Do you have experience with cleaning, household chores, running errands or just keeping yourself or others organised? Being a housekeeper involves all of this and more, so if you think helping a family or individual to keep their household running smoothly and on track sounds like something you would be good at, read on for all you need to know about working as a housekeeper and applying for your housekeeping job!
Contents:
- What exactly is a housekeeper?
- Writing an application
- How do I apply?
- What experience do I need to become a housekeeper?
What exactly is a housekeeper?
Whilst cleaning jobs and nannying positions are fairly widely understood, fewer people know what exactly the role of a housekeeper entails. This is partly due to the flexible and unique nature of the role, as it is likely that each family or employer will have different requirements and expectations from their housekeeper.
In general however, a housekeeper is often thought of as an overall household assistant, who performs a wide variety of domestic tasks within the house with the aim of ensuring the smooth running of the household.
Just like with cleaning duties and household chores at your own home, it is unlikely that any two days will be exactly the same and each role ultimately depends on the needs and requirements of the individual household you are working for, however all of this should be discussed during the interview process.
Broadly speaking however, a housekeeper is there to enable the upkeep and maintenance of the home and by extension the family, performing tasks such as cleaning and daily maintenance duties and delivering a high standard of domestic work within the house.
You may be required to work completely independently or alongside other caregivers or household members to provide support when necessary. Often the role could be combined with nannying, cooking, cleaning or personal assistant duties depending on the requests of your employer.
The main attributes required to be a successful housekeeper are to be hard working, adaptable, able to use common sense and have the ability to organise and work in an efficient manner. Read below for how to apply to a housekeeping job and more details on what it takes to become a housekeeper.
Writing your application:
When applying to any job it is important to research the position, the employer and any other information you can find about the role and the industry before starting to write your application. To make sure you stand out from the crowd and appear as the most qualified and capable candidate, your CV or application needs to be tailored to the requirements of the specific role.
For housekeeping jobs, this means including any previous experience or skills related to:
- Domestic work or cleaning
- Personal Assistant work
- Manual Labour or Practical Roles
- Working in a residential setting
- Working around children or pets (depending on the role you are applying for)
- Organisational skills learnt from other positions
- Time management and independent motivation
When writing your application or advert, make sure to include any stand out skills or particular areas of expertise you may have, not only will this make your application more impressive and varied but it could lead to a match with a family or employer who have similar interests or who are looking for an individual to complete certain tasks to a higher level such as cooking or gardening.
When you start looking for positions and roles in the housekeeping sector, make sure the job description is clear on the remit of the role and enquire about any tasks involved that might involve a certain skillset. All positions are likely to be different and of course some will be more suited to your expertise than others. If you love working with children, why not search for a nanny-housekeeper role? Or if you’re a whizz in the kitchen perhaps a role that requires cooking and preparing meals for your employer might be more suited.
How do I apply?
Once you’ve written your general advert that can be tailored and adapted depending on the specific role you are applying for, it’s time to start looking for vacancies! By making a profile on Yoopies you can specify your availability, filter the location of your search and make the process of searching through job adverts and current vacancies a lot simpler and less time consuming!
You can also look out for local adverts on job seeking sites, local newspapers and local noticeboards however this may be a more time consuming and complicated process than making an online account. By creating a profile and advert on Yoopies you will be able to manage all your applications in one place and instantly message potential employers as soon as you find them. The added benefit is that employers can approach you once they have seen you advert, so you might not even need to do any of the hard work to find your dream position, so what are you waiting for!
What experience do I need to become a housekeeper?
Just like with every job, there are different levels of position within the industry and some roles will be far more demanding than others and therefore require more experience or specific skills. However, just because you are being employed by an individual rather than a corporation it does not mean that your formal experience is not valued. Any previous employment or experience that has shown the development of these attributes will stand you in good stead for a housekeeping position:
- High level of organisational skills
- Strong work ethic
- Self-motivated worker
- Reliable and trustworthy
For a detailed look into the desired skills and experience of a housekeeper check out our ‘What is a housekeeper guide’ whilst you write your application!