a specific job.  This is usually known as a pay range.  Simply put, the employer pays someone what they can afford and at a rate the employee would be happy with.  

If the employee wants more (within reason), and the employer really needs to fill the position, they will review their budget and come back with a counteroffer.  Most big employers hire people known as "talent acquisition" who are expert at handling negotiation with potential hires and will do everything in the book not to budge with their initial offer.  After all, they are paid to get an employee in the door for the least possible amount of money for the employer.  If the offer is too low for the employee's needs, the employer will not take it personal and just keep looking for someone who will be happy to work for that pay range.  

The second thing to consider is what other companies of comparable size and industry are paying others for that type of job.  Companies focused on making a profit will shell out higher wages than non-profit.  Bigger companies also shell out more than smaller companies.  

Employers do a better job than job candidates knowing what a reasonable amount of pay would be for comparable job descriptions in various areas.  For example, they will not pay accountants in Texas, a New York or San Francisco salary.  So if you are working in San Francisco or New York, and hoping your previous base pay will influence your future base pay if you relocate to Texas, you are wrong. Your pay will first be reduced about 20%-30% to adjust for cost of living and then from there, the employer will determine an offer from that adjusted previous base salary and the job they're hiring for.     

Third is special skills.  This is HUGE.  The truth is, if you have the scarce skills demanded by the market, if you have the most complete portfolio of job related experience available, you will get the job with competitive pay, even over a candidate with a top MBA.  So think long and hard about whether you want to go back for two or or even more years of college only to have stiff competition with the non-grad school candidates with the 5-7 years of relevant work experience. If you are new to the job, you will be on the lower end of the range.  If you can already do the job, you are in the middle of the range.  And if you have more relevant job experience, you will be put on the higher end of the range quoted by the employer.  

"Sweet Companies only want Guys with Skills"

Fourth is previous salary history.  Many job applications ask what you made in your last job because this is determined in making a competitive job offer.  Switching to another company for comparable job skills warrant your biggest increases in pay.  That being said, DO NOT LIE ABOUT WHAT YOU MADE AT YOUR LAST JOB.  Employers do call your previous employer to legally find out and confirm your job titles, how many years you worked, and the amount of money you made.    

Fifth is your boss.  The higher up the chain you are, you are able to influence pay and needing to go through less approvals for salary adjustments.  If you do not have sponsorship from your boss or other senior leaders at your company, it is impossible to transfer internally or be considered for promotions, ever.  

In conclusion, the name of the school or ranking or the degree does not influence salary, it is really about what you're doing that is in demand right now by the market but more important, acquiring years of experience on the job to do it.  And once you're in a job, your pay will be judged much more by what you do on the job, how you get along with others, and even how you dress rather than where you went to school and what degree you got.  

I'll conclude with a quote from a talent acquisition director at Humana, a national health insurance company, along with the link to the article. 

"I haven't seen an automatic boost for any degree"

Reason to Lean In: A Man is Not a Financial Plan

My heart goes out to a young widow, two fatherless children and a man who died in his prime.  

For those that don't know who Sheryl Sandberg is, she is 2nd in command to Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook. She is Harvard educated and wrote the best seller "Lean In" 

On top of that, Sheryl is self-made having accumulated a net worth of over a billion dollars.  This is very rare since the majority of women who are billionaires become so through inheritance.

And get this: she made more money than her husband...but that wasn't an issue for him; a life with the woman he loved was far more important to him than how much either one was making.

Sheryl is my working mother hero.  Many women have criticized her decision to continue working while raising a family because she and her husband could have afforded a SAHM arrangement on her husband's income alone. Her husband, Dave Goldberg was the CEO for another Internet company.

The question I've been pondering after hearing the news about his death and want to discuss with my readers is this: Where would she and her children be today had she decided to Lean Back and be a Harvard housewife instead?

A man is not a financial plan.  Your husband can divorce, die, or get disabled without notice.

