What Do You Wish You Would Have Asked When You Interviewed Your Aide?

[Lkurtyak]

By some stroke of sheer genius or karma or whatever, I mentioned to ONE person I had an opening coming up and I signed THREE new kiddos, so it looks like I'm going to be hiring someone soon.

I'm putting together a list of interview questions, so I thought I'd ask from those of you more experienced in this matter what you asked or what you wish you would've asked. Thanks!

[se7en]

Ask them how they interact with children, how they feel discipline should be handled for different scenarios you give them, ask them to explain how they would react if as child is ill, injured etc. What would they do if they smelled smoke ? How would they handle a disagreement with your policy? Are they comfortable coming to you if you set a rule for the kids and they have a differen way to handle it ? How would they handle an upsetting parent ? Questions like that. You want someone who will listen to how you run things, but to be able to offer input and suggestions. They will be the second pair of eyes and ears, they may notice some things you overlooked or missed. Also, someone who really likes children is important. Maybe let them spend an hour or so interacting with the kids and see how that goes.

[hope]

Ask if they will clean up if a child gets sick. I started a new sub one time and I was getting lunch together before I left for my appointment and one of the children had some food go down the wrong pipe and threw up. The sub got and walked out of the room. I cleaned it up which made me late. She said she can't handle vomit. Glad I was there then! What would she have done if I was gone?

[Lkurtyak]

Awesome! Thanks for your input!:hug:

[cheerfuldom]

I have had issues with assistants wanting to bring their own kids with them. The only time I would allow this now is if the assistant had previous experience working while tending to their own child. I would only allow one child to come with an assistant if it is still within ratio and the assistant can handle it. Most people cannot handle the needs of their kid and other kids. Secondly, I would make sure that they have reliable transportation and understand that if the shift starts at 9, that means they need to roll into my drive 5 to 10 minutes early. They need to be in the daycare room ready to work at 9, not pulling up at 9. I would also put rules in place about phone use during daycare time.

[Laurel]

I really haven't hired one. I did have a neighbor come part time but she was a teen so a bit different.

When I worked in a preschool though and they were interviewing one applicant came in and offered to work free for a couple of hours. She got hired because we all liked how she was with the children. Later when my adult children were looking for jobs they had the concept of the 'working interview'. If you think someone might work out you could pay them for a day or two and tell them it is a 'working interview'. I always thought that it was a good idea in theory at least.

Laurel

[Cradle2crayons]

I've never had an official assistant here but I've had some helpers over the years.
I've found I get more of a vibe if I ask them scenario type questions and see if they naturally answer or try to think up a fake response.

Some things it asked them at interview:::::

(1) if you are sitting in circle time and little Johnny suddenly head butts little Mary, what do you do.

(2) you are he only caregiver present and you have an infant doing tummy time beside you on the floor and a crawler in he room. A young walker walks last and you notice poop coming out of the top of his diaper. What do you do. (I'm not looking for he obvious change the diaper answer, but more of is she going to leave the crawler in the room alone with one doing tummy time)

(3) ask her what her idea of a healthy snack would be

Think of scenarios that happen to you on a daily basis related to parents and ask her what she would do if x y or z happened or how she would deal with a parent who is breaking policy.

[springv]

I've never had an official assistant here but I've had some helpers over the years.
I've found I get more of a vibe if I ask them scenario type questions and see if they naturally answer or try to think up a fake response.

Some things it asked them at interview:::::

(1) if you are sitting in circle time and little Johnny suddenly head butts little Mary, what do you do.

(2) you are he only caregiver present and you have an infant doing tummy time beside you on the floor and a crawler in he room. A young walker walks last and you notice poop coming out of the top of his diaper. What do you do. (I'm not looking for he obvious change the diaper answer, but more of is she going to leave the crawler in the room alone with one doing tummy time)

(3) ask her what her idea of a healthy snack would be

Think of scenarios that happen to you on a daily basis related to parents and ask her what she would do if x y or z happened or how she would deal with a parent who is breaking policy.

The way your daycare is set up imo isn't what the state of Alabama would consider safe because how do you observe the other children if you are gone to change a diaper??? Our infant room is set up in one room and we are able to see the children at once and don't have to leave a room to do something such as that. Our older classrooms have a divider between the two rooms with changing tables in each room. If a teacher has to do something and are unable to watch the children, I relieve the teacher so they can do whatever they need to do.

[Annalee]

The way your daycare is set up imo isn't what the state of Alabama would consider safe because how do you observe the other children if you are gone to change a diaper??? Our infant room is set up in one room and we are able to see the children at once and don't have to leave a room to do something such as that. Our older classrooms have a divider between the two rooms with changing tables in each room. If a teacher has to do something and are unable to watch the children, I relieve the teacher so they can do whatever they need to do.

THe thread is a few years old so maybe her setup was appropriate back then....

[Michael]

THe thread is a few years old so maybe her setup was appropriate back then....

Ever though these threads can be years old they come up very relevant in Google, Yahoo and Bing searches. Many of these helpful answers are timeless.