The pool of au pair candidates (and host families) is deeper at some times of year than at others.We host parents have a sense that Spring (end of school year) and Late Summer (just before start of school) have relatively deeper pool of candidates. And, many of us prefer these times to match with au pairs, since we can orient the au pair to the upcoming change in schedule.
(I’d love it if some of you seasoned LCCs could jump in with any facts about surges and ebbs in the au pair candidate pool.)
Sometimes we aren’t able to time our au pair to meet a certain season. We end up back in the market at an ‘off season’ because of rematch, abrupt au pair departures, extensions, and changes in childcare needs.
If you find yourself looking for an au pair during the ‘off season’, what can you do to increase the chance of finding a good match?
Dear Au Pair Mom– I’ve got a problem I’d call the “Off Season Match.”
We are in the midst of the matching process now, since our current au pair’s year ends in March. As others have noted, this time of the year is “slim pickings.”
I have been working diligently to find an au pair in the current pool. We have sent out about 12-14 introductory emails, telling prospective au pairs about our family and asking them to email us back a few times during which we might talk to them in person.
Of that number, we have had what I consider to be a dismal response rate–and I mean ANY response. We have only had 6 responses, and of those, 2 said they were already matching with another family, 2 said they couldn’t come until later (one not until July! why even have the profile up now, in that case?). So far, only 2 have written back with times to talk to them. Argh! I don’t know if it matters, but we are with a ‘very big agency’.
My questions are:
1. What type of response rate should I be expecting, considering the time of year, etc.?
We’ve been through this process twice, and it’s always been better than this. In fact, I don’t think I have had to send out so many emails before.
2. Does your interview process change if you happen to be matching during an “off” time of year?
- Have you found that your standards have lowered as a matter of necessity?
- If not, how have you managed to find a good au pair when there don’t seem to be that many choices out there?
I’d appreciate feedback on either or both of these questions!
Thanks for this site, again! What a tremendous gift to HFs from all of you!
“Season-ed Host Mom”
[Don’t groan at me, she picked the name. Pun intended, I assume ;-)]
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I feel for you and your plight! What I have done a few times in the past was to register with more than one agency at a time to increase the applicant pool. yes, it is slim pickings, and you do feel as if you have to settle. I did ‘lower my standards’ on one AP as it was last minute in an off time, while there were things I would never have approved of in the past (tattoos, for eg.), they were ‘ok’ for this one, provided that she agreed to cover them up as much as possible with the kids. Well, lo and behold, I didn’t realize there was one all over her back no bathing suit could hide! ;) It was not the worst thing in the world, and she ended up being fantastic AP.
I also comb greataupair.com and check out their candidates to see if one will work. If they are not with my agency, I can see if I can be in theirs, or one girl switched for me.
There are also those AP candidates who have profiles listed, even though they are not available til summer, and yes, I was one of those parents who started my search in Jan/Feb for July arrival. I have emailed hundreds of AP’s! As for interview process, I tend to have more thorough conversations with them, since there are not as many. Also, on a side note, I have contacted the head office of the agency and spoken to someone there. They have ways of ‘finding’ AP candidates who were not listed, for whatever the reason, and this has helped me ‘find’ good ones in otherwise off time.
Have you tried Australian candidates? this time of year may be good for them to match.
Lastly, as an aside, have you thought about the possibility of either getting an in country who does not have much time left, just to cover you til the better matching season (aka summer) arrives? Or, hiring a babysitter, til the summer AP’s become available.
Good luck, it is never easy matching.
Adding a few more questions to Season-ed Host Moms regard JUST this topic:
Our current AuPair wants to extend for 6 months which means we are looking at a Jan/Feb matching time period for the next AuPair.
If an AP is available in Jan or Feb does that mean they gave up on whatever life plan they chose in September and have just decided to this instead? It goes without saying that this is an interview question, but I’d love to hear from some of you who have matched this time of year as to why the girls were just coming in to the program right now. My agency won’t let me see the pool available now because I am matched and this pool won’t be the same one available next year anyway during January. True, but are they hiding how bad it is? I’m also with a big agency!
