Dubai: The Beginning

Last day of Training: 2 days ago
First Flight: Tomorrow

Final Week of School

I cant believe how fast Training College has gone by!

My 7 week training will be up in a few days, and the time to start flying will begin.

I am so nervous.

I hate being the new girl.

And there is so many things to remember.

I wish I could fast forward this next month (maybe even two) until I am past all this newbie nonsense.

Our final week of Service has been information overload.

Learning all the different meal services,  as well as  the location of everything in the galley, boarding of passengers and how to deal with the normal problems that come with it, treatment of VIP customers, and all the little details of what different PA’s mean during the flight etc.

I didn’t realize everything cabin crew did behind the scenes!

Setting up our As You Like It Service.
“Can I tempt you with a 3-Cheese Pizza? We also have a selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. What would you prefer?”

May I offer you a newspaper?

Practicing in the Sim!

Very End.

Last Day at the Nug’s. Click the Picture to see Dida’s present! My leaving for Duabi, and becoming a flight attendant is starting to get real.

Dubai bound

I got the flight attendant job!

I will be an Emirates flight attendant.

I leave November 16th.

I am so excited.

Sssstatus

 

Emirates Airlines update!

My status changed online.

From “Approval in Progress” to “You will be contacted by a recruiter”.

And since I haven’t gotten an email yet….its a good thing, right?!
I hope they call me tomorrow. And tell me my start date will be the end of January (so that I can be here for Christmas, of course.).

Fingers crossed!

Interview and a cupcake.

‘Good Luck’ Flowers!

My final interview with Emirates Airline was the next day. Luckily for me, my shift at work was super early and eight hours later I was off at 1pm. My interview was at 4:30, in San Mateo. An hour and a half away.

And here is where I made the following mistakes..

– I went to Walmart to pick up my passport/business attire pictures I needed to bring. Easy, right? Nope! After spending a good fifteen minutes either waiting on the lovely staff to come help me, or trying to figure out WHY my one-hour pictures I ordered the day before weren’t ready, I realized I had sent them to a different Walmart. So I had to pick them up on my way to the interview. No biggie…right?

-I went home and went on FACEBOOOK. Why did I do that.

-I left 15 minutes later than I wanted.

-ALMOST forgot my shoes.  That could’ve been really bad.

-Some cop activity with a car accident right by my town>> trafffiiiic>>  me stressed. And I’m not a good driver when I’m stressed.

-The other Walmart staff was also not in sight at the Photo department. Luckily they were a bit quicker and I ran outta there with my pics.

-Worst part of this whole experience was when I realized I didn’t have the right size photos. And that was what Emirates NEEDED.

-Best part of the drive was when I found out – thanks to the sister’s help after a phone call –  that the Rite Aid (which was right down the road from the hotel I was headed to) was able to do passport photos. In 5 minutes.

And that is how I ended up getting my passport photos taken AND printed ten minutes before my interview.

Interview went well. Almost too well. We shall see in 6 weeks, which is when they will be letting us Flight Attendant hopefuls know if we made it or not.

Aaaand onto another note.

I made this yesterday at my job.

So cute. But so dang annoying to make.

I’m Elmo!

Tutorial HERE. They are surprisingly easy to make – just a workout for the hands!

Emirates Day 2!

Going back to the same hotel, the next day, was a whole different experience then the first time. Everyone was happy and excited that they got called back. And there was only about 20 people compared to the day before -when there was 120.

Today mainly focused on how you interact with other people. We did a couple exercises, one of them involving us asking the person to our right which celebrity they would be for a day and why. I chose Colbie Caillat, and I know there are a ton of better choices, but I could NOT think of anyone else in that moment. At least it wasn’t Angelina Jolie..3 people out of my group of 10 chose her!

The 2nd activity was a scenario; your plane crashed, you have people who are hurt – out of the 10 items listed, which five things would you grab and why.

They then went around our group asking various questions about why,what,where,and how.

I lucked out and got the easiest one: We chose our 3rd item to bring to be bottled water. Eaaaasyyy.

Next: they deliberated while we waited in the hall. I was almsot positive I didn’t make it. There were a lot more outgoing, loud, confident ladies in my group, and I was just hoping I wouldn’t be the ONLY one going home. How humilating.

Well, they called us back into our room, and they gave us the “Thank you for coming, please leave right away if you do not make it” speech. But the way they eliminated people was so classy! We had all been given a number, and they called us to leave the room in numerical order. On the way out they gave everyone a slip of paper saying if they had made it or not.

I maaade it!

I was so shocked!

Only 8 people made it to the final round.

The only other person to make it from my group was a boy. And he happened to be the one of two boys there that day, and very good looking.

The rest of the day was spent waiting for our flight attendant instructors, and filling out paperwork. They gave us a detailed list of things we needed to bring back the following day to our one-on-one interview.

I was so excited! I left, actually considering what it might be like working for Emirates! And living in Dubai… not my favorite part of the job. That, and along with the 3 year contract you have to sign.

But I was still extremely excited to have made it another round!

I took a picture as I drove home from Day 2, so I would remember dat der daaayyyyy!

When Going to a Flight Attendant Interview..

..never show up late.

{I can speak on personal experience for this one. Showing up late is a major offense in the Flight Attendant world, mainly because they run on being ON TIME. That is part of your job. And if you can’t even show up to your interview on time, then what does that say to the rest of your career?}

Always come professionally dressed.

