Looking for a job as a nanny can be a lot like trying to find a needle in a haystack. With so many qualified candidates out there, how do you make sure your nanny resume stands out?
As a nanny, you’re responsible for the well-being and development of someone else’s child. That’s a serious endeavor that shouldn’t be taken lightly, which can be said about the resume-building process as well.
You need to find a way to highlight your unique strengths and experiences, which requires some knowledge, a bit of patience, and a touch of personality. We’re going to explore all those aspects in this article.
So let’s get started—those kids aren’t going to watch themselves!
Key Takeaways
A one-page chronological resume is one of the best formats and layouts for nanny resumes.
Mandatory sections give potential employers the information they want, while optional sections help your resume stand out and be more memorable.
If you lack work experience, you can emphasize other activities (e.g., volunteering) and make your education sections more prominent.
You should research the job ad and the position that you’re applying for and only list the most relevant skills.
What is the Right Format to Use for a Nanny Resume?
It’s not uncommon for potential employers to go through countless resumes in a short period of time. As a result, they skim through most of them and only pay proper attention to a select few that manage to woo them instantly.
That’s why your resume needs to be organized in such a way that it conveys information about you clearly and concisely.
One resume format stands above the rest as the most commonly used with the most success, and that’s the chronological resume format. It neatly lines up your previous experiences in reverse-chronological order. Your latest job is usually the most important, and this format puts it at the top.
Resume Layout
A format and layout go hand-in-hand to transform your nanny resume into an engaging experience. A strong resume layout makes different sections visually distinct and readable and ensures that everything looks appealing. Here’s how to nail your layout:
Resume Layout Guidelines
Your resume should be one page long in most cases.
You need a legible and resume-friendly font, such as Calibri.
Consider setting the font size to 10–12 pt with section headings at 14–16 pt.
Have at least 1-inch margins on all sides and a comparable amount of white space between sections for visual clarity.
What Sections Should a Nanny Resume Contain?
Mandatory Sections
There are five mandatory sections that represent the foundation of your nanny resume, and these are:
Contact information
Resume objective/summary
Work experience
Education
Skills
Optional Sections
Once you’ve added those to your resume, you can spice things up and make a standout document by including optional yet potentially highly valuable parts, such as:
Certifications and licenses
Volunteer experience
Hobbies and interests
By following these lists closely, you’ll be able to craft an impeccable nanny resume from the ground up. But there’s an even better way that could help you save a ton of time, and that’s with our resume builder.
You can use it to effortlessly adjust the layout and customize its different elements. It also has pre-made templates with blanks that you can fill in with your own information. This means you don't have to make any guesses when writing your resume. Instead, you can leave all the hard work to our powerful software!
Nanny Resume Template
Name and Surname
Phone number: 000-000-0000 | Email: namesurname@gmail.com | Location: City, State
[Adjective] [your job title] with [years of experience, if applicable] in [your area of expertise, if applicable] looking for a [position] job at [company name]. Eager to apply [relevant skills] gained through [work/volunteer/other experience] to help [company name] [mention what you can do for the company].
Work Experience
Most Recent/Current Job Title Company City, State [Start date] — [End date]
For recent jobs, use 5-6 bullet points to list your top achievements and responsibilities
Use action verbs to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out
Add numbers to quantify your achievements
Previous Job Title Company City, State [Start date] — [End date]
For recent jobs, use 5-6 bullet points to list your top achievements and responsibilities
Use action verbs to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out
Add numbers to quantify your achievements
Oldest Job Title Company City, State [Start date] — [End date]
For older jobs, use 2-3 bullet points to list your top achievements and responsibilities
Use action verbs to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out
Add numbers to quantify your achievements
Education
[Degree] in [Major] [University/college name] [Start date] - [Graduation date]
Skills
Soft Skills
Skill #1
Skill #2
Skill #3
Skill #4
Skill #5
Hard Skills
Skill #1
Skill #2
Skill #3
Skill #4
Skill #5
Additional Sections
Add any relevant additional sections (languages, licenses, publications, hobbies, etc.)
Resume templates
Resume templates that are designed to help you win a jobNanny Resume Contact Information
The contact information section is one of the simplest yet most important parts of your nanny resume. What’s the point of capturing the potential employer’s attention if they can’t get in touch with you?