Is it worth keeping our excellent (and I do mean EXCELLENT) AP for another 6 months if it means the quality of my selection will be compromised for my next match, which we hope will last a year or beyond. Or is it better to let her go when I have a better chance of finding excellent AP #3. Of course I want to keep my AP, but do I tell her it’s a year (or even 9 mths) or nothing?
I’m one of those “crazy” HMs who has a long and extensive handbook, that I send prior to matching, and looked at 50 applications from 2 agencies and skyped with 10 girls in my prior 2 matches to find “the one”. And I’ve been so glad. Every time someone says I’ve lucky, I think they are partially right but I also know that it was more than lucky, it was in the interview and the search, and a HUGE pool to choose from. So it scares me to think that there will be 10 infant qualified APs who can drive and don’t smoke available to me to choose from. Or, gasp, less. I just don’t know how slim the pool is for Jan/Feb arrival.
I live in the Pacific Northwest, so this time of year is also the most depressing. Getting here in July is perfect, and there are 4 great months of weather, homesickness has subsided, and learning to love the area, before the rainy blahs set it. Should I consider this too?
It seems like an odd reason not to keep an AP we love, but this post and many of the previous ones get me to thinking that this is possibly a big issue.
I’ll admit that this site is largely what has made me so “lucky” in this program. Thanks for all the amazing advice and respectful dialogue. I have so much gratitude!
If you’re looking at Australian or New Zealand girls then we like to start our year in Dec/Jan/Feb because that’s our summer holidays and the Uni school year starts in Feb/March depending on which state and school you go to.
I went in Feb to Seattle and it was a huge weather shock for me to go from the hottest summer i remember having here to an extremely snowy winter in Seattle, but i didn’t get the rainy blahs waiting the 4ish months it took for summer to come :)
Same for Brazilians (and other South Americans) and probably for South Africans too!
It may sound strange but if it were me, I would probably tell her one year or not at all. Some of this really depends on how much you adore her and whether you think she’d be willing to do another year. But the main problem is not just that you end up in a bad match month, but do so in perpetuity! We got a transition in July after our 1st choice Out of Country AP couldn’t get a visa and we needed someone fast. Since she already had 3 months in, we ended our year in March. And now here we are, 3 years later and we are still stuck in the same lousy month with the same weak, thin pool (registered with 3 agencies!) I also agree that coming in the summer is better for overall morale and also gets the hardest work at the front end of the deal (when the kids are out of school) Good luck either way.
We are in exactly this situation right now, except that our FABulous au pair really can only stay for an extra six months because she has a contract to start police academy in Switzerland 2/1. We’re having the same concerns about getting stuck in a January match cycle I am in our agency’s family room now and can see the people available in Feb./March, and it IS a very different pool of candidates from what you see in summer. We would definitely have to be willing to broaden our horizons to hopefully find someone. I have also checked Great AuPair, and haven’t seen many people currently available who fit our typical (and successful, so far) au pair profile. We love our current au pair so much we are considering taking the risk, and if we don’t find someone suitable, putting the kids in some other form of child care until July. I guess my rationale for going to this trouble is that we’d be giving up someone we know works incredibly well with our family for an unknown – even summer matches do fail! I’ll be interested to hear what others have to say!
Just out of curiosity, what is your “typical (and so far successful) au pair profile. Seeing as how my “typical” (and so far unsuccessful au pair profile) has been making me crazy, I obviously need a change of strategy if I ever get the guts to try this again!
Well, I can’t claim a LONG history…but so far, 19 yo western European, with more than one other sibling (preferably younger), from a working class family whose mother works, and who has held an actual job herself (besides babysitting), evidence of the ability to succeed in spite of adversity, and photos that show a girl willing to get dirty with a smile on her face, I would say are the main themes. And listing hip hop dancing (or similar) as a hobby is definitely out. This recipe has produced the type of match that has worked well for our family.
And I forgot one – she should have started babysitting young, like 12 or 13.
