Maid Nanny Interview Checklist

If you want to hire a maid or nanny you will probably need to interview her. We created this maid nanny interview checklist, in order to facilitate your life in this process. Let’s see it!

Warm up questions for your maid or nanny interview checklist

Firstly, you can start the maid or nanny interview with some basic warm up questions like:

Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Where are you from?
How long have you been in here?
Does your family live here?
What are some of the things you like about [the city you live]?
Why do you want to (need to) work as a domestic helper?
How many siblings do you have? What number are you in your siblings.
What are your future plans?

Questions for maid nanny who works

Secondly, if the nanny or maid that you will interview works for another family or if you want to know about the previous jobs experiences, here you can find a checklist:

How long have you been interviewing?
Why are you leaving your current job?
Explain your past work history.
What are you best at doing?
Do you have any references from your previous employers? Can I contact your previous employer?
How much do you earn in your current job? What is your expected salary?
What are you expectations from your new job?
Is your current Madam strict? What about Sir?
Do both the madam and sir work?
How often do you clean the bathrooms? Do laundry? Iron? Change bed sheets?
Have you done any gardening in the past? How big was the garden? What types of plants? How often did you tend the plants? What tasks did you perform?
How many meals do you cook each day?

Interviewing a Housekeeping – for cleaning

Moreover, if you will interview a Cleaning or Housekeeping, you could also consider the following questions in your checklist:

How big is the current house you work in? How many rooms and bathrooms does it have?
Were you livi-in or live-out?
Do you have your own room and bathroom?
What are some of the things you do in the house to keep it clean? And in the kitchen
Are you good at organizing?
Do you know how to use a vacuum?
Are you afraid of any insects, bugs, lizards, etc?
Are you able to follow a schedule? Tell me some things on your current schedule/routine that you do daily?

Laundry & Ironing Questions

If the person you will hire needs to ironing and do laundry, in addition you should include those questions in your checklist for nanny and/or maid:

Does the current house have a laundry machine and dryer?
Do you do laundry every day?
Is there also something that you hand wash? Tell me some of the things?
How often do you change/wash the bedsheets in your previous employment?
What time of day do you usually like to do the ironing?

Cooking and Kitchen Questions

If the maid or nanny you will hire need to cook (check our recipes in Ideas for Family Recipes), add the following questions to your checklist:

What’s your favorite food?
Do you like to cook?
Are you consider yourself a good cooker?
What types of food do you know how to cook? Brazilian, Chinese, Western, Indian, Japanese, Italian, French, etc…
Had you ever done any culinary course?
Can you name some of the dishes that you know how to cook?
What is your favorite dish to cook? Can you tell me the recipe.
If the President/Sheik/1st Minister/celebrity was visiting your house. What is the best meal you would cook and serve him?
Can you follow a recipe book?
What type of recipe books have your read?
Do you bake? What types of things do you know how to bake.
Have you ever done a meal planning? How was it?
What type of kitchen appliances do you know how to use?
Have you ever cooked for a large group of people or party? How big was the group? What did you prepare?
Do you know how to make a grocery/marketing list? How do you do it? Please explain?
How many meals a day to you cook for your current family?
What type of meals do you cook daily?
Please describe some breakfast, lunch and dinner meals that you know how to prepare.
Do you cook the meals by yourself or is there someone with you to help you and do the kids eat the same food and at the same time as the adults?
What type of tasks have you done in the past? Pick up dry cleaning, shoe repair, post-office, etc.
Who does the food shopping in your current house, goes to the supermarket?

