Au Pair Resume: Examples and Tips
Au pairs are young people who live as part of a host family, helping with childcare and other housework in exchange for monetary allowance, food and accommodation.
Use these resume-writing tips and examples to fashion a resume that will help you gain au pair employment.
Table of Contents
Featured Resume Example: Au Pair
Name: ZAMORA ANDAL
Address: City, State, Zip Code
Phone: 000-000-0000
E-Mail: email@email.com
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
Proficient Au Pair skilled in household chores, shopping and activity planning. Familiar with offering homework assistance, managing extra- curricular activities and keeping kids safe in all environments. Offering years of related experience.
WORK HISTORY
- Pick up children from school, taxi to appointments, lessons and all other obligations.
- Prepare parent-approved meals for children five days per week.
- Responsible for diaper changing, washing dishes and maintaining general cleanliness.
- Supervised children engaged in physical activity, learning and social skills with peers.
- Monitored schedules to maintain sleeping, eating and school schedules for children.
- Balanced playtime and limited screen time to optimize types of stimulation and support development of fine motor, gross motor and cognitive skills.
- Planned around and honored preferred personal schedules of two dozen seniors.
- Personally attended to four seniors with special feeding needs.
- Helped form plan to improve sanitation methods when new director joined; shaved off 2.5 hours of labor weekly after developing more efficient group cleaning schedule
SKILLS
- Household operations
- Safety awareness
- Grocery shopping
- Cultural immersion
- Emotional development
- Child development
EDUCATION
Top 4 Characteristics of a Best-in-Class Au-Pair Resume
- Summary Your summary statement should present your most reliable skills and significant achievements in a few brief sentences. Exhibit your ability to be flexible, and mention any successful experiences you’ve had in childcare. Highlight your understanding of a host country’s language and culture, and any skills that can help support a host family (e.g., driving skills).
- Skills Pick out relevant skills from the posting of the job you’re applying for, match them with your own, and include them in this section, such as patience with the children, problem-solving skills like helping the child with homework or more serious household or child-related situations, or the ability to manage the children and house independently. Also mention fluency with different languages, and helpful credentials like a valid driver’s license.
- Work history Give examples of how your skills played a very crucial part in resolving crisis situations, or organizing regular tasks. For example, “Managed plumbing repairs, including working with contractors, while also overseeing children and ensuring they completed their homework.”
- Education As part of the government’s J-1 Visa program, au pairs are required to take either 72 hours with an accredited post-secondary university or at least 6 semester credits.
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Do’s and Don’ts for Your Resume
- Highlight your proven accomplishments Documented achievements or other recognitions from previous work can elevate your resume above others. Where possible, add specific work accomplishments that prove your credibility to and emphasize your value as an au pair. For example, “Created a trusting relationship with 12-year-old girl, and developed speech therapy classes that helped her in overall personality development.”
- Include keywords from the role requirements Customize your resume to reflect the needs of each job. Look over individual employer requirements, and use those requirements as keywords (e.g., being proactive, or solid cooking skills) that you should sprinkle in your work experience, summary and skills sections.
- Lead with your most relevant and impressive achievements Catch hiring managers’ attention in your summary by featuring your top accomplishment, and follow it up by placing other impressive achievements atop each list of experiences in your work history section. Don’t forget to include any related volunteer or extracurricular experiences.
- Don’t stress the negative When describing your previous experiences, look to present processes and outcomes in a positive light. For instance, instead of writing “Settled existing communication problems,” write “Worked with families to successfully improve communication.”
- Don’t provide confidential information While mentioning previous work experiences, be sure to avoid sharing confidential, proprietary information, especially if you’re under a legal obligation to not do so from a previous employer. You should also refrain from including personal details such as your phone number or full physical address — stick to a professional email and the city where you’re located in your contact information, as our examples do.
- Don’t lie or exaggerate Avoid exaggerating your accomplishments, or including false qualifications in your resume. An au pair position demands trust, and you must prove yourself responsible and trustworthy. Start by staying true to your skills, achievements and qualifications in your resume.
Au Pair Resume FAQs
- 1. What are the skills you should emphasize for this specific job?
- 2. What are some examples of training and certifications that fit this specific resume?
- 3. How should you format your resume?
- 4. How should you craft your resume if you’re looking to take the next step forward in your career?
1. What are the skills you should emphasize for this specific job?
As an au pair, draw attention to any skills you can relate to childcare and home management acquired through your previous experiences, whether they be volunteer, professional or academic. Some essential skills every employer looks for in an au pair include:
- Good judgment
- Flexibility and adaptability
- Proven communication skills
- Excellent time management
- Patience
- Reliability
- Multitasking skills
- Ability to work under stressful conditions
- Ability to work independently
- Cooking skills
- Ability to do handle infants including preparing their meals and changing diapers
2. What are some examples of training and certifications that fit this specific resume?
Specific requirements will vary depending on where you work. At minimum, focus on having a high school diploma and a valid driver’s license. Other training or certifications that could prove useful in your quest for an au pair job include:
- NVQ Childcare
- Semester credits at an accredited university, especially for programs such as TutorCare
- ESL courses to help improve your English skills
- Enrichment courses to understand more about American culture
3. How should you format your resume?
If you are experienced as an au pair, use a chronological format, in which your experiences are highlighted in reverse chronological order, with the most recent employer first. If you have less experience, use a functional resume, which focuses on the relevant skills you possess for the role. Draw attention to abilities that are present in the job description, and present examples of how you’ve applied them in other types of jobs or volunteer activities.
4. How should you craft your resume if you’re looking to take the next step forward in your career?
As an au pair you will gain skills such as flexibility, responsibility and adaptability, as well as organizational, managerial and leadership abilities. Look to take on more activities where you get to exhibit these traits, and get some additional training in a related area of interest, such as child education. You could also look into certification in areas such as administration, which can help widen the job possibilities to include education coordinator roles.
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