Ok, I’ve just got to ask about the hip-hop dancing. Was that a one-off problem or is it an indicator of something, in your experience? (We had to go to rematch after a belly dance enthusiast, but was it the belly dancing?)
I do worry a bit about the ‘performers’–cheerleaders, ballerinas, and so forth, because I wonder if they need a kind of acknowledgment and attention that might not be compatible with independence and maturity. But it might also be like reading tea leaves to try to figure that out.
I wouldn’t automatically assume that because someone wants to begin the au pair program in January/February that they gave up on plans they had begun in September. Schools in different part of the world follow different calendars and even in America some people graduate from college in December (I did). Or maybe it took them a while to realize they wanted to this program. Or they wanted to spend the holidays with their family before they left. I’m sure there are a multitude of reasons why people choose to begin their au pair year in March and shouldn’t be immediately perceived as a negative!
It never hurts to ask I did one year found via facebook as I prematch with all my aupairs shows me signs on what will and will not work or go on during the year. He waited a whole year for us 8 months after he wanted to come. he was the best au pair with the kids and so thankfully he did.
We have always matched in the January-February timeframe, and we’ve had–with the exception of the first–excellent au pairs. Our last two, in particular, have been absolutely stellar. I think the key is to start matching early (we have a new au pair arriving this month and we finalized with her in September) and to look for older au pairs who aren’t tied to the academic calendar. We find that we prefer au pairs in the 25 – 27 age range. The tradeoff here is that we have to be more flexible in some ways–we don’t have a curfew, for instance. But it has worked out great for us.
We have always had au pairs w/Feb/March arrival dates (4 in all) and no rematches. They have all been very good with the exception of one but for reasons other than child care. We’ve had 2 from western Europe, one Australian, and one Brazilian. Now we have changed our match from Feb-March to summer and we just started the matching process. They tend to want to come in July or August and they range in age from 17-20 (we usually go with 19-20). We’ll see how it goes this way.
Our strategy is to start looking when our AP gets her extension package and says no, that she’s going home, so that we’re 4 months out when we start looking. I realize that I am different from all of you – I have one typical child and one special needs child. I expect that I will look at 100 candidates, send out emails to 20 and have interviews with 5-6. I takes 4-6 weeks, on average, for DH and I to match. Yes, we’re very careful and our reward is that we’ve never gone into rematch. Yes, I use APIA, so I have a large pool from which to choose, can carry up to 7 APs in my folder at a time, and have been a HP long enough so that I know how to recall an AP whose application has “expired” from my pool but whom I am still considering. Matching is tough work, and I must say I really lucked out with my first AP (we started looking at the beginning of January when we realized day care was too expensive — even if we could have found a spot for the The Camel and she arrived at the beginning of March). University programs end at different times from high school program (I have a former AP who intends to graduate in December), so I would think that while it’s possible to find great candidates in the winter, if there are slim pickings they’re going to match quickly.
And yes, the AP application process can take months, so that graduating high school and college students will start the process in winter in anticipation that they will match for arrival after graduation.
Over the years we have had arrivals in March, November (very hard – right before Christmas), May and August. We’ve been in an August cycle for the past three years, which I must say is very easy.
Interesting: I am with APIA, too and am on a Feb match cycle. I have two typical children and a fairly desirable situation (I think). I am surprised at your ratio of app reviewed : emails : interviews. There is no way I could have interviewed 6 candidates this year after 20 emails. I interviewed only one candidate after ~10 emails soliciting interviews during this last cycle (and probably reviewed >40 applications). She seemed to be great and there were few other choices (all of the other could-be-greats didn’t respond to my email). I try to have a fairly firm family letter (you will work 45 hours per week, your hours will be irregular, you will work some weekends) but don’t think we come across as trolls.