Sheryl had gone through one divorce (no children in first marriage) and now she is a widow with two children still in elementary school. But because Sheryl has been working full-time outside the home since graduating college, she does not have to worry about big financial issues that many widows/divorcees face such as having her house going into foreclosure, declaring bankruptcy or losing health insurance benefits.  Nor will she have difficulty finding employment that can earn her a living wage due to a 5, 10, 15 year employment gap.  Many women in this predicament do not have savings or money for retirement either.

Sheryl at the moment probably feels like she's lost everything because losing a spouse is a significant loss.  I bet she's trying to figure out how she will keep going through life without her companion.  But I know she will eventually figure out a way to keep going.  She can and will continue to take great care of and provide for her two children.

Mr. Goldberg chose wisely in having a smart, accomplished wife, rather than retreat from or try to dominate her.

If any of you are on the fence about continuing your career with kids, you can think about it this way:

Being a working mother is not something selfish that you do for yourself and to the detriment of your children. 
You are insurance for your family if something were to happen. 

Alina is LinkedIn

I had a wrong perception of LinkedIn for a long time but once I learned about it and its benefits from use, I finally got sold and signed up effective Friday 2/20/2015.  

Let me share you a personal experience as to why you need LinkedIn and how to use it the right way.

When I was searching for a nanny, I used Care.com (for childcare jobs).

I posted a job description and people applied.   To my utter shock and horror, many candidates did not meet the criteria we needed for the position, were not a good fit for us or were looking for more pay than what we could offer.  So here I am, awake late at night, getting a bit desperate to find someone before my start date at my new job in a couple of days.  What do I do next?  

I began setting my search criteria, hit "Run" and reviewed a list of candidates that popped up from my search. Because phone numbers and messages were disabled for contact for free subscribers, I paid a year subscription so that I could message the nannies I had a vested interest in contacting for an interview.  Both of the nannies that I hired to date were from me finding them first.  

Well it just so happens that corporate recruiters on LinkedIn think the same way when needing to find someone for a job. 

Here's some suggestions that will benefit you with LinkedIn:

Sign Up Now for a LinkedIn Profile if You Don't Have One.       
Not having a LinkedIn account for what it can do for you is your #1 mistake.  

Even if you are not planning to work, you still need one in the event you need a job or know someone that needs one.  You need to complete it as much as possible, keep it active and stay connected with former colleagues, friends with professions, and recruiters that may and will post information of job leads.   

Corporate recruiters are the money makers for LinkedIn and probably 90% of recruiters use LinkedIn exclusively to source talent.  Going back to the nanny experience, I do not find nannies any other way now other than through Care.com so I am more convinced than ever that companies from all types of industries are going the LinkedIn route.  

But having the account isn't enough.  You need to do some things with it:

Have a picture.    
It didn't help me at all when I was reviewing profiles on Care.com  It honestly felt like the person was trying to hide something.  Corporate recruiters and hiring mangers feel just the same way on LinkedIn.  

It is important to put up a photo for the job you want and make sure the photo gets that message across to the recruiter.  You want to be executive? Then dress like an executive.  A fitness instructor?  Look motivated and active. A brilliant startup entrepreneur with a rebellious personality?  Have an edgy picture and don't mention your MBA degree.  

As a frantic mom desperate to find someone for my baby it was a relief to see nannies with pictures of herself holding babies. Pictures of the nanny being near LDS temples helped because it gave me and Dave the impression that the nanny did not smoke or drink and would respect our standards should she choose to live in our home.  It did not help me if I saw a profile picture of a nanny's eyes rolling or something blurry or greyish skin tone.  And definitely not an emo-esque selfie because the only impression I got from that was "She probably will hurt my baby.  Next"

Bottom line: If you have the wrong picture on LinkedIn, recruiters will think you're ghetto and call you only about ghetto jobs working with ghetto co-workers.  A wise senior leader said this to her group: "People's perception of you is people's reality of you" 

Set Your Profile to Public.
The truth is that it's not who you know, it's who knows you.  If a recruiter can't find you, they won't know who you are.  Please take the risk by putting your best self out there and make yourself searchable. The added connections in the LinkedIn network do help in the search but they take time to build up.  