{Nothing screams “DONT HIRE ME!” louder than arriving at an Open House, wearing last years red hoochie-mama dress, a messy bun, and a loud personality. Come how they describe. Nice pants/skirt, blouse, and a business jacket that neatly buttons up. Nude panty-hose stockings, and black high heals – along with a neat bun and a pretty smile, will all help seal the deal.}

Bring everything that they ask you to bring.

{The normal requirements are a Photo of yourself, a Resume, Cover letter, along with some paper and a pen. Occasionally they want copies of your High School diploma. Double check everything that they want you to bring! And if you have a nice binder to bring it in, even better.}

Research your airline your are applying for.

{They all love it when you can tell them why their airline is the best. How many countries do they fly to? Are they expanding? How quickly, and with what new destinations? What makes their airline unique? The customer service? Do your research, and come with your notes!  }

Find out common questions Airline Interviewers may ask.

{After an interviewer has asked a question, no one likes an awkward pause. So by doing a little research, and pre-thinking of some possible answers will significantly help you when you are in the hot seat.}

Keep smiling, but don’t forget your professional attitude.

{Show them your pearly whites! But dont let them think you are some high school girl who cant be a professional adult. I have made the mistake of thinking they wanted someone sooooo outgoing and smiley and nice, and then realizing afterwards how silly I looked. Make sure you are friendly, but not high school girl friendly.}

And just remember, if you aren’t hired don’t let that get you down. Everyone I talk to has had to interview multiple times!

Good luck!!

Emirates Day 1

So, I was supposed to have Saturday off. But, life happens, and I ended up going into work at the extremely early time of 3am; making,baking,and packaging our bread before leaving at 6am. It was a crazy morning!!

I rushed home, got ready, grabbed my things, and flew out the door (but not before stopping at the twin sisters house and getting tea & an english muffin! Yum Yum). I made great time, and got there a half hour before it started!

There was already a ton of people there, and I joined the line that had been forming, to pick up a couple forms we all had to fill out.

9 am comes, and we all file into the room and take our seats. I sat by my two new friends I had made.( Blue dress and Hawaiian girl.)

There was an introduction, talking about Emirates, how it worked after you are hired and your move to Dubai. Then following that, a DVD.

Did I mention that the two ladies that were leading the Open House were gorgeous and had amazing accents! One was from Australia, the other from Bosnia.

Afterwards, they had a Q&A session. People are pretty hilarious. Some of the questions they were asking were sooo silly. I mean, do you really need to know what the cost would be for all the different cell phone plans over in Dubai? C’mon.

Well, the thing that took up the most time was the interviewing process. There were only the two interviewers, needing to talk to the 120+ people,  and each conversation took 1 – 3 minutes.

So nice pretty Hawaiian girl and I left to get something to eat in the Hotel lobby. I never saw blue dress after that. This other blonde, that I had noticed at the very beginning of the day, ended up joining  us and we all got to chatting at the small starbucks.

It was crazy how far some of the Flight Attendant hopefuls had come; Georgia, North Carolina, Hawaii, Texas, a 7 hour drive up from Los Angeles! And as far as I knew, Emirates did not refund anyone of expenses. Yikes.

So after about a half hour, we went back in the main room and joined the line that had formed.

My turn came.. and 1st thing I was asked to do was complete the reach test. Shoes, off, reach up high, and yes!! I cleared the tiny poster that represented a certain height everyone had to be able to reach.

Following that were the questions.

“Can you tell me a time where you had to deal with an upset customer, and how you handled it”

I explained this horrible misunderstanding that had happened one time at my job, where a customer had brought in a picture of her family that she wanted put on a cake. The thing was, she wanted us to cut out the rest of the family – so that only the part of her daughter was left.

So we followed her directions, she came in to get her cake — and she flipped ouuutt when, after asking for her family photo back, did she realize we had used the actual picture and not a copy!

I described how upset she was and how I worked out the misunderstanding.

“Why do you want to be a Flight Attendant for Emirates?”

I had planned on giving the cliché answer of “I love people, love to travel” , mainly because I could not for the life of me think of another response! But when the time came, I ended up saying something along the lines of, ” Its something I have always wanted to do.”

I finished. Met my two friends out in the lobby and compared our interviews.

After numbers & “goodlucks!” were exchanged, the three of us went our different ways.

((The ladies had told us that if we received a call by 6pm, to come back the following day.))

I left thinking that I most likely would not be getting a callback.

But I diiiiid! I could not believe it 🙂

End of Day 1

Crazy Weekend.

I can’t remember if I have ever mentioned on this blog how I want to be a Flight Attendant.

Over the past year or so, I have gone to a couple interviews.

First one, flew out to Georgia, learned ALOT, wasn’t picked. ((ExpressJet)

Second one, flew out to Texas, was five minutes late due to …a lot of things, and they wouldn’t let me interview. ((Continental))

And this weekend I went to my third interview.  ((Emirates))

Only this time it was in San Francisco.

Pretty much the only reason I went to Emirates’ Open House was because of its location (only an hour and a half away), I had the day off , and I thought it would be a great experience ( So that, down the road, when I finally went to an interview I cared about, I would be more prepared.).

Thank goodness for helpful sisters, who go on spur-of-the-moment shopping trips, to be able to be properly dressed for the interview! (And, on top of that, win Tim McGraw/Kenny Chesney concert tickets for me!)

Well. The next couple of posts will tell you how the Open House went..