Category: Using AuPairIreland.ie

Au pair Interview questions

We’ve put together a list of some interview questions you might find handy, when looking for your perfect au pair. They cover a wide range of topics including travelling, personal life, driving and working.

You’ll also find a link, at the bottom of the page, which allows you to download and print these questions, to have with you during the interview. Continue reading Au pair Interview questions

6 Tips That Will Help You Succeed When Interviewing For An Au Pair Position

[The following is a guest posting from Andrea Roman of
DublinAuPairs.com]

Most Au Pairs are nervous about the first video call – interview with their future host family. Meeting the family for the first time as well as talk to them in a foreign language can be as exciting as overwhelming. That’s why it is important to prepare the interview: the more prepared you are, the less nervous you will feel. Also, you will be ready to answer all type of questions.

Here are 6 helpful tips that will help you get in the right mood for the interview and be prepared to meet and delight your host family. From preparing for the most common questions, to practicing your responses, or planning some questions to ask the family. Continue reading 6 Tips That Will Help You Succeed When Interviewing For An Au Pair Position

Au Pairs – seven steps to building the perfect Au Pair CV

There is a lot of competition out there for the best jobs. Your CV is the first opportunity you have, to make an impression on your future host family, so why not make it a good one.

Here on AuPairIreland.ie we see a lot of CVs, so we get an idea of what works, and what doesn’t.

Follow these suggestions to build a CV that will impress.

  • Edit your CV to match the job – don’t be afraid to rewrite your CV for each job you apply for. Highlight any experience you have, that is required for the role you’re applying for.
  • Include a photo – but if you do include a photo make sure it’s the right type. Ideally showing you with children, and definitely not showing you partying!
  • Irish references – it’s a big plus if you have an Irish references. If you do, make sure you highlight it in your CV.
  • Irish work experience – the same as with Irish references. If you do have Irish work experience make the most of it, and highlight it.
  • Fill out all the CV sections – those sections were added for a reason! Employers want to know that information, so don’t leave then empty.
  • Keep it to the point – avoid writing long, rambling paragraphs. Write about the important stuff, leave out the rest.
  • Include a cover letter – write about what makes you suitable for that particular job. Show interest. Make direct reference to the advert to show you’ve read it.

10 ways to get more applicants for your Au Pair ad

We always see a noticeable disparity in the number of applicants a job in the city will receive, compared to a job in the countryside. It’s not unusual for city jobs get as many as thirty times more applicants, than their country equivalent.

We’ve blogged about this in the past, posts aimed at jobseekers,  trying to encourage them to apply for positions outside the cities, so in this posting we thought we’d share some tips with host families, especially those living in the countryside, on how to get more applicants. Continue reading 10 ways to get more applicants for your Au Pair ad

Calling all Au Pairs! Lots of great jobs available in the Irish countryside

A lot of times we see two comparable au pair jobs posted, one is in a city and one is in the countryside. Although the terms and conditions are alike, the job in the city will get far, far more applicants than the one in the countryside – sometimes up to thirty times more.

We attribute this to most au pairs wanting to experience the excitement of life in the city, and be close to other au pairs, which is understandable, but there are also some great jobs going unfilled in beautiful parts of the country, close to our cities.

Au pairs, not currently living in Ireland, looking for jobs in Dublin, Cork, Galway, etc. seem to be especially disadvantaged when it comes to applying for these positions – host families prefer to shortlist candidates already in Ireland whom they can interview in person.

We advise any au pair, not currently living in Ireland, looking to experience Irish life, to also consider applying for positions in the countryside. If you also want to be close to cities maybe consider applying for positions in the counties around our cities – counties such as Kildare, Wicklow, Meath are all close to Dublin city centre, and have very regular bus services with Dublin, and there are online services available, such as http://www.newtotown.ie, that are great for finding new friends in your area, no matter where you find yourself working.

Continue reading Calling all Au Pairs! Lots of great jobs available in the Irish countryside

Finding your perfect au pair

August and September are the busiest months of the year on AuPairIreland.ie, as parents try to find a carer for their child.

Whether you choose to hire an au pair, a childminder, or a nanny you will be competing with  hundreds of other host families on the site to find the perfect carer for your child.

