Sunday 28 November 2010

Things to share from my flight attendant interview

So what I have been up to so far?  Besides the 1 Year Anniversary for my youtube, I also attended to a flight attendant interview on 27th Nov 2010.  However, the interview started off as group discussion which I think I probably screwed myself up completely.  After the height measurement bit, we were split into small groups of 4-5 people as small conversation group.  Here are the questions that my examiners would like us to discuss and I like to hear your thoughts about the way answered them (but with a less prepared and a more nerve wrecking version of it).....
1) What do you see as being a flight attendant?
Other candidates: I see it as a flexible job that you can go travelling, you can see all the advantages such as meeting different people all over the world.... etc....
Me: The way I see it is that it is a different job that you may need to sacrifice your original social life, less time for the closer ones and especially you may need to cancel Valentine's Day that you probably need to be prepared for these negativities.  But I believe there are always both good and bads about the position is because it's probably there are always people out there who have no idea flight attendants take safety as number priority when pax complains about the aircraft's too small... etc...
2) Please elaborate the related concern that a flight attendant may have?
Other candidates: (1 mentioned)- There's no worries about it because I do not need to concern about the hold-backs as I am single and have a great family who are supportive to what I am doing.  I would see it as a sacrifice that's worthwhile if I get to go travelling elsewhere different for Christmas or the Summer.  (other mentions similar things except: flight attendant has multi-occupations for the inflight service being the cleaner, nanny, nurse and the waiters...etc)
Me: I would agree with such and such mentioned the sacrifice is worth it, I would imagine myself being the one enjoying what I am doing because I get to meet different people everytime I get to fly, I get to hear different needs and comments from passengers which are the best things in the job that entertains me the most!!  I think I am all prepared for the job position as I tend to spend more time doing chores at home and made more preparations by stop complaining this and that are dirty...etc.  I have the objective that motivates me, that would be to be able to have all the chances to take care of people I care about and those who care about me, I would mean it as people that I care about would be the passengers and those who care about me are the people I work with.
3) How do you feel about the impression of the public from watching the TV-documenatary shows based on the airline staff?
Others: The way I feel about these TV shows are that public are only seeing the bad side of the industry that the flight attendants are just waiters and they have no ideas about the policies that flight attendants have to follow.
Me: I wouldn't see it as bad as those TV shows made it and I believe the eye of the public do have some pictures of what the flight attendants would go through, I would mention the example such as watching Attention Please this Japanese drama that I love watching, although it is just acting, I would believe the drama has gave alot of plausible scenarios that's based on tough times and good times the flight attendants went through.  One of the scenes I remembered was one of the actresses was facing a practical exam with the coaching acting as an angry passenger which I would imagine this is very plausible enough to believe that it's a scenario that a member of the public is able to observe during the flying time as well as whatever the flight attendant will be facing as their tough times.

OK, in terms of outfit and hair of the day, I didn't make a video on the way I look for the interview just in case I am screwed up, but I am still happy to show you what I wore and the done hair-do.


For the bigger discussion group, damn, what a joker! The topic between 10-15 of us was design of the flight attendant uniform and the 6 reasons for considering those factors.... I contributed by the drawing the description (I once made a video about my personal design... *jaw drops on floor*), well, not sure if I contributed into a good level to perform the right team work, but I certainly was the one to try and make everyone laugh (at least?!) like as I was drawing and kind of hope it meets the descriptions they mentioned, I just waved the sketching around saying "I don't know if this is ok, but look"... and everyone just broke out and laughed like it made everyone less tensed.

Here is just some of polls I have closed recently which are related to the videos I've made so far.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Based on your replies, I think you would be a very good candidate for the position! You sound like a very articulate and customer service oriented individual. And I like your outfit and your hairdo! Very professional :)

strawberella said...

I like the way you answered the questions, you showed that you understood what the job would offer you in terms of what you will be dealing with and how you stay professional. I also liked how you related to the rama series you was interested in, shows you considered it for your answers and prepared for it as well as it happening to you in real life.
The photos look great!

Unknown said...

l’8 dicembre con l’allestimento del presepe, realizzato con tutte le statuine omaggiate dagli ospiti di Villaggio Amico.

Anonymous said...

I'm currently working as a flight attendant and have conducted mock up interviews for people who are interested to become a FA. I've actually seen your blogs and videos a few years ago and learnt ur passion and dedication to become a FA. Just some feedback i would like to share wif you based on the group discussion answers you wrote and I hope you wouldn't mind.

1) i understand that you have been a ground staff before and have FA frds which gave you a clear understanding about what our job is about. Yes there are plenty of negative sides but on this first question i believe the examiner would like to hear some positive answers. Yes what you were contributing to the discussion was the fact of our job but at the examiner's view, if you are already dissing about this job and being negative why would you want to be here? One of the crucial thing of being a FA is to find the positive in everything. The moment you show negativity would already have given the examiner that your personality may not be right for the job.

2)It is always good to show that you've been listening to others and appreciate the goods that others had offer. but seems like you've elaborated a bit too far. Being a team player, while the others are contributing some general facts it would be nice if you could also contribute something similar, (jetlag, health issue, fatigue, but we can always be well prepared to avoid these things to happen blah blah blah....instead of going on and on, talking about yourself.. the way you said it made it seems like you're hard-selling yourself.
To be a FA, always make yourself part of the team, standing out is never gonna help.

3)good answer. attention please and triumph in the skies was big airline sponsored tv series that motivated a lot of people to join this industry. but try not to put down the other candidates. When one candidate made a strong statement, tactfully 'suggest' something to the crowd instead of saying 'I wouldn't see..', that would give an impression of 'I don't agree..'. You may started it off as 'I would like to share my personal experience..... I've seen this drama blah blah blah...'and then suggest how these sponsored dramatic and sometimes unreal media has driven the success on aviation industry's recruitment blah blah blah... show off your experience in the airline industry tactfully by simply 'sharing' at the right moment. don't elaborate it too long, give some chances to others. And when you see some other candidates suffering from contributing sth, use ur knowledge to assist them and guide them through the convo, that is what the examiner wants to see from a desirable candidate.

as for the uniform bit, you've worn our uniform before, you may have suggested some crucial factors that our uniform must have.
- appealing yet professional
- user friendly, not too tight tht you can't even walk up the ramp stairs like our new uniform
- avoid sharp designs of uniform accessories such as badges/wings/pins... (our new chicken 'wing' design is so sharp that if sth bad happened it may stab thru our heart..)
- cost effective
- easy maintenance

and yea like you mentioned... Team work... show off your personal skills later in the individual interview.. they're more interested to see how you interact with people.

Sorry for the long comment but this really is sth i would like to share as i've seen the passion and dedication in this whole thing from you and I really hope you would make it. And I hope this may help you to understand more about what FA group int and discussions are all about and what they're secretly observing during the process despite all those stupid questions and discussion topics.

Good luck. Hope you'll be there one day =)