The 6 most tricky nanny interview questions

Whether it’s your first time interviewing for a nanny position, or you’re back out there interviewing again after being in a job for a while, you’re bound to come across at least one question that’s difficult to answer. At myTamarin, we’ve compiled a list of some of less obvious or more difficult questions parents may ask during your nanny interview.

To avoid getting caught out the next time a parent asks you one of these questions, follow our guidance and take some time to think about how you’d respond before you answer.

1. Why did you become a nanny? What do you like most about your job (and what the least)?

These are pretty standard questions, right? But we’ve seen nannies get rejected based on their answers to these ice-breaker questions. Answers like “I needed the money”, “I didn’t know what else to do”, “I wanted to travel”’ “it’s an easy job”, or “I couldn’t get a job elsewhere”, should be avoided at all cost – they’re not going to go down well and set the foundation for a successful interview.

What parents are looking for here is for your genuine love of children and passion for childcare to shine through. Talk about how much you love spending time with children and the fun you have with them, how you enjoy helping them grow, explore and learn about life, and how you appreciate the positive response and appreciation you get from children in your care.

Be careful when it comes to what you like least. Everyone has parts of their job they don’t enjoy quite so much, so it’s totally ok to mention one or two things. It’s okay to say you find it hard to leave a family because you get attached to the children, but its not okay to say you don’t like having to manage parent expectations. Just make sure you don’t get carried away and list every single little thing that annoys you. Reeling off more negatives than positives will immediately rule you out!

2. Tell me about your last job and the ones before. Why did you leave?

Questions about your previous jobs should be straightforward to answer. List your jobs, how long you worked with the family, the number and ages of the children, your hours and duties and your daily routine.

When it comes to the question about why you left a job, reasons such as the family moved out of the area, or the children started school are pretty standard. Where it can get tricky is when it hasn’t worked out due to differences in personality, style or values.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with leaving a job because it didn’t work out. After all a good nanny/parent match is based on compatibility beyond just availability and geographic proximity. But if that’s the reason you keep citing, the alarm bells are going to start ringing! Also try not to get personal about the families you’ve worked for.

3. Can you explain the gaps in your nanny job history?

It’s perfectly okay to say you’ve taken some time out to go travelling, or you needed to look after a family member. But and can get tricky if you’ve taken jobs in other industries, or you’ve taken a long time to find a job.

Similarly, being asked to explain why a set of jobs were only for a short period of time is tricky because it may suggest that you can’t hold down a job. You may have decided to take a series of temp jobs to give you more flexibility and that’s fine. But it may just have been that you kept moving on because the jobs weren’t right for one reason or another.

When answering this question, be prepared and more importantly, be honest. You should be aware though that a series of shorter placements (i.e. less than a year) is an alarm bell for parents so it’s important to avoid this in the first place. We’ve seen many, especially more junior nannies, hopping from one job to another only to find that they can’t get a job later. Two things: make sure you are 100% certain you like the job before you take it, and unless you end up in an extremely uncomfortable and impossible environment to stay in which does sometimes happen, you should try to stick it out for a while. Remember, no job is easy, and no job is perfect.

4. Tell me about your own family. How did you grow up and/or how did you raise your family?

This question is a way for parents to get a sense for your family values, and how they might resonate (or not) with theirs. Answers to these questions can be interpreted in different ways. For instance, if you had a strict upbringing, it may mean that you will be more disciplinary than other nannies. Then again, it could mean that you’ve made a conscious decision to go totally the other way!

When thinking about your answer to this question, go back to the original posting for the job or your notes from the nanny agency – if the parents have been specific about certain things, try and highlight examples from your childhood (or from raising your children) that you could apply within this family.

If you don’t see eye-to-eye on values and upbringing that’s okay – perhaps you can meet somewhere in the middle, and if not, you may just not be the right match for each other.

5. As a nanny, what kind of families make you happy? What is most important for you to feel comfortable in a job?

This question is less about you. It’s your opportunity to share your expectations of the parent as an employer and for the parent to decide if they are able or willing to live up to those expectations.

If you have any deal-breakers, then now’s the time to share them. For example, if you like predictability and dislike last-minute changes, you may not be the right fit for a family who works unpredictable hours and is required to travel a lot for work. Or if you work well in a very structured environment and the family is more casual and relaxed, they may not be the right family for you. If it’s important for you to feel like a member of the family, make sure you raise this – some parents really want their nanny to be part of the family whereas others are a bit more formal and keep their nanny at more of a distance. Of course, the answer to this interview question is honesty.

6. What type of things that families do annoy you the most?

Parents, like nannies, are only human so you’re bound to have examples of how they have annoyed you in the past. If you don’t, you must be a saint!

So, why is this a tough nanny interview question? As humans, it’s in our nature to complain and many people find it much easier to talk about what they don’t like than what they like, so it’s easy to get carried away. It’s also very hard to answer a question like this without making it personal.

Think hard before you answer this question and try to keep it to things that may indicate that you’re not compatible rather than getting personal. If it annoys you when a family leaves dirty dishes in the sink in the morning, or if you get annoyed when parents arrive home late, it’s much better to get these things out before you start the job. You may both come to same conclusion – that you’re not the most compatible match.

What should I ask the family?

At the end of the interview, don’t be afraid to ask the parents similar questions, e.g., Why did your last nanny leave? What did you like about your last nanny? Was there anything your last nanny did that annoyed you? Remember nannies choose families as much as parents choose nannies and the interview is the time for you both to explore if you’d be a good fit.

If you have any questions about interviewing or any other aspect of being a nanny, we’d be happy to help at myTamarin. Just send us an email to hello@mytamarin.com. Or, why not check out our open jobs.

For more general tips, read our blog How to ace the nanny interview.

Happy interviewing!

Tamarins are monkeys who parent in family groups – like a village – helping each other while children are small.

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1. Why did you become a nanny? What do you like most about your job (and what the least)?

2. Tell me about your last job and the ones before. Why did you leave?

3. Can you explain the gaps in your nanny job history?

4. Tell me about your own family. How did you grow up and/or how did you raise your family?

5. As a nanny, what kind of families make you happy? What is most important for you to feel comfortable in a job?

6. What type of things that families do annoy you the most?

What should I ask the family?

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