That’s why you should put your contact details at the top of your resume and include the following bits:
Your name
Job title
Phone number
Email address
(Optional) Relevant social media profile
Now let’s see that in a specific example:
Contact Information Example
Charlotte Kirtley
Nanny
+ 314 904 8983
charlottekirtley@example.com
linkedin.com/in/charlottekirtley99
Here are a few final tips to help you get this section right:
You should keep this part of your resume precise and accurate, which means that you should include a professional job title and email address.
Adding a location is an outdated practice and should only be used if the job ad asks for it.
Having a personal social media profile (e.g., on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Twitter) can be beneficial, but only if it’s job-related.
Nanny Resume Objective or Summary
Remember how we talked about employers skimming through most resumes? One of the easiest ways to grab their attention is with an impactful introduction paragraph that puts your strongest features on display. This section is called a resume objective or summary, and it usually goes right next to your contact information in your resume header.
If you’re new to the nanny business, your most prominent qualities are likely your skills and motivation, which you’ll want to highlight in your nanny resume objective.
However, nannies with professional histories should showcase their most impressive work-related accomplishments, which means they’ll write a resume summary.
Nanny Resume Objective
Having no work history shouldn’t stop you from portraying yourself as a capable candidate. You can put your best foot forward by emphasizing your education, certifications, abilities, and even volunteer experience via a resume objective.
Here’s a good example:
Good Example
“Dedicated and responsible nanny with a BA in Early Childhood Psychology. Regularly volunteer at a local orphanage. Commended for attentiveness and amiability. Possess an Advanced Child Care Training (ACCT) certification. Non-smoker”
Compared to this resume objective packed with valuable details, the following one is completely uninspiring:
Bad Example
“Hard-working nanny looking for a job. Don’t have any professional experience, but I learn and adapt fast.”
Nanny Resume Summary
A nanny resume summary should represent a synopsis of the entire document that emphasizes attention-grabbing accomplishments.
Let’s see that in an example:
Good Example
“Affectionate nanny with more than 3 years of professional experience providing quality care to families of up to 5, including toddlers and babies. Assisted with homework 6 days per week and performed meal prep 5 times per week. Children’s Nutritionist Certification (CNC). Looking to join [your family] to assist you and enhance your daily care.”
However, if you don’t demonstrate your competence but merely state it, you leave your potential employers guessing and questioning whether you’re telling the truth. Here’s an example of how not to write a nanny resume summary:
Bad Example
“Competent nanny with lots of skills and certifications capable of assisting with school projects, house cleaning, and meal preparation.”
Nanny Resume Work Experience
If you want to convince a potential employer that you’ll do a good job, show them your past work successes. So let’s see how you can get the most out of your work experience section.
General Tips
When it comes to showcasing your previous jobs in your nanny resume, there’s a rather simple formula to follow. The details to include are:
Your role
Your employer and their location
Start and end dates of employment
Notable achievements and results obtained
If you have multiple previous jobs that you want to list, you should do so in reverse-chronological order. However, you want to stay relevant. That part-time gig you had as a student a decade ago likely won’t add anything of value to your resume.
When it comes to describing your accomplishments, you want to use bullet lists for legibility, brevity, and overall impact. 3–5 bullet points per previous job are usually enough for you to showcase your most important achievements.
To quantify those achievements and better demonstrate them to your potential employers, you should use numbers, percentages, or statistics. Furthermore, suitable action verbs and power words can make them truly prominent and memorable.
Nanny With No Experience
Writing a compelling nanny resume with no experience might look impossible, but it’s actually fairly straightforward. There are always some activities that you can showcase instead. Anything from your work as a volunteer to past jobs that highlight qualities relevant to nannies will do the trick.
Here’s how a candidate can leverage their experience working as a cashier to portray themselves as an organized person with teaching and interpersonal skills:
Cashier
Work Experience
Cashier
ABC Retail Store
Scottsdale, AZ
February 2019–December 2022
Maintained a clean and organized checkout area, resulting in a 97% customer satisfaction rating in cleanliness surveys.
Developed innovative customer service training techniques for new cashiers, resulting in a 70% reduction in training time.
Demonstrated exceptional customer service skills, obtaining a 98% positive feedback score in customer surveys.
Experienced Nanny
Experienced nannies should tailor their resumes to specific job ads. Since you likely have a lot of experience, results, and accomplishments to show, you want to focus on those that your employers will want to see the most.
In the following example, a candidate applying to be a nanny for a private family highlighted their previous job of the same nature:
Experienced Nanny
Work Experience
Nanny
Private Family of Four
Saint Louis, MO
January 2020–Current
Provide full-time care for two children, ages 2 and 4, including preparing meals, facilitating educational activities, and ensuring a safe and nurturing environment.