I don’t have any tips on how to make this work better for you — I have always matched this time of year and marvel at others’ stories of their thorough interview practices, their high standards, etc. I spend weeks matching, start early, etc. However, if I did things the way others say they do, I don’t think I could find an Au Pair. I have not been in rematch; however, my previous Au Pairs did have a few significant flaws that kept them in the pool for quite a long time. (The new Au Pair, interestingly, just entered the pool when I did — I was the first family to contact her. She is South American and finished school in December).
South African’s finish there school year at the end of December,So they usually start looking around september/november the previous year to be matched in Jan/Feb.Those are the ones that are just getting out of high school.That’s what happened to me when i au paired the first time thru a “big agency” but when i wanted to go thru the “big agency” again i was 26yrs when i submitted my application in December/January again but i arrived a day before i turned 27yrs,6 months later from submitting my application but only having my application being available to host families 2 months before hand. Why because the South african offices in JHB kept firing and hiring new employees so basically all those au pairs that submitted the applications didn’t get touched until there staff in the JHB offices was settled.
TaCL, I was the person who posed this question to Au Pair Mom, and I am with the same agency as you are. Like Dorsi, I am surprised that you are able to arrange 5-6 interviews from 20 emails. Having sent out almost 20 by the end of our search, I finally interviewed only 3 candidates by phone. I finally did get a few more responses, up to one week after my initial email was sent, and I was surprised that the girls responded with absolutely no explanation of the long delay. Also, I don’t have the luxury, or maybe it’s better to say patience, of taking months to do this–it’s hard enough to spend a few weeks on it. (I tell friends and family that, while we’re in the matching process, it’s like I have an additional part-time job on top of my full-time job and that they may not hear from me very much during that time!) However, next year I will probably have to start earlier than I did in case the response rate is similar to this year’s.
We got lucky this time, though, and found an extension candidate whose extension date was the day after my current au pair’s end date. DH was able to meet her while on a business trip this week, and after talking to her a couple of times and talking to her current host mom, we felt that she was the one.
HRHM, your comment about the “off season” match going into perpetuity is a good point, and it did make me stop and think about matching with another girl for a year in late winter/early spring. The thing is, though, that I did this the same time last year, and I just felt that I got more and better responses then. I don’t know what was going on. I started to feel like many of the girls on my agency’s site had just signed up “to see what happens” and weren’t all that serious.
For the past few years, I have started looking in April for an August arrival. I take it for granted that because I have The Camel, that it will take me a few months to match. For the past three years, DH and I have spent about 3 weeks reviewing applications, building up a pool we like, and during that process we start interviewing.
Because of my current timing, I can take advantage of European and other students completing high school or ausbildung (no equivalent in the US – it’s like an academic apprenticeship). I’m interviewing before they complete school. Yes, I miss some good candidates that want to arrive earlier in the summer, but I’ve (mostly) been happy with my matches.
Because my kids are school-age, my APs generally work 25-35 hours per week. I’m pretty flexible about weekends off, and often arrive home from work around 4:30 (because I start work at 6:30 am). My down side is that I have a child who weighs 24.5 kg who gets her period in diapers. The good side is that having The Camel is a natural screen for APs who really love children.
My personal tough road ahead is that I’m pretty sure my current AP wants to go home at the end of the year, which means I’ll be trying to match as The Camel goes under the knife to correct her severe scolosis.
We have been on a Feb match/May arrival cycle for a few years and have not had any trouble matching. We do start early, screen many candidates (we probably looked at 50 applications), but in a week were able to email 8, speak with 5, and make a decision between two we felt would be good choices. After doing this for a while we have a good sense of what we need to see on paper and also by phone (one AP had no questions — an easy call to end and move on). We ask a lot of questions but at some point feel like you have to go with your gut. We also have the proposed AP talk to our current AP which gives them a realistic sense of what their year would be like and flags for us if they ask any inappropriate questions.
We are in a similar boat – we have found a great candidate but she only wants to commit to 9 months APing and wants 3 months to travel (in NZ they can only get a 12 mth visa) and so that will leave us AP-less in March which we have found impossible to find any matches for. I think we will have to say no to her, which is a shame because it’s been a hard road to finding a decent AP for us…
This is ironic. We matched this season (granted we started much earlier than OP) and had some really great picks. We shall see if the AP we ultimately selected turns out to be as good as we expect, but I was expecting much worse and was surprised at how well it went.
