The Art of the Nanny Resume -by Donna Shannon
Part 3: Experience Put Into Perspective
For employers, experience is one of the most important parts of the resume. Just consider how many agencies require at least 2 – 5 years of experience before they will consider a candidate; experience is one of the biggest criteria, especially for nannies.
When it comes to resumes, combining your skills section with a detailed experience section can make for very long resumes. This is especially true for nannies, when it is common to stay with a family for 3 – 5 years. One solution is to only list what made each job unique.
Rather than packing your work history with repeating information, create a solid skill set and refer back to it within each job. Here is a sample work history snippet showing this technique:
Nanny
The Moore Household, Denver, CO 2008 – Present
Cared for two girls, ages 3 and 4.
Handled typical nanny duties as listed above, plus created unique, age-appropriate lesson plans on a weekly basis. Planned weekly outings throughout the metro area.
Nanny
The Smith Household, Denver, CO 2004 – 2008
Cared for three children: newborn boy, two-year old girl and four-year-old boy.
Handled typical nanny duties as listed above, in addition to preparing all of the children’s meals. Prepared older children for school by encouraging reading skills. Created learning games for mathematical concepts. Helped youngest child manage asthma.
In this example, “handled typical nanny duties” alleviates the need to go through an exhaustive – and boring – list of all of your daily functions. This allows you the freedom to show how you adapted to each new family situation.
Factors to Consider
When thinking about what made each job unique, consider these factors:
- Age, sex and number of children
- Special needs
- Special activities planned
- Size of the home (especially if you helped with the house)
- Children’s favorite activities
- Additional locations, especially if you traveled with the family
- Family’s values, such as responsibility or religion and how you helped the children learn these life lessons
- Additional duties not listed in your skill set
Getting stuck on how to describe your past experience? Take a moment, close your eyes and remember the children – their unique traits will help you remember exactly what you did for each and every famil
NEXT – References Seal the Deal
About the Author
Donna Shannon, a former recruiter and president of Coyote Visions, helps job seekers land their dream jobs with practical advice and guidance. She is one of the few resume writers in the United States that offers comprehensive private service resumes. Her book, “Get a Job Without Going Crazy,” is available on Amazon.com
For your convenience here are the other 2 articles by Donna Shannon on the “Art of the Nanny Resume”
Don’t forget to add your comments to any and all of the articles for a chance to win a copy of Donna Shannon’s very informative book Get a Job Without Going Crazy
We will announce the winner on Saturday in our Weekend Round Up.
Great advice Donna!
—I use the format of listing General Nanny duties first and then specific/unique duties I want to highlight under each family in my resume. I think it looks very professional and can really make your resume stand out.
This is a nice tip! It keeps the resume fresh! And it lets the important information come through to someone skimming through a stack of applications!
I went through an intensive online portfolio class through Brawley and Associates, and received another great related tip: After the resume, which can be quickly read through to give the potential employer an outline of your experience, attach a “Position Details Sheet” for each childcare job. This gives space to flesh out the few words that fit in a resume, and shows how many of your great talents were called on over however many years the children grew and changed under your care in each job.
One section in that details sheet, the one that reminds me of today’s great tip, is “Challenges Overcome”, which is space to highlight how you met unusual family needs. This is a place for a few pithy notes on something like supporting the family’s desire for the children’s contact with the great-grandmother by arranging and transporting for visits and assisting during them, and (in my case) picking her up on my time off to attend the kids’ school performances and bringing her home afterward.
Or it may be noticing a possible speech delay in one of the children, researching and presenting information on normal language development and early intervention to the parents, attending the resulting Speech Therapy sessions with the child, and then following the day-to-day prescriptive programming the ST recommends.
Anything that shows how you shined in that job, this gives space you may need to show it.
This is great advice. Otherwise your resume is sooo long and repetitive. I wonder sometimes what things are good to add onto a resume. Often I have experiences with a family that I am proud of- like overseeing a remodel for example- but things I don’t want to do with a new family.
If I organize my resume as suggested it allows me to show that I have been flexible and suited to each family – that I have many skill sets.
After 18 years in the business I have quite a few families- do you list all the families or just the 2 most recent??
Sue
[...] Moxie: Experience put into Perspective by Donna Shannon part [...]