10 Ways to Find the Best Jobs for Babysitters in Your Area

With more and more mothers in the workforce, there is an ever-growing demand for efficient and well-trained babysitters and live-in nannies. Gone are the days when your neighbor’s kids would look after your child while you are away. Jobs for babysitters pay really well these days, provided you do your homework. A little training, some preparation and a lot of research will help give your babysitting career a great head start. Following are a few tips, tricks, and tactics to finding the best jobs for babysitters in your area:

Know What You Want

Before you can start looking for jobs, you need to know what kind of jobs for babysitters you are seeking. Are you looking for some freelance work during the evenings or weekends or do you plan on pursuing it full-time? Would you be comfortable spending the entire day at a client’s house? Would you be open to a live-in situation? Are you comfortable taking care of newborns, infants, toddlers? What other house chores will you be willing to do? Having answers to all these questions would enable you to find the most suitable jobs for yourself.

Get Trained

Parents will be entrusting you with their young children, and they wouldn’t mind paying extra for some additional skills and training.  Kids are constantly exposed to all sorts of potential dangers like injuries, choking, getting locked out of the house, getting lost, fire hazards, kids fighting with each other, running away, or an intruder sneaking in. Formal training can really help you get a better understanding of how to tackle such situations. Look for certificate courses, workshops, and diplomas in your area as well as online to help score higher paying and better jobs.

Get Experienced

Experience does not necessarily need to come from paid jobs. In order to build a portfolio, be open to volunteering; or see it more as an investment into your future. If you have younger siblings, offer to babysit them for free or for a cheaper price. Do the same for neighbors or colleagues. If you are finding difficulty getting jobs as a professional nanny, you can also start by looking for work at play areas around town. That would help get experience also.

Word of Mouth

Let people know you are looking for work. You may not find consistent work initially, but you will definitely get the word out that there is an amazing nanny looking for work. Let your colleagues or mommies at your kid’s school know you are available for jobs for babysitters.  

Referrals

Parents are most comfortable trusting someone that has been recommended by family or friends. This way they aren’t leaving their child behind with a complete stranger. You can get referrals via social media sites by posting about your availability and requesting your friend’s list to refer you to people with small children. Even if you have a 100 friends or followers on your profile and they all know five people on average who have small kids and say a third of your friends decide to refer you to half of the people they know, then that’s more than 80 families that you are referred to via a single post about your availability for jobs for babysitters.

Social media is a powerful tool and people use it for employment opportunities all the time; no reason why you shouldn’t do the same. Though be sure you present yourself well on those sites. No partying until late and stories about irresponsible driving up there! Know that everything that you do does and will eventually reflect on your job opportunities, especially those related to taking care of small children.

Seek Opportunities Online

From finding the best needles to how to become a millionaire overnight, Google has answers to everything. Just a little hunt for jobs for babysitters in your area would likely return a lot of results. You can start by checking the nanny agencies operating in your area and contacting them to see if there are any vacancies.

You can also search for job directories and listings to see if there are suitable opportunities available. Make a stellar profile and upload it to multiple of these directories. This way, whenever someone will search for a nanny in your area, your name would come up.

Mommy Groups

Mommies are connected on all forums these days and for good reason. There are plenty of mommy groups on social media sites like Facebook and other mommy support forums online that provide a platform for mothers of small children to connect. By actively participating and providing smart and reasonable solutions, you will gain trust and credibility; and that will invariably convert to job opportunities sooner than later.

Be Prepared

All your research and hard work at finding the best jobs for babysitters can only get you so far. The only way you can score a job or build up an impressive portfolio is to be well prepared for the next stage. Parents will not trust you with their children just because you have a cute smile, they will most likely screen you thoroughly to see if you are suitable for the job at hand.

For starters, do not agree to visit just anyone who contacts you via a message. Speak to the family on the phone to get a better understanding of the family and their needs. Let them know about your availability and requirements. Better to get the groundwork done on the phone rather than going through half of the interview only to realize they want a live-in nanny while your availability is only for the weekends.

Also, be prepared for the interview. Following are a few tips to ace your interview:

• Always arrive a few minutes before the committed time
• Dress modestly
• Prepare answers for the interview but be conversational
• Ask questions about the family and their kids
• Interact with the kids
• Be firm about your prices
• Be flexible about your rules, but firm about your principles regarding childcare
• Do not lie about your availability; if you can’t work on Saturdays because of your tennis sessions, let them know beforehand

There are plenty of opportunities and jobs for babysitters. It just requires a little diligence, networking and making yourself available for the right opportunities at the right time to score the best jobs for babysitters out there