30-Question Shanghai Nanny Interview Kit

Research on hiring across industries shows the same pattern: unstructured interviews predict performance about as well as a coin flip. Structured interviews — same questions, same rubric, scored independently — predict materially better.

The domestic-employment context in Shanghai is the same. The candidate who is warm and confident in the first 10 minutes is easy to like; the candidate whose competence shows up at minute 40 after specific scenario questions is easy to miss. The kit forces you to ask the minute-40 questions and score them.

The questions split into five categories:

• Background and continuity (5 questions). Specific employment dates, why-she-left patterns, references availability.
• Childcare competence (8 questions). Scenario-based questions about age-appropriate situations: choking response, fever management, naptime resistance, picky eating, sibling conflict.
• Cultural fit and household preferences (6 questions). Food rules, screen time, discipline tone, household privacy norms.
• Communication and English ability (5 questions). Used to assess actual language level rather than self-reported.
• Motivation and longevity (4 questions). What she's looking for in the next placement, what would make her leave, what makes a placement work for her.
• Closing and logistics (2 questions). Salary expectation, start-date flexibility, agency status.

Each question has the English version, the Mandarin translation, a 1–5 scoring rubric, and a red-flag indicator (what specific answers would be deal-breakers).

Every question is rendered in Mandarin (Simplified Chinese), reviewed for natural conversational phrasing rather than direct translation. For families who don't speak Mandarin, the kit includes phonetic-Pinyin pronunciation guides for the most useful follow-up phrases.

The purpose of the Mandarin layer is not to conduct the entire interview in Mandarin — it's to (a) ask key questions in Mandarin to assess the candidate's actual response quality in her native register, and (b) let the candidate respond in Mandarin where her English would otherwise be the bottleneck.

Each question scored 1–5:

• 5 = excellent. Specific, sequenced, calm response. Numbers and details included.
• 4 = strong. Most elements present, minor gaps.
• 3 = adequate. Generic but not concerning.
• 2 = weak. Vague, evasive, or generic in a way that suggests low experience.
• 1 = red flag. Specific concerning content — see the red-flag indicator per question.

A candidate scoring >110/150 across the kit is a strong hire; 90–110 is hireable with specific calibration; <90 should not move to a second interview; any single 1 should be discussed before continuing.

Form below. Name + email. The interview-kit PDF arrives via email within 2 minutes. 16 pages including scoring sheets. Comes with a printable score sheet (.pdf) and an editable Word version of the questions if you want to adapt.

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