I had 30 great years as a F/E in the UK , but leading up to it was a 5 year apprenticeship and 2 years in the hangar and I enjoyed it all even the bit of working inside a Comet 4 fuel tanks.
On retirement in 1998 i was lucky enough to be offered a volunteer position for short periods as a F/E on an old airliner in the USA, but first I had to get an American F/E ticket with a recip [ piston engine to me] endorsment
I filled in the relevant form and applied to the FAA office in New York, but talking to the gentleman and explaining my career he was not quite sure I had suitable qualifications to even apply for an american F/E ticket. His last question was it would be much easier if you had some pilot qualifications, and he could hardly believe i had been a F/E for 30 years without any pilot qualification.
In desperation at the end he said that perhaps I should go ahead and sit the test and the that led to 5 summers of great fun