Almost all of us babysat at least once or twice growing up.

  Baby sitting jobs are always easy to find, as parents are gladly willing to pay for a night off.

You would think that nanny jobs should be just as easy to find, yet for a parent to entrust the well-fare of their children regularly into the care of a stranger takes as much if not more effort as any professional job search.

If you love kids, here are five tips to help with your nanny job search.

Research
Trends in childcare — yes, there are trends! — are ever changing, so the traits that people are looking for in a nanny today may not be the same ones as five years ago.  Get familiar with what parents are looking for in a caretaker, and in turn you will know exactly how to market yourself.

Resume
A great resume is invaluable. If you’ve never been a nanny, highlight your other jobs to demonstrate the skills people want to see in the caretaker of their children.  But even if you don’t have directly relevant job experience, you no doubt have transferable skills. Whether it’s dependability, time management, a positive attitude, patience, or communication skills, focus on demonstrating these traits in your past experience.

Register
You wrote your beautiful resume, time to release it to the world!  The best way to do this is to register with various nanny placement agencies in classified ads or internet searches.  Smaller agencies might more effectively match your skills, while larger agencies give you a larger network.

References
Before they can trust, parents need to hear good reviews.  Secure reliable references that will sing your praises, whether it’s a previous employer or old professor.  Talk to the references beforehand so you know you are on the same page as to what skills to emphasize.

Relate
You can have a shining resume and references that will declare your praises across the world, but in the end getting a job all depends on the interview.  You have to be able to relate to the parents that you are dependable and that their children will be well taken care of.  Check out the family before the interview, and get to know what they are looking for and what age group you would be working with.  Speak clearly, respectfully, and confidently, and you will do great!

Welcome to Hot Jobs Wednesday! This is the day that I put the focus on the hottest job leads from our free Job Center — the web’s #1 free resource for job seekers in search of an adventure — and a paycheck. This week, I am putting the spotlight on Nanny Jobs. Visit JobMonkey to learn more about working as a nanny or au pair.

1. After School Nanny – Part Time, All Best Nannies, Glenview, IL

All Best Nannies is looking for an English-speaking nanny in or near the Glenview, IL area. The nanny would work Monday through Thursday from 2:30pm-5:30pm, taking care of two children (8 and 10 years old. The right person will be energetic, flexible, reliable and dependable. A drivers license and clean driving record are a must. The job pays $15/hour.

2. Part Time Nanny Job, Elizabeth Rose Agency, Beverly Hills, CA

The Elizabeth Rose Agency is looking to hire someone to work part-time (31 hours/week) with a family in need of a personal assistant and nanny rolled into one. The children are toddler and preschool age. The ideal candidate will have experience with this age group and an understanding of Kosher cooking (or at least a willingness to learn). The position pays $20/hour.

If you didn’t find the job of your dreams on our hot jobs list today, be sure to check out the JobMonkey Job Center for hundreds of other listings in every imaginable field.

Good luck with your job search this week!

Have you visited the JobMonkey website lately? We’ve been expanding again! Just added are new sections on Event & Festival Jobs as well as Nanny Jobs.

Event Jobs
Do you love the thrill of the crowd?

Are most at home at a heart-pounding sporting event? Do summer festivals really float your boat? For event professionals, that enjoyment can last year-round, since they don’t just attend events, they staff them! For some, event work is a lifelong career, for others its seasonal employment or even an awesome volunteer job. To learn more about the different job opportunities at the world’s largest and most popular events, check out JobMonkey’s newest section on Event & Festival Jobs.

Nanny & AuPair Jobs
While both nannies and au pairs are responsible for taking care of children, there are some important differences. If you are interested in providing in-home care for babies and young children, you should definitely check out JobMonkey’s newest section on nanny jobs. There’s plenty of information about working as an au pair — a job title that fits young women (ages 18-26) who are foreign-born and come to the United States to care for children. You will also find plenty of tips on working as a nanny, whose broadly defined job, according to one large nanny association, is to “provide support to the family by serving as a loving, nurturing and trustworthy companion to the children.”