Hi folks, someone I know attended the assessment/interview/open day or whatever the heck it was today, 30th September, 2009 in Brisbane for Emirates Airlines with an unsuccessful result as well as no idea why. They had prepared for this for no less than a month only to turn up and be shafted with almost 65 or 70 other people by lunchtime. Here's what went down....
"After arriving at the Cabin Crew Centre at Brisbane Airport this morning at 8.30am, I was ushered into an auditorium with around 60 or 70 other candidates. We were due to begin around 9am so I took the opportunity to begin chatting with the people around me finding out that some of them had almost 15 years experience in full service airlines such as Qantas and Air New Zealand. These people had also traveled from their home bases of Sydney and Auckland to attend the day. There were also others attending from Thai Airways, Cathay Pacific and Phillipine Airlines. Having come from a reputable asian carrier myself, I was excited at the fact I was finally here for an Emirates interview and I would give it my best shot. I began speaking to others whom were not from an previous airline background although had all their hopes and dreams sown up in a career as a flight attend. The session kicked off at around 9am with two recruitment officers introducing themselves and presenting a slide show on life in Emirates and life in Dubai. One was an Aussie girl, the other I believe, was Indian. She mentioned that since there were roughly 80 candidates that we would "do things a little different to the book" and conduct group discussions first as part of the assesment. We in fact did a height test first which involved touching a point higher than a line put on a wall. We were then asked to hand up our CVs and organised into groups. The topic of our discussion was if we were to start our own airline from a variety of different ports, what would be the destinations we would initially service and why. (I think this was the topic...can't really remember what the candidate said) After completing discussions, we broke for lunch only to return to devastating results. Despite my and others best efforts and a wealth of experience worldwide in the cabin crew departments of some of the worlds biggest airlines, we had been registered as unsuccessful. Yes, every applicant I spoke to, whether they had 15 years experience as a Cabin Service Manager for Qantas or 5 years experience as a Stewardess for Cathay Pacific had all failed in their attempt to qualify for Emirates. Most were devasted, but others were used to the high cost of failure and left without "too" much grumbling. While waiting for my ride home, I was shocked to see a batch of successful candidates emerge with the Aussie Cabin Crew Recruitment officer. They seemed to all know each other very very well and appeared very chummy...you wouldn't be blamed for even thinking that they had met a long time before today...that's for sure. Ironically, these girls, yes all females, were dressed in the distinctive Virgin Blue Cabin Crew attire. At this stage I was fairly tired and refused to tell myself that there was a hidden meaning so I caught my lift and returned home, none the richer but still none the poorer"
Folks, I dunno about you but I really feel sorry for the candidates that attended this open day, especially those that traveled from far points of origin to attend this "interview". And I'm sorry to have to say this but something smells very very fishy in regards to the successful applicants all appearing to be on the
VB roster. It looks like a little under the table deal with these particular girls and the recruitment officer which has screwed each and every single one of the hopes and dreams of those who just wanted the chance to be a part of this wonderful airline. Now it makes me wonder that with an airline like Emirates who send out their henchmen such as this girl from Dubai to do all the recruiting, the big dogs in Dubai will never know that these girls are ALL coming from Virgin. I'm interested to know what's in it for the recruiter though. The chance to work with all her friends from Virgin Blue? Guys, it's probably important at this stage that I point out I DO NOT know this information accurately myself but it still does not look good for the airline at all that their only successful candidates appeared to come from ONE Brisbane based airline. Like I said I feel for all of you and I do not believe that you should just leave it there if you were one of the unlucky souls that were unsuccessful.
Now if there is anyone from Emirates reading this, I urge you to investigate this matter to the best of your ability as it seems a lot of great talent has been ignored amongst the other candidates. Considering that no proper PERSONAL assessment was done on ANY candidate, isn't it only fair that that is offered to them prior to labelling them as unsuccessful? 6 months is a long time to wait to reapply for for something that they have probably been waiting for a long, long time. So please, for their sake, look into it. It's only fair on everyone who took the time and effort to be a part of the day in Brisbane that you do.
Cheers guys!