Getting back to the OP’s dilemma, I wouldn’t settle. I’d continue to screen until you find the candidate for you. Don’t lower your expectations. She’s out there. Put the pressure on your agency and your placement manager to find her and to work faster. Since it’s slower for them too, this should not be a problem. I know our placement manager this year seemed to have more time than ever to call me and call overseas and do just whatever it took to seal the deal as fast as possible. It just may be a more time consuming this time around.
Maybe next year start your search a bit earlier. Can’t ever hurt, right? If push comes to shove, I suppose you could also try broadening your net to include au pairs who post on websites like great au pair, etc. I’m a bit leery of this myself, but have nothing to base that on.
After I posted last night I had some other thoughts –
1) involve your LCC – I don’t know about other agencies, but APIA LCC’s definitely can get into the pool and look for good candidates
2) once again, I only know about APIA – which has a great search tool. We found some good candidates that way
3) check your family essay and retool it if needed. APIA pre-selects based on what you write (so not just your weighted form counts). It used to be that APs didn’t see the family essay until after they matched, but now I believe you have the power to release it to them once you indicate you’re interested.
You’ve invested good money with your agency, so if you’re not happy with the pool, contact your LCC first. If that doesn’t work to your advantage, call headquarters and ask how to retool your application to get better matches.
Find out which days of the week they release new candidates to the web site, and whether it’s worth your while to wait a little longer (obviously that doesn’t work with all countries – as it takes some candidates longer to get a visa than others).
We’ve always matched in the off-season, since we started with a November au pair and have never gotten onto a better schedule. Every year I kick myself for having gotten on this schedule to begin with.
In answer to your questions:
My initial email response rate is dismal. Maybe one in five au pairs respond within the week? That said, it does help narrow things down…I find that more responses start coming in after a week or so. But then again, if an au pair is coming from a first-world country and has easy access to a computer, and doesn’t bother responding to your email for a week, maybe she’s not the best option.
If you’re with Au Pair Care, call the matching coordinator and ask for more au pairs. In theory you’re supposed to be able to see all the au pairs yourself. In reality, my last three au pairs haven’t been visible in the system until I called the matching coordinator and complained, and then they magically showed up in my Favorites.
It’s also helpful to know that there’s a much bigger pool of au pairs who are qualified to care for kids over two than those who can care for kids under two, so if you’re near the cutoff, you might want to consider that.
You aren’t the first HM to make a comment to the effect of their being a “hidden pool” that you can gain access to by complaining. I would love to hear from some LCCs to find out what the real deal is with this. It makes me feel like I should start complaining each cylce! LOL
It’s funny that you would mention this because from what my host mom told me I was one of the hidden au pairs, which is odd because within a month I received about 32 emails from host families.
What happened is that I had my first host family decide against hiring an au pair while I was still in my country and already had a visa whereas my de facto host family had a problem with their previous au pair, she had to be sent home less than 6 months into the program, and her husband didn’t want a transition au pair. Long story short, my host family couldn’t see my profile as one of their options, but I was “sent” to them by the LCC, or a higher office, not sure which.
We were with APC as well and the explanation I got was in some cases they were already marked for interviews with whatever number of HF’s they limit the AP to. If they are interviewing with that number of families, then their profile cannot be viewed. Or so I was told. I would also guess that there is something to do with system updates applications just approved or something. With multiples plus 1, I’ve always talked to a matching expert and she’s happily weeded through profiles for me and followed up in regards to what I may have liked or not liked about applications or interviews to help her search. It also sounded like at APC the AP’s in rematch often talked to the matching expert so she could help place in-country AP’s and they were often interviewing with HF’s before their rematch profile was made “live” on their web site.
A transition or 6-9 month extension au pair is also an option. You could then ‘jog’ the schedule so that you match at a better time in the future. Obviously there are issues with taking transition au pairs, but that topic has been discussed on this site at some length. And if anyone knows if the failure rate of matches with transition au pairs is higher than with new arrivals, speak up!
