Babysitter Resume Example & Writing Guide

Few business interactions require as much trust on the part of the client as when parents leave their precious offspring with a babysitter. A lot will depend on the warm, caring yet disciplined impression you want to convey during your interview. But to even get to that interview, you need to show those very same qualities in a babysitter resume. It’s hard to overstate the importance of reassuring and establishing a connection with your employer as a babysitter. None of that can happen if your resume doesn’t rise to the occasion.

Although babysitting is often seen as part-time or entry-level work, it can be quite challenging. A babysitter needs a wide variety of interpersonal, decision-making and caretaking skills with good judgement when it comes to handling surprise situations and emergencies. So how do you convey this wide variety of skills? This guide, along with our field-tested templates and resume builder tool, will show you how to:

• Use compelling language to describe your skills and experience
• Highlight the most relevant attributes for babysitters
• Create a resume that appeals to a wide variety of parents
• Convey your fun-loving and responsible personality

Getting hired: Trends in childcare

There will be a need for babysitters. But as you search for a job in this field, it’s important to keep in mind how the industry is changing. For starters, in almost every developed country, people are having less children. While you may think that equates to less demand for childcare workers, the truth is a bit more complicated: Because people are having fewer children, they’re increasing their spending on the ones they do have. That’s driven up the price of childcare, especially in the U.S., where paid maternity and paternity leave is not uniformly distributed across industries or states. The average price of a full-time childcare program in the United States is $16,000 a year – that’s more than a brand-new car!

Spots in cream-of-the-crop daycare centers are becoming increasingly competitive. Families are signing up their children for these centers before the kids are even born! So what does all this mean for you, a babysitter or childcare professional?

1. Work is available to you in a variety of forms.
2. But only if your resume meets the demands of a modern parent.

What does a babysitter do?

It used to be that any teenage cousin or neighbor was a perfectly acceptable babysitter for the monthly date night. Now, working parents need help at almost all hours of the day and they’re looking for experienced and professional sitters who can handle meals, chauffeuring kids to and from practices, and even teaching basic preschool lessons. Babysitters traditionally work within families’ homes on an as-needed basis, but nannies work in similar positions, usually with just one family and over a longer period of time. Babysitting is also related to other social work, which includes caregiving and childcare in hotels, business or daycare centers. 

How to write a babysitter resume

In almost all cases, a babysitter resume should be one page only. It needs to contain the following components:

• Resume header 
• Profile summary 
• Employment history
• Education
• Skills

The header should be an attractively designed section at the top of your resume that includes the following info:

• Your name (first and often in the largest font size)
• Your occupation ("Babysitter")
• Your mailing address 
• Your phone number
• Your email address
• Optional: Your photo and perhaps your LinkedIn page or other relevant links

The resume header not only conveys crucial info about how to contact you, but it serves as a design element that makes your page look better at a glance. It may contain an accent color or a creative use of typography and design. If you’re looking for inspiration, resume.io has plenty of professionally designed examples to choose from.

Babysitter profile summary resume example: Easy as 1, 2, 3

Your profile summary is like that knock on the door the first time you babysit for a new family. You only have a few minutes to make a good first impression and reassure the parents (and through them, the kids). Not only can they trust you – you’re going to have fun together! That’s exactly the role of your profile summary on your resume. Before you set foot in the door of the house or daycare center, a parent or employer wants to evaluate that you can not only care for kids but make them feel safe and comfortable. They do this by reading your summary – a short paragraph that captures your personality, experience and skills.

If you’re a nanny or a caretaker in a daycare center, you may find it useful to quantify how many years you’ve been working in these roles. As a part-time babysitter, the number of hours spent watching children might give a more accurate picture of your experience. Questions you may want to answer in the summary:

• What ages of children do you have experience with or are you most comfortable babysitting?
• Can you handle additional tasks like after-school pick-up and meals?
• What type of schedule can you work?
• How would you describe your personality when it comes to working with children?

Employment history resume example: Reassure and befriend 

Previous experience gives a family a reason to trust you and let you into the most personal spheres of their life. Not only are the previous families you’ve worked for your proof that you’re a capable babysitter, they are also your best source of new work. If you’re well-liked by one family, chances are your name will come up when their friends are looking for a weekend sitter, too. 

That’s why it’s important to keep positive relationships with families you’ve worked for – they serve as references and they help you fill out your employment history section. Here are some areas to consider when breaking down your previous role as a babysitter, nanny or childcare worker:

• In what setting did you care for the children?
• How many children did you routinely take care of and what were their ages?
• At what times did you take care of the children? Did you live with the family?
• What additional household or extra tasks did you complete?
• Did the parents give you any extra responsibilities like overnight care or a family vacation?
• Were you responsible for homework help or lessons of any sort?
• Did the children have any dietary restrictions, special needs or illnesses that you had to pay extra attention to?

