Hi All,
I attended the OD in Trinidad on Saturday 27th November, at the Hilton Hotel and Conference Centre, this was my second OD this year. I would like to share my experience with you.
I arrived at 8.30am as the day’s proceedings were scheduled to begin at 9.00am. I was directed to the Flamingo room down the hall. When I enter there were a lot of people sitting there already. I said good morning and smiled and found a seat near to some ppl that I know.
I wore a dark grey tweed type skirt suit (long sleeve jacket and mid knee skirt, as req on the invitation email) and a black shirt with a collar underneath. Skin colored stockings and black court shoes with a 2 1/2” heal. I had a black briefcase type portfolio and a regular sized hand bag, black. I wore smokey eye make-up, red lipstick and a Smile.
At appr. 9.10am the EK recruiters came into the room said good morning and introduced themselves as Jeanette and Chelsea. They thanked us for coming out so early on a Saturday and asked us to leave the room so that they could set up, at this point there were about 70 of us in the room.
We all left and stood in the hall mingling, meeting friends of friends and trying to maintain a happy disposition. After some time they invited us into another room and offered us some literature on the company and a slip to fill out with your name the date, your online reference number and 3 questions (if I remember correctly.
Have you ever attended an EK screening? ____YES ____ NO __________DATE
Have you ever interviewed with EK? ____YES ____ NO __________DATE
Have you ever attended EK OD? ____YES ____ NO __________DATE
We found our seats and fill out the slip. At this point more ppl were arriving Jeanette also stressed the importance of being on time as it is important for CC to be on time and “the aircraft won’t wait for you” (I think she was a bit annoyed that she had to keep leaving the room to get hotel staff to source more chairs).
We look at a couple EK presentation DVD’s about life in Dubai, CC experiences, the A380 shower spa (very exciting stuff) the history of Emirates Airlines etc, etc. After every couple presentations we had a Q&A session, Mostly about what we knew about the Airline. Jeanette asked most of the questions. I didn’t answer any, but this one girl (who was horribly dress) kept standing up to answer the questions, she was wrong every time. To me if you don’t know, don’t answer unless they ask you for a guess. I mean these were current events and company history questions they were asking this clearly shows lack of research and quite frankly I think it is embarrassing. She was a bit annoying but I kept smiling.
Then Chelsea took the floor and shared with us real life experiences of herself and some of her old colleagues. She started by telling us of her OD experience in Brisbane Australia. Then she share with us some bad CC experiences including one where a friend of hers was administering CPR to a heart attack victim and vomited in her mouth before dying in her arms (ewww gross) and a scary experience of another friend who had to help a pregnant pax in labour control her contractions till they landed so she would be able to deliver safely at a hospital (two that stood out to me) both scary but both reality. I really appreciated her being real with us and letting us know of the not so glamorous aspects of being EK CC, so we would be better able to assess if we really wanted to pack up and leave our families to possibly have an old man die in our arms or deliver a baby on a long haul flight.
After this we were invited to come up one at a time to hand in our CV’s and photo and to have a “little chat” with them. They also told us that if we were successful at this stage they would call us by 6pm that afternoon and invite us to AD and if we were not, that we can feel free to reapply after 6 months. This was a pain staking nerve wrecking time for me because I was about 15 rows back and some ppl were jumping spots so it was longer than necessary for me, but I said to myself “you took the day off of work to get this, you don’t have anything else to do or anywhere else to be, so keep that smile on your face and be patient”. When I got close enough I tried to listen to the types of questions they were asking and tried to prepare my answers.
Finally it was my turn. I waited for Jeanette to invite me to sit. I went over, said good morning, extended my hand for a shake and introduce myself with a smile and sat down. I gave her my CV and my photos. She verified my contact number, my age and D.O.B and my highest level of education. She then ask me where I worked at the time and if I enjoyed it, also why I want to become CC (I was a little shocked at this question, I expected it to be a FI question). She asked if I had and questions and I did. I asked her what was the difference between main fleet and A380 and how could I get A380 fleet. She said the main difference is that A380 is long haul flight and the training is different and if I wanted A380 I had to be sure to mention it at FI. I thanked her for her responses and she thanked me for my time, we shook hands again and said our goodbyes, and that was it I was finished.
Now all I had to do was wait on the call. So I waited and waited and then it was 6.00pm and them 6.30pm and I DIDN’T get a call back.
I did my own analysis of my performance and I think I did ok except for the smokey eye. I think my make up was too overwhelming and it could have thrown off my otherwise professional appearance and as we all know image is very important to EK recruiters. Other than that I may have been too vague in my responses to the questions (I didn’t want to be too wordy) and I think at some points I lost eye contact with her and appeared timid and a bit shy. Anyway this is just my opinion, there is no way for me to be entirely sure of my weakness as they cannot give feedback on this. One thing I am sure of is I will most definitely be reapplying in 6 months. I will use this time to improve on my CV probably do some cooperate training courses and work on my public speaking skills.
To all of you who were given the opportunity to move forward, best of luck to you be yourself and give it your all. To the one who are attempting for the first time, do not let anyone persons’ experiences limit or discourage you. We will all have our own unique experiences good and not so good, of which you may be guided, but no two persons will experience the exact same thing, your experience will be your own.
I am eternally grateful for all the experiences posted and all the comments and advice, I will continue reading for a further 6 months and maybe my next post will be one of success.
Best of Luck to you all
Danielle (Trinidad)
Xoxoxoxoxo
PS you all can feel free to give advice and constructive criticism.
Cheers!!!!!!!!!