Our Process

Our clients expect the best and our screening process is designed to deliver. For candidates with significant experience who are seeking a partner in their job search, the oldest, most established agency in Chicago is the way to go. It’s our goal to get to know you and your unique strengths so that we can most effectively market you to our clients. Working with North Shore Nannies, you’ll have the support and guidance you need be in the best position to get the job you want.

Our screening process is rigorous and we’re not able to help everyone who applies. While applicants must meet our requirements, we’re also looking for a genuine desire to work with children, a willingness to support the whole family and a solid understanding of what it means to be a nanny.

Here are our basic requirements:

  • At least three years of verifiable professional childcare experience. It can be from any type of childcare setting (nanny jobs, teaching positions, camp counseling, on-call or hourly babysitting, church nursery work) but it must be verifiable.
  • Three childcare references. These should be three people who have directly observed you with or supervised your work with children. They cannot be related to you.
  • Be legal to work in the United States
  • Be fluent in English.
  • Have a high school degree, though some college is preferred.

If you think you meet these requirements, here’s how to proceed with our application process. We screen out applicants at each step, so it’s best to be prepared, complete each step thoroughly and always put your best foot forward.

1. Complete our online application. Take just 5 minutes to give us your basic contact information. Tell us about your childcare experience and what you’re looking for in a new position.

2. Talk with us on the phone. If we think you meet our basic requirements, we’ll get in touch with you for a phone interview. During this conversation, we like to start to get to know about your experience in greater detail and learn about your goals for your current job search.

3. Schedule a personal interview. If we feel we may be helpful with your job search, we’ll invite you to meet with us for a personal interview. These are scheduled at mutually convenient locations. We do have evening and weekend interview times available. We’ll ask you to complete our long form application and bring it with you along with any supporting documents (resume, letters of reference, dear family letter) and proper identification. Personal interviews take about 45 minutes. You should plan on an in-depth discussion of your experience and be prepared to tell us about why you’re interested in a nanny position and what you love about working with children.

4. We’ll process your application. This involves verifying all the information you provided in the personal interview, most importantly references and previous employment. When we have complete information, this process can go very quickly. You should notify your references of your job search and be sure they are prepared to hear from us.

5. Get started meeting our great families. Whether your search is for a new permanent position or you’re interested in temporary work, we’ll begin introducing you to our great client families.

Childcare professionals placed through North Shore Nannies have the full resources of the agency working for them. We are always actively looking for great families to match you with. We’re available to talk through any problems that arise or help with any issue. We consider our relationships with nannies to be long-term and we’re always happy to hear from you and provide our professional guidance and support.