The dreaded interview

I *fingers crossed* won't be doing an interview between now and April when I go on maternity leave, but I seen a post here today in which someone mentioned she had "fixed" her interview style and as a result had signed a family. YAY that's awesome to you BTW.

So it got me wondering... what is your interview "style". How do you handle things, start the process off etc. Anyone willing to share a mock "interview" from start to finish?

Here is generally how my interviews go.. please feel free to point ou anything you would do differently. Which I don't actually mind doing interviews, I am of course always open to pointers!

I welcome the parent(s) in and after shaking thier hand, bend down to the childs eye level and introduce myself to them. I try and have a toy of some sort close on hand to show them/get them interested in. I have found it helps to put the child at ease right away. Then the parent concentrates on the interview more fully. I then offer coffee, tea, water to the parents and a water for the child.

After that I do the house tour. My upper most level (I have a 5 level split) gets gestured to and I say that is off limits to the daycare children and I don't show it. Then we go through dining room which is our craft area. the nap room, the back yard, and the downstairs playroom. After that I bring the parents back to the dining room table and sit with them to actually conduct the interview. I let the parents start asking me some questions, answer them and come back with a few of my own, let them ask a few more... go back and forth a little like that.

Then I offer my contract, policy handbook, other forms etc for review. I let them skim it over and ask any questions that immediatly spring up. I then tell them to go home, read the paperwork throughly and contact me with the questions I am SURE they will have. I give them my business card which has email, home phone and cell #. I have almost always had parents that signed on, come back to me with questions. I like this as I know they have read the paperwork. Then it's a simple thank you for coming and see them to the door.

My own child sometimes get clingy/shy in front of strangers so this makes interviews hard sometimes but generally I'm very comfortable doing them. Perhaps because in my "other life" my work experience led to be in contact with clients constantly and run meetings etc.. It's just a second nature kind of thing now. :)

So... any critiques? I'm sure it could use some tweaking. What does everyone else do or do you just wing it?

My interview process is very different from yours so this is a good question for us to think about. I make sure they have read my website which answers the basic questions about my daycare and is full of pictures so they have a feeling of how I operate and how my rooms look.

I welcome people in my front door and as we go room to room I tell them that I have the main floor half bath that is handy for toilet training, that we eat and craft at the dining room table, that I have a full kitchen and can see through to the living room which is also my toyroom. Then we go into my living room and make ourselves comfortable. That's my entire main floor since I'm in an apartment in a big old house. I also have an upstairs but I don't use it for daycare so I don't show it during the interview. But I do have a storage room up there full of daycare toys so I mention how I rotate the toys monthly so the children have a great variety of things all the time.

I start out by asking the parents questions about themselves and their child and let the conversation flow naturally. I ask questions and take notes as they tell me things about where they live and work and how the children nap and eat and if they don't volunteer these things in the first half hour then I ask about them. I'm watching very carefully to see how the parents interact with their child, clingy, over-protective, casual, etc. It gives me a big clue about their parenting style and I ask questions about that and discipline ideas for when their child gets older.

I give them my resume as I tell them about myself and my past and why I started my daycare. I point out that my current and past clients are listed at the bottom of my resume and they are welcome to call any of them to ask questions about me and my daycare. I always tell the parents that we are a team and we have to work together to achieve consistency for the health and happiness of their child and that I will always follow their lead but group care is much different than home.

I don't get out my contract until the last 15 minutes or so of the meeting and quickly go over the major points then tell them that I will email all of it to them so they can read it entirely at their leisure at home and write back to ask any questions they may think of as they read through the contract and medical form. I never give out paper any more.

Then when I email the contract I have an opportunity to thank them for their visit to my home and tell them that it was great to meet them and anything that I may have forgotten to mention that I feel is very relevant to their family.

When they arrive they automatically see the bulletin board at the door with seasonal display, sign in form and any notes about the week. I then point out the storage cubbies in the cupboard while they take off coats/shoes.

We then take the tour which goes in a circle so diningroom which is our upstairs playroom, can see backyard from the window, then kitchen, then where I change diapers then we go downstairs to the playroom. At each spot I do a bit of talking about what we do there, in kitchen saying what I provide, etc. Then going downstairs I send them first so they are usually very impressed with the set up. They usually ask a few questions about the setup and I add a few comments of my own pointing out certain centres as it speaks to what we can do all day.

Then I invite them to put the baby down to play (gives me a great idea of how uptight they are). Then if they have come clipboard and questions in hand I let them start but then as soon as possible take back control and turn it more into a conversation than a question and answer session. It makes it more relaxed and friendly. My first question is "tell me about the kind of care you are looking for?" This usually elicits either a flood of must have demands or shows that they are just starting the process and overwhelmed. I can then gear the discussion accordingly. Hours and days have been established before interview stage so at this point it is just the environment and if we can work together.

I have a package of info for them to take home which I show them but don't go over line by line. In reality what we have is pretty standard house to house so my time is spent selling them on me. I do ask them to look over the info and to please contact me with anything they do not understand or that needs more clarification.

I then have a binder of letters from parents, cards I have gotten, a few pictures, some other info about me - a version of a portfolio but not really one. While they are looking at that I try to get down on the floor with the child or turn my attention to the child. I try not to get in the child's face but get some sort of reaction from them.

That is basically it. I then ask them what kind of a timeline they are looking at - elicits information about how many interviews done, still to do, when they are going to make up their minds. And then we go back upstairs, thanked for coming and shown out.