Have you considered a career in private service? Being rejected by agencies and not sure where to start? You are not alone. This can be a catch 22 situation. Domestic staff agencies typically will not accept candidates with less than 3 years previous experience working in private domestic positions and yet many of the most desirable vacancies are advertised with agencies. So where do you start?

A career in private service is not a decision to be taken lightly. We see lot of people considering cleaning roles to be a ‘stop gap’ or a way to fill their time whilst they progress their careers and until something better comes along. This is not the case and certainly not at this level. Roles for household staff may be a niche sector, but some of the typical housekeeping salaries can be nearly double what you might expect to earn in an unskilled office based job. We are generalising of course, but what we want to convey is that these are serious careers that require commitment and dedication. It is by no means “easy money”. These roles are demanding both physically and mentally and they are certainly not for everyone. Employers will expect to see a certain level of commitment and longevity from candidates in return for these high salaries. But if you have what it takes, it can be a very lucrative and rewarding career.

As a household staffing agency, we need new domestic staff to enter the market all the time and they obviously need to start somewhere. The advice we give to new applicants that are considering this career path is to engage with privately advertised positions. Not all employers require the services of a recruitment agency but they are still looking to employ permanent domestic staff in their homes. These employers will tend to advertise positions privately on job boards or in publications such as The Lady Magazine. Due to the fact they are not incurring agency fees, they are more inclined to accept applicants with little or no experience. You may have to consider a lower starting salary in this instance but ultimately this is about developing your career, setting the foundation and getting your foot in the door. Once you have established a few years of experience with checkable references, then you can consider registering with domestic employment agencies like Marshall Harber to further your career.

We have focused on the housekeeping element in this article, however there are other paths available depending on the discipline you choose. Butlers and nannies for example may engage in formal training programs at the start of their career and many of those programs offer placement services. Marshall Harber has also registered candidates with extensive experience in the hospitality industry. No two situations are the same and we will go into more detail about the different categories of staff in future articles.

You can find full details of our registration requirements on our Candidate page and you can view a sample of the typical jobs that become available to you when you successfully register with an agency on our Jobs page.

We hope that this is a career path that you do seriously consider and we look forward to welcoming you to Marshall Harber in the not too distant future!