A live-in maid interview is a different conversation from a part-time one. You are choosing someone who will sleep in your home, eat with your family and be there when you are tired, ill or away. The questions below are the ones that surface problems before she moves in, grouped so you can work through them in half an hour. Each group has a note on what a good answer sounds like and what should worry you.
Two things before you start. Check that your home passes the live-in test: a private sleeping space she has seen, an agreed food plan and real rest hours. The live-in maid checklist covers that. And go in with the salary already decided. Current Bangalore ranges are in the maid salary guide, and the interview is a poor place to discover you are ₹5,000 apart.
Experience
- Where have you worked as a live-in before, and for how long in each home?
- Why did you leave your last live-in job?
- What was the family like there: how many people, children, elderly, pets?
- What work did you do there that you would rather not do again?
A good answer names homes and lengths of stay, and gives a plain reason for leaving: the family moved, the child started school, she went home for a wedding and the job was filled. Gaps are normal; she may have been in her village. What should worry you is a string of stays under three months with vague reasons, or a reason for leaving that is entirely the previous family's fault, told with heat. Question 4 is one of the most useful in the set. It tells you what she found hard, and if the answer is a task central to your home, you have found a mismatch early.
Daily routine
- Walk me through a normal working day in your last home, from waking up to going to sleep.
- What time do you wake up, and what time do you expect to be finished for the day?
- Which tasks do you do well, and which do you not know how to do?
- Have you used a washing machine, a chimney, a microwave, a dishwasher, an induction stove?
Listen for a routine with a shape: morning tasks, a break, afternoon tasks, evening, a finish time. Someone who has done this work describes it easily. The appliance question saves you a broken machine in week one. A candidate who says she has never used a dishwasher is fine. A candidate who says she can use everything and then cannot is a problem. Agree the finish time during the interview, because "whenever the work is done" is how a live-in job turns into a fourteen-hour day.
Food
- What do you eat, and is there anything you do not eat or will not cook?
- Will you eat what the family eats, or do you prefer to cook your own food?
- Can you cook, and if so, which dishes? Are you comfortable cooking meat, eggs, onion and garlic, if we eat them?
- How many cups of tea or coffee do you have in a day?
Food ends more live-in arrangements than pay does. A vegetarian helper in a household that eats non-veg daily needs to be comfortable handling it, or the household needs to accept that she will not. A helper from a rice-eating region placed in a roti household, or the reverse, will manage, but say so and agree how it works. Question 12 sounds trivial and matters: a helper used to five cups of milk tea in a home that keeps no sugar will be unhappy by Thursday. Good answers are specific. Worrying answers are "anything is fine" when clearly it is not.
Family and dependants
- Who is at home in your village or town, and who depends on your salary?
- How often do you want to go home, and for how long?
- How will your family reach you in an emergency, and how will we reach them?
- Do you have your Aadhaar card, and can we take a copy and a photograph?
Most live-in helpers send money home and want a block of leave once or twice a year, often around a festival or a family event, plus the weekly off. A good answer states this plainly so you can plan around it. A candidate who says she never needs to go home is either new to the work or holding something back. Question 16 is a baseline: a candidate unwilling to share identity documents should not be living in your home. EzyHelpers verifies these before a candidate reaches you, but ask anyway.
Boundaries and the house
- Are you comfortable being alone in the house when we are out for the day, or overnight?
- What do you do when you have finished your work and have free time?
- Do you use a phone during the day, and do you mind keeping it on silent during working hours?
- Are you comfortable with our elderly parent, our dog, our toddler? (Whichever applies.)
- Is there anything in a home that makes you uncomfortable: cameras, guests staying over, late-night parties, alcohol, non-veg food?
These questions decide whether she will be happy here, which is separate from whether she can do the work. Free time matters. A helper with nothing to do in the evening and no phone signal in her room will leave. A good answer to question 19 is a shrug and a yes. A refusal to be alone in the house overnight is a real limit if you travel. Question 21 is where you find out whether your household and her limits fit, and it is better she says no now than resigns in month two.
Emergencies and health
- What would you do if the child had a fall, or the elderly parent collapsed, and we were not reachable?
- Do you have any health condition, regular medicine or restriction on lifting?
- Have you ever had to handle an emergency in a previous home? What happened?
The point of question 22 is to check that she would call someone, that she knows 108 is the ambulance number, and that she would not simply wait. Someone who has handled a real incident will tell you about it with detail. Health is a fair question in a job that involves standing, lifting and broken sleep. A bad back does not rule her out, but you need to know before you ask her to move furniture.
References
- Can I speak to the last two families you worked for?
Then call them. Ask each family how long she stayed, why she left, whether they would take her back and whether there was ever a problem with money or things going missing. A family that is warm but vague is a weak reference. A family that says "we would take her back tomorrow" is the best one you will get. If a candidate has no reference she will let you call, either because she has never worked as a live-in or because the last job ended badly, weigh that honestly rather than assuming the best.
Reading the whole interview
No candidate will answer all 25 perfectly, and a nervous helper in a stranger's living room deserves some allowance. Look for three things across the conversation: specific answers rather than general ones, a reason for leaving each previous home that does not blame everyone else, and a willingness to say no to something. Someone who agrees to everything has either not understood the job or is planning to renegotiate it after moving in.
Red flags worth acting on: no documents, no reference you can call, several short stays, a request for a large advance before starting, or a story about the last family that changes when you ask a second time.
Use the first week properly
Live-in placements through EzyHelpers come with a 7-day cooling-off period. That week is where the interview gets tested. Watch whether the routine she described is the routine that happens, whether the food arrangement works and whether she is rested by the second morning. Raise anything that is off in the first three days rather than the sixth. If it does not fit, tell us within the seven days. On the 3-month and 11-month plans a replacement is free.
Verified live-in maids for Bangalore, with documents and references checked before the interview, are listed under live-in maids in Bangalore.
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