Complete Everything in Your Profile

LinkedIn is not a resume but still needs to be professional.  The resume is crafted for a specific job you are formally applying for; you only list relevant information that ties to the job description and don't list everything you've done to date.  The best thing about LinkedIn is that you get to tell the story of your career, how it all started, and everything you've done.  The more complete your profile is, the more searchable you'll appear to recruiters.  There is a feature that measures your profile strength but what it really measures is your profile's ability to be noticed by recruiters.   

Put Yourself in Shoes of Employer by Using Generous Amounts of Key Words.
In my nanny search I paid attention to key words such as "I can provide references" or glance quickly  in a nanny's profile summary of how many families the nanny worked for, how long and ages of children in care, and how far away she lived from our house.  If I liked what I read from her profile, I  contacted her right away about the job.  

A corporate recruiter does the same thing on LinkedIn when finding a specific candidate for a specific position.  Key words help in your job search so please take the time to write your summary, your experience, a compelling headline and use up all 50 skill set words in the skill set option.  Recruiters pay a subscription to search profiles and set criteria using key words from various job descriptions you're interested in.   

Consider a Paid Subscription if You're Looking for Work.  
If you are actively looking for a job and need one quickly, it does help to have a paid subscription.  The benefit is that you will always show up near the top of the search...as long as you have the right key words.  I know this because Care.com does the same thing.  Free subscribers will get pushed down the list as new subscribers enter the system and employers/recruiters won't scroll down and view the entire list if the search result is too long.  Seasoned recruiters can still find good candidates without a paid subscription but it will take a bit longer and play with the search criteria to get different search results.  

I can't speak for all recruiters but to me, a paid subscription signals that you are serious in looking for a job, especially if you are unemployed.  Depending on the budget the employer has set, recruiters are more likely to contact a candidate over candidates that aren't actively as looking because it would mean having to offer more money to make a candidate quit their current job.  

Keep in mind that a recruiter's first priority is for the employer and the job seeker second.  Their job is to get superstar talent for the least possible amount of money for the employer.  

Which brings me to another good reason to join LinkedIn...if you are happy at your current job and have the necessary skill set another employer needs, you get the opportunity to be poached with a lucrative compensation package to make you dance with the consideration of leaving your current job.  This enables you to negotiate higher raises at your current job or make more money at a new one.  

Connect with Recruiters and Follow Companies
On LinkedIn, you need to connect with recruiters and it is easy to do.  Select "People", type the companies you're interested in, and type "recruiter"   A list will populate. Just send an invite request to be added and more likely than not, a recruiter will add you in their circle for something in the future.  If you are looking for work, make a recruiter's job easier by letting them know you're looking in your headline and personally messaging them. 

You also need to follow companies so that you can identity employees or recruiters in places you are interested in working in.  

So there you have it, the benefits of LinkedIn from a different perspective.  Sign up and put your best self out there.  Add me to your connections if you haven't already.   I will be more than happy to add you!

Making Decisions With Confidence - When Deciding to Stay Home or Work

The Stay At Home Mom Vs Working Mom decision is a probably one of the most internal struggles women go through because it typically involves issues like these:

Uncertainty - You honestly don’t know how you are going to feel until after the baby comes.

Complexity - It depends on the situation...each mother has different family dynamics, different needs, different jobs, different backgrounds and different children.   

High Risk - the impact of the decision may be significant. 

Alternatives - Each has its own pros and cons. 

Interpersonal - Difficult to predict how other people will react.

A lot of people wonder how some mothers adjust perfectly to the transition of quitting their job and staying home and/or staying home but go back to work and be extremely happy with their choice, what's it like and whether they could do it too.  

Well I can tell them because I've done it.  I've reflected on this for some time and noticed two things.

