How I found my host family
Finding a host family in Australia is pretty easy. There are a lot of families searching for au pairs that come from Europe, so you will have to make a choice between many families. This is a story about how I found my family. If you want to only get some tips, scroll down to the end of this post.
I started looking for the family in May this year, but I still wasn't sure if I wanted to leave Finland, so I decided to do something that didn't need so much effort. Therefore my first step was to create an account to aupairworld.com, I just wrote basic information about myself and added some photos. I found a couple of interesting families in my EasyFind, a tool that connects you with families that match your search criteria. I messaged them but it didn't really go so well - either the families didn't open your messages or they didn't answer. Therefore my experience on aupairworld wasn't very nice, I didn't find anything special and I think it isn't the best way to find a family.
I also tried this one site called aupair.com which was even worse, you would need to pay to see the information you want. And the search tool doesn't work too well, it shows you some families that don't match at all. But I guess if you paid for the premium membership it would work properly and you would perhaps find a family after all.
In June I was completely sure that I really wanted to be an au pair, so I joined some Facebook groups and contacted a couple of agencies. I also got some messages from Chinese agencies ready to have me as an au pair in China, even though I never actually searched for any Chinese families. I was ready to go somewhere else than Australia, but not China.
The best group on Facebook (in my opinion) is Au Pair Australia which has over 23k members. I found my family in that group. I also joined Au Pair Community Australia & New Zealand and Au Pair Community Western Australia, but those groups weren't as active. So, I finally started really looking for the right family in June. First I messaged a couple of families that seemed pretty good and I actually got answers! I also posted on the group and got many families contacting me.
There were for like five to ten families that I talked to and I had about 7 facetime calls with some of them. One family really stood out and I started a deeper conversation with them. They were from Darwin, a tropical city in the Northern Territory. I facetimed with the family for three times before I was ready to sign the contract, and it all seemed so perfect. They promised me that I was their only choice and it would've been a perfect match. Unfortunately, the same day they informed me that they had taken another girl who could've stayed for six months. I felt betrayed because I had let down many families for them and I was ready to buy the flights and the visa.
I had to start looking for a family again and I felt exhausted. I had been talking to one family from Sydney for a while, so I messaged the mom that I was ready to be their au pair. She was really happy to hear from me after a week or so, and I got to talk to her previous au pairs. They told me about the children and the house and what's nearby. They had had a great experience overall, so I settled with this family.
It's a German single mom with two girls, one is five and the other is one and half years old. They live in the Northern Beaches area in Sydney, which is like 20 minutes to the city and pretty close to some beaches. In July we facetimed with the mom for an hour straight and we just talked about like everything. We also settled the date for my arrival. She will pick me up from the airport and I'll have two days to adjust. It feels like everything fell into place and I was really happy to find a family, after all the effort I had given to it.
My tips for finding the right family:
~ Hilda
I started looking for the family in May this year, but I still wasn't sure if I wanted to leave Finland, so I decided to do something that didn't need so much effort. Therefore my first step was to create an account to aupairworld.com, I just wrote basic information about myself and added some photos. I found a couple of interesting families in my EasyFind, a tool that connects you with families that match your search criteria. I messaged them but it didn't really go so well - either the families didn't open your messages or they didn't answer. Therefore my experience on aupairworld wasn't very nice, I didn't find anything special and I think it isn't the best way to find a family.
I also tried this one site called aupair.com which was even worse, you would need to pay to see the information you want. And the search tool doesn't work too well, it shows you some families that don't match at all. But I guess if you paid for the premium membership it would work properly and you would perhaps find a family after all.
In June I was completely sure that I really wanted to be an au pair, so I joined some Facebook groups and contacted a couple of agencies. I also got some messages from Chinese agencies ready to have me as an au pair in China, even though I never actually searched for any Chinese families. I was ready to go somewhere else than Australia, but not China.
The best group on Facebook (in my opinion) is Au Pair Australia which has over 23k members. I found my family in that group. I also joined Au Pair Community Australia & New Zealand and Au Pair Community Western Australia, but those groups weren't as active. So, I finally started really looking for the right family in June. First I messaged a couple of families that seemed pretty good and I actually got answers! I also posted on the group and got many families contacting me.
There were for like five to ten families that I talked to and I had about 7 facetime calls with some of them. One family really stood out and I started a deeper conversation with them. They were from Darwin, a tropical city in the Northern Territory. I facetimed with the family for three times before I was ready to sign the contract, and it all seemed so perfect. They promised me that I was their only choice and it would've been a perfect match. Unfortunately, the same day they informed me that they had taken another girl who could've stayed for six months. I felt betrayed because I had let down many families for them and I was ready to buy the flights and the visa.
I had to start looking for a family again and I felt exhausted. I had been talking to one family from Sydney for a while, so I messaged the mom that I was ready to be their au pair. She was really happy to hear from me after a week or so, and I got to talk to her previous au pairs. They told me about the children and the house and what's nearby. They had had a great experience overall, so I settled with this family.
It's a German single mom with two girls, one is five and the other is one and half years old. They live in the Northern Beaches area in Sydney, which is like 20 minutes to the city and pretty close to some beaches. In July we facetimed with the mom for an hour straight and we just talked about like everything. We also settled the date for my arrival. She will pick me up from the airport and I'll have two days to adjust. It feels like everything fell into place and I was really happy to find a family, after all the effort I had given to it.
My tips for finding the right family:
- Use aupairworld, but with patience and time
- Contact agencies, especially when travelling far, and only if it's fine for you that someone else chooses your family
- Join some facebook groups with families and au pairs in the area
- Make a post that looks like you: add photos and make it either like a letter or like a list
- Send a lot of messages to different families and ask more
- Remember to set up a Skype date or use the Facebook facetime tool
- To me facetiming was quite easy, just remember to smile and be yourself
- If you're not confident with your English, remember to tell the family about it, they'll understand!
- Ask about the working hours, pocket money, location, number of children, extra work, house work etc.
- Watch videos on Youtube, there are a lot of au pairs making videos about how to find a family
- I suggest you to make notes about the families, I made lists with pros and cons and it really helped me out when choosing the right family
- In the end, just trust the feeling you have about the family, do you really want to live with them and take care of their children? If yes, then tell them that and maybe they'll want you too!
 |
| Stockholm in July |
Comments
Post a Comment