Sauk Valley Community College
Early Childhood Education Program
Interview with Early Childhood Director
Qualities a Director Looks for in an Employee
A personal interview was conducted with Julie Poci, owner and director of Julie’s Day Care & Preschool Center which has been in business for 26 years. The questions asked are as follows.
1. What qualities do you look for when you interviewing a potential employee?
“I am very much a first impressionist and look for neatness, cleanliness and friendliness. I am not one that expects an employee to dress in their Sunday best, but I think that an employee’s clothes and body should be clean when working with the public. Friendliness is also a must. The job requires one to work with parents and children and one must have a very friendly personality to work on a daily basis with them. An employee’s qualifications for the job would depend on the job position that needs to be filled.”
2. What do you expect out of an employee on the job?
“I expect employees to be energetic with the children. Working with children requires a lot of energy and one must be alert at all times when caring for children. Being respectable of others including, parents, children and other co-workers is a quality one must possess. Working with parents and children can be stressful at times and requires a lot of patience on the employee’s part.
Creativity in an employee is a plus. Children get bored with things very easily and need new ideas and ways to encourage the children to want to learn. An employee must be punctual and dependable. Children are not like machines that can be turned on and off. Children need dependable people to be there to care for them when children come to daycare. An employee needs to have good morals and values. Children look to authority figures for guidance and role models. Children in day care environments are with teachers five days a week and up to 10 hours a day and need good role models so they can model positive behavior. Employees must be flexible on the job. Working with children requires many different roles that need to be done to meet children’s needs.
Most of all an employee must have an unconditional love for children and a good sense of humor. One must possess a warmth and love for children and laugh about those little things that can go wrong.”