We are interviewing nannies for Dorothy. It’s been one of the three continuing stresses in our relocation – 1) finding a good nanny for D, 2) finding a good place to live, and 3) making sure we had all our money in the right country at the right time to allow for #1 and #2. Our new nanny will actually live with us, which adds a new level of pressure to an already guilt-laden decision. After some networking with people from Eric’s work and reading up on the subject we decided we had to use a nanny service and were pleased to interview our first two candidates last night.
I wish we had a nanny cam installed in our apartment as the interviews themselves I suspect would have been highly entertaining YouTube material. While productive, let’s just say I don’t think Eric or I felt exactly the most professional in our interviews. Both candidates had some professed level of English language capability, but their abilities were much closer to my current level of Spanish ability than any actual dialogue proficiency. Thus, daughter in tow, we proceeded down the windy question and answer path trying to gather details on perspectives, plans, and logistics while not being offensive in our attempted translations of big picture topics and constant jumping back and forth from English to Spanish, Eric to E.J. (Eric to translate for E.J.), and so on.
As an example, consider what I think was a fairly typical question from when we interviewed for nannies in Chicago. “Please describe your ideal family or situation.” Well, it became quite clear than in translation this question was coming across as what type of family they would like to have in an ideal world. Needless to say, both candidates interviewed had large eyes and somewhat puzzled looks until we hastily added “por su trabaje”, our probably incorrect attempt at saying “in your job.”
It’s hard to know what experiences to count the most. On the job training, formal education, a high level of shown organization, or ability to be creative and flexible. One of the candidate’s most recent experience was working for a player on the Real Madrid (pronounced royal) soccer team. This wasn’t something which was of particular interest for us other than the experience gained but we have a feeling she will be hired quickly as the team and its players are so loved in the city.
In reality, it was probably a pretty good interview as someone working with you in your home often sees you in your less polished times. We were left with very good impressions of both candidates and continue to debate our next steps. Language is no doubt going to be an early issue, but we will both be taking some form of intensive Spanish training and we want Dorothy to learn both English and Spanish over the next few years. So we'll see after the weekend how our decisions go. It's a relief to finally meet some candidates if nothing else and hopefully with any luck we'll find someone who fits well.
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