Cathay Pacific Flight Attendant ( Singapore Base ) - Interview stages and Process

Cathay Pacific recently held their invite-only interview session at Crowne Plaza Hotel for Singapore based crew, and I was the few who got lucky to get selected. I personally feel that they are rather low-keyed; there weren’t any advertisements about this recruitment, and i only got to know about it through flygosh. Thanks flygosh! 

Okay so I applied via email as per their instructions, sent a CV and cover letter, and few days after the date of closing of the application, I received an email stating to attend their first interview session. 

1^st Interview:  It’s in a meeting room in the hotel, and I was rather surprised by the number of people attending, only about 20 attended. But I wasn't sure if there were other first interview sessions. So I proceeded to registration counter, took a name tag, and first they did was to measure the arm reach.

They mentioned height isn't important, but rather whether you can reach the height stated is more important, which is rather true. You can be 165 tall but you have shorter hands, or you can be 156 tall but have longer hands. But either way, I passed, and went into the room. It was a banquet seating, so there’s a quilted table with chairs around it. 

First it was a brief introduction of Cathay Pacific and working environment of Singapore based crew. And followed by the REAL assessment. Each table were given strips of paper containing a topic, and everyone had to choose one, stand up and talk about the topic you chose, and basically entertain everyone with your presentation skills. Similar to show and tell? 

With a 1 minute limit. This was more of a warm up session, but they are STILL assessing you. 

Next was a group work. Naturally every table forms a group itself, and each table given a scenario and questions, and within the group, we had to either come up with solutions/conclusions/answers etc depending on which scenario you got. 

We were also given flipcharts and markers, and within 10 minutes, we had to sort everything we want to share among ourselves. That’s a challenge, 10 minutes is quite short, but the longer it is, the more expectations they have of us. In this phase, I noticed the assessors weren't looking much at us, so I guess they are focusing more of the presentation part. Either way, 10minutes was up, and everyone shared a bit of what their group discussed, and that was the assessment. 

Honestly I didn't know what they were looking for, but through past interview experiences, I guess employers are always looking at how you portray yourself and how confident you can speak. So that wraps up the 1st interview session, and we're given a yellow slip of paper indicating the items to bring if we're selected for 2nd interview, which consist of announcement/language, and a 1-to-1 interview at  the same hotel meeting room. 

They're efficient I must say, they eliminated and informed those successful the next day via email to attend the 2nd round. And it was barely a week after the 1st interview session. It was an appointment interview, so I came at the stated time.

2^nd Interview:  Firstly was documents check by the counter lady, then to wait for the 1-to-1 interview session. Finally it was my turn, and i felt nervous suddenly, because it wasn't a 1-to-1, it was a 2-to-1. I got drilled by 2 interviewers on questions, challenges, experiences, and it will get casual if you start to not be formal. Taking initiatives if you don't understand. Smile more, use more hand gestures, and maintain eye contact. 

Then went out, and there were tons of forms to fill in. A few were Cathay Pacific employment forms, a few were Hong Kong visa forms. Then I got called for language/announcement tests, which basically test your fluency and understanding. English is a must, and they would prefer Mandarin to Malay since Cathay is a Hong Kong based airline. If you know Cantonese, you're on your track. 

The interviewer may talk to you in Cantonese and you've a higher chance of getting through this round.After which, submit your filled forms, and given a pink slip of paper telling you if selected, get notified within 6 weeks. That was so long, but i heard rumours that those selected were told by the next 2 days. 

So I guess I got killed in the second round because i got no notices at all. But either way, the next round would be medical and if you pass, congrats, you're on your way to Hong Kong every flight and be a cabin crew!

You can view the cabin crew interview process of other airlines by clicking here 

Above article written by my PAID guest writer. If you are interested to contribute your experience to FlyGosh, please check out Get PAID to be a guest writer for FlyGosh.com

As you may already be aware that I have max out my facebook 5000 friends limit therefore to continue to get updates on latest news and jobs opportunity for both pilots and cabin crew, you can LIKE the Fly Gosh Fan Page by clicking HERE