First, I feel that many women postpartum rely too much on luck, timing, or instinct to make a decision, on top of being sleep deprived and overwhelmed with the well-meaning but unsolicited advice on motherhood.  Second, women on both sides that are unhappy with their decisions more often than not, try more vigorously to defend them than those who are happy with their choices and just move on with their lives.  

When it comes to something as serious as working or stay home, you need to be objective, not emotional.  You need a systematic approach to decisions so that no matter what type of decision you have to make, you can make decisions with confidence…and never feel guilty as an end result.  

The best way to make a big decision, as I discovered is to use an effective and systematic process, known as Critical Thinking.   

There are three Steps to Critical Thinking: (1) understanding the issue, (2) analyze the problem, and (3) explore options/alternatives.  

If you don't do the first two steps effectively, you cannot do the third step.  Let's take a look at each one in more detail.  

1.  Really Understanding The Issue  

Very often, you look at something on the surface and think “Well this is obviously the problem, it’s what we got to solve, very simple – problem solved”  But when you dig deep into it, you realize the problem you’re actually dealing with isn’t the problem at all.  Get to the bottom of it and understand the problem it is you are trying to solve.  

2.  Analyze The Problem 

Making sure you understand the facts and numbers in front of you.  This step is crucial.  

You can’t make a good decision about staying home or going back to work unless you’ve really done your homework, you have the facts and data, and you’ve had that rigorous analysis performed.  

In the spirit of staying home vs working, I want to stress that it is very important to discern facts from logical fallacies—statements designed to manipulate a reader by appealing to emotions rather than intellect.  There are many logical fallacies in both sides of the Mommy Wars but I won’t list them here.  Use facts – not logical fallicies as basis for your decision. 

Staying home vs Working more often than not involves a cost benefit analysis to determine important things like (1) will you continue to grow savings and (2) is it worth your time and resources as a result of choosing one or the other.  

You can include intangible items to the analysis but please consider that including intangible items and estimating a value for these items within the analysis brings more subjectivity into the decision making process, and as I said earlier, the decision must be an objective one in order to make the decision with confidence.

This is purely subjective, don't add this to your analysis.
There is plenty of market research from Procter & Gamble
that American women clean 4 hours a week instead of 14.  

Here's one example in how to be objective in a cost benefit analysis of staying home vs working: 

The take-home pay on one income needs to be smaller than you think.  If with an employer matching 401k, the breadwinner should increase retirement contributions by 10% because women outlive their men and need something to live off, the 50% of his SSN benefits isn't just going to cut it.  The breadwinner also needs to bump up the life insurance premiums to cover expenses without problems for at least a year in the event the breadwinner dies.  Depending on the employer, health insurance premiums are more expensive when you add a second child and beyond.  This results in the take-home pay being smaller and needs to be considered if you're serious in going off on one income - you do need to mitigate the risk by budgeting for these things rather than just hope for the best.    

3. Explore The Options

The truth is that rarely, there are immediate answers to a problem.  There are always several, and it’s really about exploring all those options and making sure you made the right decision in the end.  

Explore all options

There isn’t a one-size fits all solution when it comes to staying home or going back to work…there are multiple solutions and it’s very important to explore those in depth. 

Repeat this 20 times

In terms of making the decision around the best approach, you ask questions such as

“How important is ____ to me/us?” 

“What are some things we truly could not live without?”

“How sustainable is this option for our family if we continue this approach?”

“What are my options in the future if I choose X or Y?”

In conclusion, these were the steps I took when I approached the decision of quitting my previous job to stay home and again a few months later when approached with the decision of returning to work or continuing to stay home.  

After reviewing all aspects of the situation and giving careful, thoughtful consideration, I made my decision.  Both times, it turned out to be a really great decision for the situation at hand and it resulted in broader opportunities and certainly less stress for the family.  Everyone came out happy in the end.  

Now go and make your decision and respect the decisions of others.