What issues would arrise with transition aupairs? Is that a new topic all together?
I meant any issues with extending au pairs? Disregard about transitions. I am familiar with that issue.
I don’t know any specific issues about extensions, sorry I was unclear on that.
Our best AP yet was an extension who somehow managed to tough out her first year with a not-so-great family (not just her opinion, this was documented by the LCCs who conferred, and also my conversation with the HD, who admitted that his wife didn’t like the AP and treated her very badly; he and the kids somehow were great enough that she decided to stick with them!). We felt fortunate, as did she, that her 2nd year here in the US was able to be what she dreamed of when choosing to be an AP, and while we wish we had found her the first year so she could have been with us longer, we think that realistically it was best that she didn’t, given other stories of mediocre performance and a sense of complacency that somehow comes with too much familiarity. The best things about an extension AP are that they are familiar with US lifestyles and customs, have driven our cars, and their English is generally very good! Our previous agency, APIA, often had several 6 or 9 month extension candidates available on their website who looked promising and had good recommendations from current host families. I think that would be a great option for “adjusting” your match schedule.
I think we have been in what I would call awkward matching times both times it has come up. We had a November arrival date for our first (because of when our first child was born and when I was returning to work), and after the rematch, ended up in an early February matching date.
Admittedly when I was looking for our new AP this year, I was thinking we had some slim pickings sometimes (emails out, no replies or else replies indicating Princess status, etc), but it definately worked out this time. I had started in November to look at applications. We selected a country where summer is our winter, and we pick AP candidates over 21 (our current preference is 21 to 23/24yo), so hopefully either out of school or else in better position for transition and time to do this without a sense of urgency to match.
Our incoming AP was picked after I was fortunate enough to see her application very shortly after it was posted (I am an “application stalker”, I admit — I was checking for new applicants at least once a day, frequently twice a day). She was not on the market very long, so to speak.
I might also suggest asking your LCC about 2nd year APs already in the country. A fair number want to extend, but maybe try a new family or see a different part of the country. That will help expand your pool.
Do agencies allow the APs to rematch/extend in the same cluster? I just wonder if this wouldn’t be a bit akward for the HF and the new AP.
I think they do, but of course some families are not comfortable with that. I know it was an option offered to us when we did our rematch, mostly because we did not need (and did not really want) a driver at the time, so APs with weak driving skills matched to families who need strong drivers were available. I think that one is a better thing to look at as a case by case basis.
But, I was saying to talk to your LCC because LCCs talk to each other. Ours helped us find our departing AP (who was in rematch in another cluster several states away). They can be a great resource, so if they know you are looking or open to a second year, then they can keep ears out for you.
We are on our 4th au pair and have never felt like the pickings were “slim”. In fact, we have always had our au pairs join us in March – meaning we started the process in January! Perhaps it is because our au pairs have all been older- 22 to 26 years old and not still attached to the school calendar.
Our best candidates have all been young women, university graduates with at least some job experience and all have been Asian. All of ours spoke good English and excepting one, adapted to American driving reasonably well.
If you are having trouble finding a suitable match, I know a WONDERFUL AP currently available for immediate placement. She is a very good friend of my au pair and we are sort of her unofficial “adopted” host parents because the lady she was placed with (single mom) was truly a whack job so she spent much of her after hours time at our place. Our area director removed her from the home recently and took her to stay at her place because she couldn’t stand to see such a lovely girl subjected to this host mom any longer. I can say with 100% confidence that the rematch is entirely because of the host-mom and this au pair stuck it out longer than I would have (almost 4 months). She would ideally like to stay in the NYC / Tri-State area. You can reach me at downtownsoul@aol.com if you’d like more info.
I dont think I would be a bad choice however due to the fact it was only a month ago that I changed my plans for next year I dont think I will be ready to look at familys till Aug/Sept…Is it really harder than other times of the year to find a family?
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