Assisted with potty training, resulting in a 90% success rate within 3 weeks.
Introduced new educational games and activities that increased children’s vocabulary by 25%.
Nanny Resume Education Section
While you don’t need a high degree to work as a nanny, having one and not listing it is a huge waste. Not only that, but if you’re an entry-level applicant, you can make up for any lack of work experience by making your education section strong.
Here are the details to include when creating this section:
Your degree
The institution issuing it
Enrollment and graduation years
(Optional) Relevant courses, extracurricular activities, notable results, international education, etc.
Education Section Example
Education
BA in Early Childhood Psychology
Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
2017–2020
Relevant coursework: Child Development, Educational Psychology, Assessment and Intervention in Early Childhood, Play Therapy, Social and Emotional Development in Early Childhood.
It’s worth noting that you should include your diploma even if you’re still studying. You can do that by having “current” instead of a graduation year or by placing “expected” next to it.
Nanny Resume Skills
Nannies come with one of the most diverse skill sets out there. For example, you might need to be an impeccable driver and an engaging teacher at the same time. Due to such diversity, it’s essential that you list the nanny resume skills that your potential employers are looking for.
Are you going to apply for a position as a summer nanny? Maybe you’re an infant nanny or a special-needs nanny. Each of those roles requires a different collection of abilities, which is why it’s important to examine the job ad and figure out which skills to add to the list in your resume.
However, adding skills to a resume is not just about creating a list. You also want to make sure that you prove them to your employers.
Mention some of your most prominent abilities in the bullet points of your work experience sections and in your resume objective or summary. Link them to relevant achievements, and you’ll show employers the direct, palpable results of your skills, making them concrete in the process.
Best Nanny Skills to List on a Resume
Here are some of the many skills you could add to your nanny resume:
Problem-solving
Reliability
Flexibility
Listening
Teamwork
Patience
Decision-making
First aid
CPR
Cooking
Driving
Teaching
Scheduling
Nanny Resume Optional Sections
We said at the beginning that you should infuse your nanny resume with a bit of personality. Optional sections are one of the best ways to do that.
Certifications & Licenses
Certifications and licenses will immediately place you ahead of the competition that doesn’t include them in their resumes. They add immense credibility to your skills and portray you as a diligent, hard-working individual.
Volunteer Experience
There are many benefits to adding volunteer experience to your nanny resume. On the one hand, it can be a perfect substitute for work history for entry-level candidates who are just starting out.
On the other hand, even if you’re a seasoned veteran, highlighting your volunteer efforts shows that you’re a compassionate and charitable person, which are highly sought-after nanny traits.
Hobbies & Interests
Hobbies and interests are perhaps one of the most straightforward ways to give prominence to your personality. This is a brief section where you get to be the real you and talk about something that you’re truly passionate about.
You might get bonus points if your interests line up with the role that you’re applying for (for example, if you like cooking), though that’s far from a must for this part.
Should You Submit a Cover Letter With Your Nanny Resume?
Cover letter templates
Create a cover letter by filling in a free template and sharing it for freeWhat better way to highlight your diligence and motivation than to go above and beyond and submit a cover letter with your nanny resume? This is often an optional document, but you should definitely submit it if you want to maximize your chances of success.
Moreover, you can use the extra real estate that you get by writing a cover letter to go in-depth about some of those skills and achievements that you haven’t talked about in your nanny resume.
Expert Tips for Creating a Nanny Resume
These final expert tips will help you make a resume better than 9 out of 10 nanny resumes out there:
Your resume summary or objective should be all about what you can do for your employers. That’s why you should omit personal pronouns and focus on your skills and experiences that they could benefit from the most.
By submitting your nanny resume as a PDF file, you’ll preserve its formatting across all devices.
While non-smoking isn’t exactly a skill, it’s something that can garner you extra points if you mention it in your resume.
Any potential typing mistakes draw attention, which is why you should proofread everything to ensure a clean, organized, and immaculate resume.
Closing Thoughts
At the end of the day, crafting a nanny resume is all about showcasing your skills, experience, and personality in a professional and engaging way.
Remember to highlight your compassion and attentiveness, as well as your superhero-like powers of patience.
And if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by the job search process, just remember: It’s nothing compared to that time you managed to wrangle a toddler who was determined to eat dirt for breakfast. You got this; best of luck!
