by Donna Shannon
More than any other industry, private service relies heavily on references. After all, people are entrusting their children to your care, and they want to make sure that you are as wonderful as your resume says. But what is the best way to present your references?
The Reference List
The first step is a solid and concise reference list. This can be the last page of your resume or a separate document. On the list, it is important to capture the following information:
- Name of the reference
- City, State
- Phone number and/or email address
- How they know you (personal, professional, past employer or past co-worker)
- Length of employment or how long they have known you
Notice that it is important to have personal or character references in additional to your professional ones. These help with questions about your demeanor, nature and personality while also showing stability.
In addition to the basic list, you can include a brief quote from the letter of recommendation. For example:
Ms. Amy Smith
Denver, CO
303-555-5555 / asmith@fakeemail.com
“Jody was a wonderful nanny, and the children loved her very much. It seemed like every day she had an exciting, new learning opportunity…”
It is important to list the contact information on your reference list, and make sure that you call your contacts to make sure they are OK with giving out their phone number. Agencies do call your references to verify information, even if they have the complete letter of recommendation. Plus, when you can your past employers, you can also ask if they know of anyone who needs a nanny. This can lead to a new job opportunity!
Letters of Recommendation
Letters can add a lot to your professional portfolio. However, sometimes an employer is not sure what to put on the letter. Here are some guidelines for the letter of recommendation:
- Family name and location
- Dates of employment
- Ages and number of children
- Special projects you did for the family or a special activity with the children
- Reason for leaving
- If they would hire you again
A letter on letterhead – even if it is just the family’s name and address at the top of the page – is always better than a quick paragraph typed onto a plain document. Seeing someone else’s signature on family letterhead gives tons of credibility to your portfolio. The more professional the presentation, the better it reflects on you. And that is the whole purpose of the letter of recommendation.
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
Get a Job Without Going Crazy.
The book winner will be announced on the Weekend Round Up.
I like the idea of putting a quote under each reference! I’m going to start doing that!
A note about keeping references fresh and enthused about recommending us:
People who allow us to use their names as references don’t want to be called 20-50 times during the job-hunt. That wouldn’t respect their kindness in offering to refer us, nor do we want them to heave a frustrated sigh and growl “Yes, she’s GOOD!” when our prospective dream employer finally calls after a string of inappropriate ones.
Agencies give a minimum number of references that need to be contacted before they will work with a nanny, and those need to be contacted right away by the agency. But I specify that that contact information not be given out to general prospective families and that it only be released when a family and I are mutually interested in sealing a working relationship. And I give the contact information for the rest of my references to the agency at the point that that happens, rather than at the beginning, just to make sure there are no mistakes about that.
I have a separate sheet with the contact information for the references, which I reserve until it’s really needed. And individual families don’t get any references until we’ve gone through initial phone screenings and interviews, and have determined that we’re a good match for each other and want to go forward. I send interested families a PDF of my portfolio, and they use that to get an idea of my experience and professionality.
My portfolio contains copies of the letters of recommendation with contact information and addresses whited out, and notations that “Contact information will be provided upon mutual interest” . So both agencies and individual families that I interview with can see how many childcare and personal references I have, what they have to say about me, and their position in the community, but only the ones who need to do so for hiring me actually contact the references.
And regarding letters of reference, I’ve found it a good idea to give a list such as Donna made to the employer to help her include everything that needs to be in the letter. Employers have appreciated having the guide so they don’t have to wrack their brains to think of everything they might need to put in, and the words are still theirs.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Regarding Nannies, Patti M. Patti M said: The Art of the Nanny Resume – Part 4: References Seal the Deal – http://bit.ly/fSKWSt [...]
[...] 1. Create a professional looking résumé. If you’re not sure how to do this, ask friends what they did, go online for suggestions, and check out a book from the library. No computer skills or computer access?… Ask a friend, or go to the public library. If you are working with an agency, the agency will usually write up a resume for you. But it will belong to the agency, not you, so you probably won’t get a copy for yourself. Do not include the phone numbers of your past employers on resumes. You need to protect their privacy. Make a separate list of reference phone numbers, which you can give out once you have a potential job offer. Do not include detailed addresses (example, street addresses)or names of children in your resume ,again you want to protect the safety and privacy of those families. Try to limit the résumé to one or two pages. *Regarding Nannies recently did a 4 part series featuring guidelines from Donna Shannon’s book… [...]
[...] : The Art of the Nanny Resume – Part 4 References Seal the Deal After all, people are entrusting their children to your care, and they want to make sure that you are as wonderful as your resume says. But what is the best way to present your references? The Reference List. The first step is a …http://regardingnannies.com/20 .. [...]