Your Sittercity profile is like your resume, and is the best place for families to quickly review your qualifications and credentials. Like any resume, it’s recommended that you revisit it at least twice per year to ensure that you’re crediting yourself the experience and accomplishments you’ve acquired since you last filled it out. As a sitter who is eager to make continued strides toward a successful career, you can make the following edits from your Sittercity dashboard.
Review Your Bio
Have you learned any new skills or gained any relevant experience since you first created your profile? Enhancing your profile bio with additional information shows families that you are serious about child care as a profession, and that you want to promote yourself accordingly. Need more help? Read some additional bio tips here.
Add Your Availability
Many families make a point to reach out to sitters that have made their availability accessible from their sitter profile. There are two types of availability that you can choose between when updating your sitter profile:
General Availability
General availability is the default setting upon creating your sitter profile. This section will indicate if you’re free in the morning, afternoon, after school or evenings.
Confirmed Availability
Adding confirmed availability will replace your general availability, and will boost your profile to families searching for sitters by specific date and time. By providing the exact hours that you are available weekly, you can expedite communications when ironing out a sitting schedule with a family.
Check Your Certifications
Since First Aid and CPR certifications are self-reported, qualified sitters must be mindful of their expiration dates. CPR and First Aid course completion cards are typically valid for 1-2 years, but be sure to verify this with the course provider. Families may ask to confirm this information, so be ready to share the documentation of these certifications!
Update Your Rate
Your time is valuable. With this in mind, recognize that you deserve to be compensated fairly for your years of experience, as well as to accommodate special circumstances, like COVID-19. According to most seasoned care providers, performance and cost of living typically contribute to a yearly rate increase of $1/hour. Need help communicating this with families you’re already working with? We have tips for rate negotiation, too.
Request Reviews From Families
If you have a good relationship with a family you’ve connected with on Sittercity, this is an excellent opportunity for them to sing your praises. Sitters with profile reviews are 5x more likely to be viewed by local families than sitters who don’t have any reviews at all. It’s ideal for parents to write reviews as soon as possible, so be sure to request a review soon after you’ve completed your first sitting.
Renew Your Background Check
Remember—Sittercity background check badges expire after 90 days. Since parents are more likely to review a profile and respond to an application with a current background check, it’s worth considering a regular background check renewal to help establish trust with prospective families.
A profile refresh can feel unnecessary if you are satisfied with your overall message. However, keeping these updates in mind can make a huge difference as you return to Sittercity to seek additional job opportunities.