Related example

High School Student

Looking for a job as a high school student? It can be overwhelming at first, but it’s definitely doable! Your best tool in the job hunt is an amazing resume that grabs attention and conveys your best qualities to managers. Check out our High School Student resume example & guide for specific advice!

Choosing the best resume format for a babysitter

The best resume format for a babysitter is usually Reverse Chronological order, in which you list your last job first and your first job last. But depending on your career path, a functional format or a combination of the two approaches may also be appropriate.    

Related jobs

You may be new to babysitting or childcare work, and that’s OK! In that case, it’s important to fill your employment history section with at least two related positions you’ve held that show your ability to care for children. It’s a good idea to be selective with the related activities you list on your resume. Work as a camp counselor, tutor, piano instructor, teaching assistant, sports coach or Sunday school volunteer all lend credibility to the idea that you enjoy enriching young lives. 

On the other hand, a part-time job as a fast food employee may have taught you customer service skills and reliability, but it could leave parents with the impression that you don’t really have a passion for helping their children grow and succeed. That doesn’t mean you should never mention positions from other fields (especially if you’re short on relevant jobs), but approach each point in the list with care!

Education resume example: The elementary principles

There’s a lot to learn when it comes to caring for kids. While most states don’t require babysitters to have any formal education, that doesn’t mean your education section should be empty. In fact, any extra certifications or knowledge you’ve accumulated about childcare will go a long way in showing parents you’re the best fit for their family. Depending on the region and the price of care, a daycare center may require its workers to have a formal degree in early childhood education or a related field. In any case, if you have this type of education, it's a good idea to list it on your resume. 

When looking for a babysitting job, it’s fine to list a non-related degree-in-progress to communicate to parents that you are a responsible and motivated student who has already shown commitment in other areas of your life. There’s also another advantage of advanced certifications and education – a pay boost. According to a 2017 survey by Care.com, parents are likely to spend more on nannies who have additional certificates and training.

Additional certifications

There are a variety of courses available to you but some of the most reputable certifications include:

• American Red Cross CPR Certification
• INA Nanny Basic Skills Assessment
• Red Cross Water Safety Certification
• Connection Centered Discipline Nanny Certification

Babysitter skills section resume example: What it’s all about

While it’s true that parents might not be home to monitor your interactions with their children, you best believe the kids will give them a full performance evaluation the second you walk out the door. That’s why, in this competitive industry, it’s important your skills outmatch the next available babysitter. So which ones should you include on your resume? 

Your soft skills, aka personality traits, are hugely applicable to a role like babysitting. It’s a good idea to have a friend or relative describe your personality to you or give you a few adjectives that they think sum up your personality. We all want to describe ourselves as reliable and motivated, but an outside perspective may help you build a more precise picture of your strengths.

Your hard skills shouldn’t be overlooked, either. Remember our discussion about how the modern workforce is changing the industry? That means most parents want you to have some cooking, driving and teaching abilities. They also want to know you can communicate with them and help their children with a variety of technologies. They may even be looking for someone who has experience working with children with special needs or restrictions.

Foreign languages

Many families are looking for nannies who can teach their children basic foreign language skills from a young age. If you speak a language fluently enough to teach a child, it’s a great idea to include it on your resume. Just make sure to be honest about your competency and your willingness to speak the language on a regular basis.

Babysitter CV layout: A perfect match

The wonderful thing about babysitting is that it can be enriching for both the children and for you as you watch them grow into their future selves before your eyes. But not every family will be the perfect match for your strengths and interests. That’s why it’s important that your CV (which is what a resume is called in countries outside the U.S. and Canada) serves as a profile of who you are and what you can offer. 

Believe it or not, your resume layout goes a long way toward conveying what parents can expect from you. You want to give the impression of professionalism and reliability, but why not fun? A bit of color or creative icons – maybe even a photo of your smiling face – help put the family at ease before they even shake your hand.

But where do you find the right balance of creativity and style if you don’t have a graphic design degree? Resume.io's resume examples and creative templates, of course! In the Creative section, you’ll even find a model with a soft but colorful background that may perfectly convey your passion for taking care of kids. 

Simple category templates can also be great, as timeless classics usually perform well (just make sure they don’t come off as too cold). You’ll most likely be printing or emailing your resume, so you’ll need a file format that works in a variety of circumstances. A PDF is the way to go, and Resume.io’s builder tool makes it easy to add your information and save your resume in the right format in just a few clicks.

Key takeaways

1. Parents are increasingly looking for babysitters and caretakers who can do additional tasks like driving, cooking and cleaning.
2. Parents are willing to pay more for nannies who have additional training and experience.
3. There is a huge need for reliable and affordable childcare, yet high-paying and consistent nanny and babysitting jobs still remain competitive.
4. Your profile summary should give a well-rounded idea of who you are as a babysitter and your layout should be appropriate for this fun and enriching job.

So now it’s your turn to craft your resume and land a one-of-a-kind babysitting job. May you find the perfect family for you.