I'm going to share the interview process that I have recently attended at the Emirates recruitment event held in Malaysia. I believe that there are a lot of Emirates girl/boy wannabe who would love to read this article because Emirates has somehow changed their procedure in recruiting candidates in the year {2015} as compared to the past few years.
Please bare with me with the wordy article but I believe it will
help those who are interested in joining Emirates with some updated
information :)
{Day 1} - Open day (CV submission + Group discussion)
YES.
They have a group discussion on the first day itself. Would be good to prepare and get yourself ready since like everyone else, I thought all I need to do on the first day of the open day is just to submit my cv, go home and wait for the call. NO.
Emirates no longer does this and what you need to do is stay back and
wait for them to paste a list of successful candidates on the wall. If you pass,you will then proceed to the group discussion stage.
Now we will look into the things that you would need to prepare for the open day:
(a)
Always remember to put on a smile the moment you step into the hotel. Make sure you have all the required documents ready too and put them nicely in a file for easy retrieval. You
wouldn't know if there are any observer hiding around, so my advice is not to be stingy on giving out your friendly smile to everyone. On the other hand, the
documents that they need for open day will be the following three things:
-one photo (passport size OR full length)
-updated resume (without cover letter it's fine)
-a form (you will get it at the entrance of event hall and you need to fill out your basic info & online reference number)
(b)
Make some new friends around. I know a lot of you would like to stick
to your own group but hey why not just connect and get to know new friends? If
you get selected for the Emirates cabin crew position, most of the time, you will be flying with different set of crews, so it is important that you have great social skills.
I've been
through Emirates interview for the seventh time and from what I observed, there are three common personality patterns among all the candidates: the
silent, the skeptical and the professional. The silent and skeptical are usually the so called first timer coming for an Emirates interview.
They are
either really nervous or suspicious about their ability or both. It is
inevitable to have pretty/tall candidates attending the recruitment event.
Yes, model-like appearance does gives you a better advantage however it does not guarantee you a job with Emirates.
As long as you look presentable,
decent and professional; you are good to go. Lastly, the professional ones are current cabin crews or those who have tried Emirates for
a zillion times (just like me). Do not hesitate to approach them and you
may get more insight about the life as a cabin crew :)
(c)
Check your make up and speak confidently. I guess there is no need for
further elaboration on make up check as you know how horrible it is if
you smile brightly to the interviewer with your lipstick/breakfast
stained teeth.
Bare in mind that you only get to present yourself for
less than one minute during the cv submission. I remembered my mouth
trembled while speaking to the interviewer (of course I didn't get the
call for second assessment day during my last round). Put on your smile all the time and do a firm handshake and remember to greet the interviewer. I will list down a few questions that they might asked you during this stage:
- What is your job?
- What is your date of birth?
- What is your highest level of education?
After
you have answered them, you can say things like: Thank you for your
time & please enjoy your stay in xx. This helps them to remember you
better and I believe everyone love courteous people right?
Now,
the newly added stage on the first day - group discussion. Depending on
the number of people attending the recruitment event, the interviewer
will divide everyone into few groups. You will be given a
candidate number and wait for your turn to do the presentation. For my time, I was
placed in a group of 3 and given a topic entitled "Explain and elaborate
3 good qualities you find in a "xx" within 15 minutes.
So the leader
will randomly pick the career for "xx" and our group got "astronomer". If
you don't understand what is it mean you may look up your phone but make
sure the interviewer didn't notice it (Am I setting up a bad example?).
No, it's alright to check the dictionary and you may discuss among your
groupmate. Make sure you do your presentation briefly and clearly because I remember that
there was a girl who took a longer time than the rest for her presentation and was forced to end it.
So please avoid this particular mistake and you will be proceeded to the
next stage.
{Day 2} Assessment day - arm reach test + group discussion + english test + final interview briefing
In this round, you will see that a lot of people have already been eliminated. It will be shocking for some but do believe in yourself and be confident; you're better than you
think :) You will start the session by doing the arm reach test. For ladies,
you may tip toe without your heels but not ballerina feet to reach
212cm. For gentlemen, you don't need to remove your shoes to reach
212cm.
Next assestment will be the second group discussion where everyone will again be divided into smaller
groups. Everyone will be sitting in a circle and a mission card will be given to the candidates. All of us shared the same question and this
is how the question looks like:
-
"You are a manager for a water theme park. The water park is going to
close in winter and there are something happen before its closure. You
will be given a few scenarios to solve and you may suggest a solution
for each scenario.