Children returning to school

We’ve prepared a short list of tips to help:

  • Au pair wages  – since the recent ruling in the WRC au pairs are recognised as employees, and therefore entitled to all the legal protections employees enjoy, including wages. An experienced au pair is now entitled to a wage of €9.15 per hour, if your au pair is live in you are entitled to deduct €54.13 per week to cover food and board – this sum is under review by the Low Pay Comission and the sum will hopefully be increased to a more realistic amount in the future. Not paying your au pair the minimum wage could mean they would have grounds to take you to court, and also brings the industry into disrepute.  Please see this blog posting to learn more about au pair’s wages.
  • Posting your job – Job title and description: To save both you and jobseekers wasted time, add as much detail to your advert as possible – your advert title should include the job title, and the job location (ie. Live in Nanny wanted in Naas”). Your job description needs detail – make sure you include the hours, the number and ages of your children, pets if any, and the au pair’s responsibilities – the more detail the better.
  • Finding candidates – your location will affect the number of applicants your advert gets. Adverts for jobs in Dublin, or other cities, get far more applicants than those in rural locations. If you’re living in the countryside, or in a smaller town you will have will need to be more proactive to get applicants – as well as posting your job advert you should also use our search funtionality to find jobseekers, and use the Share functionality on the au pair’s mini-cv to send jobseekers a link to your job, inviting them to apply. Also use the Shortlist Jobseeker and Private Notes functionality to keep track of jobseekers.
  • Job contract – Have a clear contract, outlining the au pair’s duties, responsibilities, and your expectaions, we have a separate blog posting covering au pair contracts here and we have a sample contract here.
  • Interviewing – As a lot of job seekers on our site are already located in Ireland interviewing is easier than it was in the past. Speak to candidates you are interested in and arrange to meet them at a convenient time and location, if the au pair has to travel a distance to meet you, consider covering some of their expenses to encourage them to make the trip. If your candidate is located abroad use Skype or FaceTime to interview them online.
  • References – we can’t emphasise how important it is you check the candidate’s references. Horror stories are, fortunately, very rare, but on the few occasions host families reported seriously negative experiences with their au pairs, it always transpired they had not check the jobseekers’ references. It is your responsibility to do this – we’re not an au pair agency, we’re a job site, so we do not vet au pairs.
  • Sending money to your au pair – Never ever, ever send money to an au pair. There are absolutely no exceptions to this rule. If an au pair requests money for air fare, for a visa, for innoculations, or for anything else, there is a very strong chance they are scammers. If they do request money, please contact us immediately at [email protected] . If you do wish to cover your au pair’s travel expenses, or any other expense, only do so after they have arrived.

Following the guidelines above should make the process of finding your perfect au pair a little easier, and result in more applicants to choose from, it will also make the experience of hosting your perfect au pair, when find her all the more enjoyable.

Unlimited free au pair job posting adverts

We recently made some changes to employers’ membership plans on the site. Before the changes host families only had credit to post one, or two, job adverts, depending on their membership plan, but weren’t required to post a job. We changed it so that host families can now post unlimited jobs (not simultaneously, though) jobs, free, however they are required to post a job in order to access the main members area of the site.

We actually made these changes about two months ago, but given the public interest in the recent WRC finding, relating to au pairs’ wages, we postponed blogging about it, in favour of posting two blog entries related to the WRC ruling.

“Already applied for job” notification

We’ve added some new functionality for jobseekers. If a logged-in jobseeker has already applied for a position, they will be notified of that under the job title on the job description page. Previously the jobseeker was only notified when they went to submit their application, but now they will be warned on the job description page itself. This functionality only works for logged in job seekers, who apply for jobs using the inline job application form.

Home Page Job Listings

We’ve changed the way jobs are listed on our homepage. Previously jobs were listed by the date they were posted, with the most recent job posted being listed first. We now list jobs according to the most recently logged in host family – so each time you log in your job appears at the top of the list on the homepage. We did this to encourage more applicants for jobs, with host families, that are most actively looking for jobseekers. The most recently posted jobs are, however, still listed by post date on the side panel of the jobs listing page.