How to Graduate from Career Nanny to Personal Assistant or House Manager in San Francisco
You are a career nanny with a lengthy and fruitful career taking care of children, but you want a change. Or you have worked with your current family for five years and the youngest child is ready to start school. Many nannies leverage their expertise working in private homes to advance into personal assistant or house manager roles.
This progression, from nanny to management, is common with the right experience and skillset.
Household Staffing in San Francisco
San Francisco is an unusual city in that it is small, but there is a lot of need for in home staffing - nannies and domestic staff. The area is fairly new to domestic staffing when compared to New York or London due to the surge in wealth creation in the tech world. Houses are big and families generally do not want live-in staff. SF, Marin, and South San Francisco families also rarely want the pomp and circumstance that surrounds a fully-staffed home. Whereas, many east coast estates enjoy the Downton Abbey set-up.
Above all, the most successful household staff in the Bay Area are efficient and discrete. Families value loyalty and are more concerned with maintaining their quality of life than displaying assets.
This good news for nannies and other staff looking to advance in their careers. Personal assistants are in demand in SF and qualified workers with experience in private homes are at an advantage.
This is where having career nanny experience (as opposed to regular nanny experience, which is usually two working parents or a single parent home without multiple staff) has huge advantages.
A career nanny will have a solid understanding of:
the schedule and structure of staff such as housekeepers, chefs, maternity nurses
the different temperaments of specific domestic staffing types
the high-end hospitality requirements of an estate family
high-end travel experience and expectations
how dinner parties are managed and organized
how to manage nannies and oversee their roles
salary ranges for domestic staff
legalities of exempt and non-exempt domestic staff employees
This immediately gives a career nanny and edge on securing a personal assistant or household management position for an SF or Palo Alto estate.
We strongly advise career nannies to take on elements of PA duties or house management duties during their tenure as a career nanny. Although this is additional work, boosting your skillset can help you move smoothly into a personal assistant or house management role.
The additional skills needed to be a PA or HM are:
Microsoft office and QuickBooks expertise
Excel knowledge
understanding of a tech-enabled home and working knowledge of all the gadgets and applications in the estate
knowledge of how to organize schedules and have back up staff for when a domestic staffing member or nanny is sick or unable to get to work
experience hiring from staffing agencies
a network of vendors and domestic staff in the area
knowledge on how to manage vendors and approximate cost for various vendor projects
ability to bargain and negotiate with vendors
experience creating a communication system with the domestic staff and with the principals
direct communication and creative problem-solving
organization skills - must be paramount and natural
excellent speaking and writing skills
If you are a career nanny wanting to move into a personal assistant or house management role in San Francisco, contact us today.