The discussion shall be done within 15 minutes." The
interviewer will not be interrupting the discussion and you can propose
anything that is on your mind. And then the real fight kicks in. Because now I
am gonna to list down what is the "NAY" things to do:
(a)
Do not cut off others when they are speaking. At this stage, the
interviewer will not intervene your discussion because they want to see
how you interact with other candidates. I believe in this stage it is
very difficult to have your own showtime because everyone wants the
interviewers' attention badly and they will do whatever it takes to shine and get themselves noticed.
Suggested
way: If everyone is not speaking in sequence and you really wish to say
something; raise your hand and ask: "Can I say something? Sorry for the
interruption." This shows that you're a polite person; you respect
others opinion and even if you disagree with others, you are willing to wait
until they have finish before presenting your own thoughts.
(b)
Do not sit like a deflated balloon but make sure you maintain a good posture. I know it's a really long day
and you are exhausted from all the waiting and result announcement.
Sitting upright and lean slightly forward during the group discussion
will show that you are attentive and engaging with the rest the discussion.
Suggested
way: Make sure you have some snacks with you and don't forget to drink water to keep yourself hydrated. The
assessment day can be a very long and tiring day. Guess you will just have to get used to it since quite a lot of flights in Emirates are long haul where you will fly between 13 to 18 hours non stop.
There is a very famous teaching in Emirates Aviation
College: Listen to your body, eat when you want and get sufficient rest.
If you know how to take good care of yourself, I believe that you are
a perfect fit for the cabin crew job :)
After this stage, you will then move
on to the English test. In some countries, there is no English test especially the English speaking countries but for
us in Malaysia, you will need to do it. Your English will be tested based on several components: vocabulary, grammar and
comprehension. The test paper is consist of solely multiple choice
questions and you are given an hour to complete it
If you passed the test, you will then proceed to the final interview briefing. Congratulations
for those who have reached this stage because you are left with one final round before you become a cabin crew - final interview.
For the final interview, you will be given few dates to choose at your own convenience and you will be handed a
pre-joining form which you need to bring along during your final round. They will also asked you to complete an online psychometric test.
{Day of your final interview}
Before
the final interview, the Emirates HR will send you an email to confirm
your attendance. I was notified by a hotel worker which is pretty close
to me (Can you tell how many times I've attended Emirates interview in
the same hotel?!) there are five candidates coming on that day and I'm
the first one. I got up early in the morning to do head to toe grooming
and also make sure every documents are with me. Things you will need to
bring for final interview are:
- pre-joining form
- one updated cv
- three full length photos (one formal in full body, one casual with full body & one casual with half body)
- eight passport size photos (all in formal)
-
your highest level of education certificate ( I bring two because one
of my edu cert able to prove my language ability. If your edu cert is in
native language, you may highlight it and translate it into English)
- 2 colored passport photocopies
This
is a one on one interview and the interviewer tend to focus on you
better. For my time I got two different interviewer than the one that
did my assessment day because my final interview was arranged after a
month. So I was very concerned before I meet my interviewer because we
never met each other before.
Instead of worrying, I decided
to put my confident smile to greet my interviewer. She checked all my
documents and I was asked to share my working experiences which are all related to the role as a cabin crew. Below are the questions that they asked me during the final round : -
-tell me a time when you are stressful with work.
-how do you approach a distant colleague?
-tell me a time when you do something extra nice in your job. (Something out of your job scope)
-tell me a rule that you don't like to follow but you still follow in work.
-tell me a time when you solve a conflict.
-tell me a time when someone disagree with you.
-why do you choose emirates?
My
answer is handwritten down by my interviewer for their own reference and I guess they need that to report back to the HR in Dubai. After
the interview, you will be allowed to ask questions. I've asked about a
very famous question among all the candidates - the error occurred in
submission status of your online application.
Most of us are curious on why it fluctuates or not changing, I use to assumed that it was due to the recent
system update in Emirates website in 2015 but I was told to ignore the
submission status and wait for the result for 3 to 8 weeks.
My
interview lasted for about 30 minutes. It is relatively short compared to
what I've heard from other friends who have gone through the final interview. I
would not know what it signals as I'm still waiting for my final
interview result. But worry or not, life still goes on :) Just carry
on my daily routine because being worried would not change anything.
Wish me
luck folks! I hope this article will help you understand better and give you a competitive edge since you are now familiar with the updated Emirates recruitment process for 2015. Before I end this article,
I wish to encourage every FA wannabe to try Emirates interview as I have done my research online; Emirates intend to hire 11,000 people for various
job position in 2015 and guess what!
Half of it are reserved for cabin crew position! Why not grab this opportunity to see how far you can go and you might be surprised by what you can achieve ;) Wish me luck and see you!
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
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