Kids experience for nanny or maid

If you have kids or babies, you should include this questions to your checklist and you can also check our area with kids tips in Ideas for Family Kids:

Do you like kids?
What is your experience with kids? With boys or girls?
How old are them?
Had you ever done any First Aid training? Where did you take your course? Please explain some common scenarios.
Do you know how to swim? Had you done classes? Which styles?
If my child is acting out, how would you scold him/her?
Do you have any experience taking kids to school, picking them up from the school bus or taking kids to activities?
Have you packed a school lunch before? What do you normally pack in the lunch?
What do you consider a healthy lunch and snack for kids and what type of snacks would you give a child after school?
Have you ever helped kids do their homework? What subjects?
What is your favorite game to play with the kids?
Do you read books to the kids?
How is your involvement with the kids after-school activities?
What are some activities that you do with the kids?
Who primarily takes care of the kids at home in your family? You, your grandma, mom, dad, etc?
If you can’t get a hold of Madam or Sir and there is an emergency with the kids (ex: child cut open lip and is bleeding, burned hand, etc.), what do you do?

Pet Experience

If you have pets and wanna know about this previous experience, you can include also the following questions to your checklist:

Do you like animals? What animal is your favorite?
Are you afraid of animals? Which one?
Do you have religious restrictions with pets? Which?
Have you worked in a family with pets or had any pets of your own? What type of pets?
How big were the pets? What breed/kind?
What duties/responsibilities do you have with the pets?
Dog experience: How often do you walk the dog?
How often do you change the litter box?
Fish experience: how often do you clean the aquarium?
Bird experience: how often you clean the cage?

Public Holidays and day-off questionnaire

It is always good to know about holidays and day-off. So, you could include it in your Maid Nanny Interview Checklist:

Are you flexible with your day off? What day do you prefer for your day off?
Do you get every Sunday/Saturday(Other day) off? Do you currently get public holidays off?
If necessary, will you work on your day off for extra money?
What time do you usually leave on your day off and what time do you get back? If the person is live-in.
Are you very social, have lots of friends here or in your home country?
What do you like to do on your day-off? For example: like to go to church or to your religious service, or do any course.
Do you like partying, going out with your friends?
Does your current family go on vacation? What do you do while they are away?
Do you do any part-time work to earn extra money?
What is the longest period of time that you have been alone while your employer was away on holiday?
Have you gone on any vacations with your previous employers? Where?
How do you help your Madam/Sir before a vacation? What are your duties?
Who packs the bags for the vacation?
Do you get spending money while the family is away?
Have you previously stayed in the home or at the agency?

Personal Questions

Further, here you can find some personal questions. Just be careful to check if in your country it is allowed to do those questions before doing it, ok? And this tip is also valid for all the questions of this maid nanny interview checklist.

What do you like to do in your spare time when you are finished with your work or have a break during your work schedule? Talk on the phone, sleep, read books, organize the cupboards, etc.
Do you enjoy taking naps during the day?
How often do you speak to your family/ husband/ kids back home? What time of day do you usually speak with them? Do you call, text and/or video chat?
Do you have a cell phone?
What are you the most concerned / worried about in your home country or city?
Are you married?
Do you have kids? How many? How old are them? Do you raise them your own?
So what does your husband do? Where is he from?
Do you have any medical conditions? Do you take any medications or have any allergy?
Are there any specific foods that you cannot eat or be around?
What are your hobbies?
Do you have any special skill?
Are your parents alive? Are they in good health?
When was your last visit back to your home country or city?
Do you plan to visit your home country/city again? Are there any special occasions that you need to be home for?
If needed: Do you have working visa?
Do you matter to share room with the other maid/nanny/domestic helper we have?
Would you like to know something else about the job opportunity?

Conclude

How can I finish the interview?

You can tell, for example:

Thanks for coming! We are interviewing other candidates and we will keep in touch as soon as possible.
Thanks! We will discuss internally and tell you the result as soon as possible.

In short, the interview process is to help you to check if the maid or nanny has fit with your family lifestyle and routine and before hiring is the best moment to know this, the limitations and points of development you should work on.

Finally, we wish this Maid Nanny Interview Checklist helps you to find the best nanny, maid, housekepping, cleaning or help with your kids and/or house.

Above all, just be careful to check if in your country it is allowed to do all of those questions before doing it, ok?

Ideas for Family