How to Become a Flight Attendant
When it comes to the customer service sector and safety, being a flight attendant requires a significant amount of preparation and growth over the course of many years. To introduce myself, my name is Shawn, and I have been working as a flight attendant for a large airline in the United States for the past 34 years. The purpose of this article is to provide you with information on my own personal path to becoming a flight attendant, as well as the ways in which the business has evolved over the years in terms of its recruiting procedures and the demographic that airlines are seeking to become flight attendants.
I will begin by describing a young man who is now 25 years old and has been working in a variety of customer service areas since he was in his early teens. I was pursuing my girlfriend at the time, who had only recently started working as a flight attendant six months earlier than me. The thought that we could travel the world and see new places together as boyfriend and girlfriend would be awesome if we both worked as flight attendants. This would allow us to explore the world together. It was after I convinced my girlfriend at the time that this was a good idea that I responded to an advertisement in the newspaper that was searching for individuals to become flight attendants. There was a significant difference between the recruiting procedure in 1989 and the hiring method that is used now, but we will discuss that in more detail later. You would arrive early to a predetermined place, which was often a hotel or some kind of business center, and they would do mass interviews with hundreds of individuals in a single day. This was the approach that was followed back then. Should you be fortunate enough to be chosen, you would be transferred to a secondary interview with a vice president of the airline. During this interview, the vice president would conduct an interview with you on the spot and offer you a position. In this manner, I was able to become a flight attendant. The fact that I arrived at the interview with highly professional business clothes, a really positive and optimistic attitude, and a readiness to relocate were all factors that contributed to my success in securing a position as a flight attendant.
Since then, the world has seen a significant transformation, and the events of September 11th, which had an influence on the aviation sector, have altered the manner in which an airline hires and interviews people for the role of flight attendant in the modern world. There is a five-step procedure that most airlines use to hire new employees, which is far more involved than the interview process that I went through. In addition to submitting a resume, you will be required to have an application transmitted to the airline. This application will need you to respond to a large number of questions, compile information, and undergo a thorough background check on you in the event that they decide to hire you. This is in contrast to the widespread hiring that airlines performed during the course of their history of expanding and merging. As a result of the expansion of the Internet and video conferencing, things have gotten more technologically advanced in today's world. In the event that you are successful in locating an airline that is accepting applications, you will be required to submit your application as quickly as you can. The airline sector operates on a seniority basis, which means that the sooner you have achieved the goal of getting employed, the sooner you will be elevated, and the sooner you begin working, the sooner the flexibility and lifestyle of this employment will improve the longer you continue to work in it. When an airline has accepted your application, there is often a period of time during which they wait before responding to your application. The length of this waiting period is determined by the requirements of the airline at the moment. The first thing you will do is conduct a video interview. You will be asked questions about your prior job experience and the reasons you want to become a flight attendant during this interview, which might last anywhere from fifteen to thirty minutes. You should be aware that the majority of companies in today's world utilize the STAR technique for conducting interviews. It would be in your best interest to have an understanding of this approach as well as the criteria that they are searching for in order to advance to the subsequent stage of the interview process.
Airlines want to know how you have handled customers in the past, how you can put yourself in their place, and how you respond to certain scenarios. Using the star approach requires you to be a storyteller. You will be given a scenario by the airline, and it will be your responsibility to explain what your duties were in that scenario. Describe the precise actions you performed in this scenario and explain the result. Since most employers think that previous performance determines future performance, all of these stories should serve as instances of past performance. Like any other employment, airlines have fundamental prerequisites and credentials in addition to the interview procedure. This webpage has a great summary of the standards and qualifications for flight attendants. There will often be an in-person interview after the video interview if the airline decides it wants to hire you. The airline will typically fly you to the interview venue. While there are many distinct interviewing techniques, many of them call for an aptitude exam with a customer service focus and several interviewers.
Attending a travel academy or other kind of school is the one requirement you do not need to fulfill in order to work as a flight attendant. Granted, these programs that teach you about the flight attendant lifestyle and help you grasp the industry can provide you a leg up, but they cannot guarantee it. You should prepare for your interview by doing your due diligence and speaking with flight attendants who have recently been recruited or have experience in the field.
Flight Attendant: Safety professional
“We are your first line of defense and your first responders in emergencies.”
”Male Flight Attendant 2021" by Shawn O. Smith is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
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I'll discuss the benefits and drawbacks of being a flight attendant, as well as the industry and lifestyle, and Why take a career as a flight attendant in my next post.
