After making the decision to take some time off school and work, I needed to find a job. Caitlin had been a nanny for a couple years and I thought it would be a great job for me. I was practically born to do it. So, I started looking. Well, the problem with becoming a nanny is getting that first job. Everyone wants someone with experience. And while I had never been a professional nanny, I grew up in this family and that, I thought, should almost speak for itself. But alas, I looked and looked, signed up with half a dozen online agencies and nothing.
I had more than just a lack of experience to hold me back. I can't drive and that coupled with my lack of experience made particularly difficult for me to find a job.
Well, after a few weeks of looking with nothing to show for it, I knew I had to find work or I wouldn't be able to pay my bills. I ended up taking a job at McDonald's (the only place hiring, it seemed). I continued looking for a position elsewhere, but as I started to earn money and was able to pay my bills, finding a job as a nanny started to become less and less a priority. Until a couple months ago when I decided that I just wasn't making enough money if I wanted to be able to move out and get a car and maybe save some money for the future. So, I started looking for a nanny job again.
I returned to the online agencies and I checked those daily as well as all the listings posted in the major US cities on Craigslist. I would have to weed out jobs that wouldn't work for me: ones that paid too little or required someone who could drive or someone older. I had been looking for a few weeks when I found what seemed like an amazing job and an amazing opportunity. I was looking through the Miami Craigslist when I found a posting for a job that almost seemed too good to be true but I thought that it was worth a shot.
I sent an initial interest email, something fairly generic as Craigslist is known for its scammers. The listing stated that they needed someone who could start on November 30 (one week from when the listing was posted). I received an automated response with just the general application form for the agency involved in the search process. I filled out the application as soon as I got it and sent it back. This all happened on November 23 and 24.
Then I waited to hear back from them. I didn't hear anything for a few days and by the time the 30th had rolled around, I was sure that I didn't qualify and they had found someone else. Later that afternoon, I received a call from the agency to double check that they had all my references and letting me know that the family would be doing interviews later that week. We shared a few phone calls over the next 24 hours, they checked my references and we scheduled the interview with the family via Skype for Thursday morning, December 3rd at 8 am.
On the morning of the interview, Dad secluded the little girls so that I would have quiet during my interview. It went pretty well, barring a few technical difficulties in the beginning where they were having camera and mic issues. They ended up calling me on my cell and then I had my camera on so they could see me and we could speak on the phone. The interview was conducted by Romina (the current nanny) as translator and the mother, Morella, who speaks English but not very well and especially not very well over the phone.
We talked about the job requirements and discussed my reasons for wanting to become a nanny. I know during the interview, I had mentioned my family but I hadn’t gone into detail until the end when Morella asked about specifics. I said that I am the second oldest of 11 and in the background I hear Morella say, “What!?!” We ended the interview with Romina telling me that they still had a couple of people left to interview and that I would hear back in a couple days.
Because it was Thursday, Mom and Dad decided to go out for Date Night early and do lunch and a movie so I was home watching the girls. While my parents were out, I got a call from the agency and we started talking about how my interview had gone and what I thought of the family and the position. All the while, as I’m on the phone, I’m practically running around the house trying to get away from the girls who were chasing me and being loud. Finally, I locked myself in the bathroom (what our family calls the Phone Booth) in order to have some quiet. So after about ten minutes of talking about how the interview went, out of the blue, the agent says, “The family would like to offer you the position.” As I am standing in the bathroom, I literally had to put my hand on the counter to steady myself. It was so unexpected. The agent said Morella absolutely loved me and she hadn’t liked anyone else to whom they had spoken. She then suggested that I take the night to make sure that I wanted to accept the position, talk with my parents, pray, and then write an email to the family in the morning.
Even though my parents were in a movie, I immediately called my mom and told her and my dad the news. Then I called KaTrina, and texted my best friend, Liz. I think a lot of people actually found out from my mom as she made her facebook status something about it as soon as I got off the phone with her, before I even had a chance to facebook it. So, when my parents got home we talked about it and I accepted the position the next morning.
Since accepting the position, Romina and I have had numerous conversations about the little girl, and travel arrangements and various other details.
And that is the story of how I got a dream job. More to come.
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