OD in Praguce, CZ
Hi Guys, Ladies and Getlemen.
First of all I would like to thank you all for posting here. I was reading the EK Thread from number I right to number IX from late May. So as to be prepared for my OD in Prague.
And as a thank you, I feel I have to share my experience from the OD. I try to be as detailed as possible.
First day - 27.8. I arrived at 8 a.m. to be one of the first in line. It was mentioned here before so I thought it was a good idea. Already there were like 20 people waiting which suprised me. Our nation is not known to be that punctual. The session started exatly at 9 a.m. when we were shown to a big conference room by two wery lovely EK recruiters Mirka and Andrea (Both Czech!) and asked to take a seat. I did a quick count of heads and around 170-190 people came. Many from airlines based in Prague. And a few forigners.
The Recriuters than played a video about EK destinations. Than the remote control broke down so we were given a chance tio ask some questions. Thanks to how our nation can be unprepared this part took almost 2 hours! After finish with everything the Recruiters finaly played the EK Cabin Crew video.
Than we were asked to bring one by one the CV with the passport size photo and that we will have a quick chat with one of the recruiters. If we are succesful through this screening they will call us not later than 6 p.m. to come the next day. I was wery nervous since I do have some 3 and half years of customers service experience but as part-timer and I have a medical certificate thanks to the fact I was a coach and trained small kids. But I am very young, I will be 22 this october. So I waited because there was no way to rush anywhere. I was of the last people left in the room when it was my turn. So I came to her, told the recruiter Good Afternoon, How do you do madam? And of course smiled the whole day. I wanted to be myslef so as I am a very open person I talked to many, many people around me.
The recruiter than asked me about my language skills. I told her that I consider all 5 of them to be fluent according to the standarts of EK as I had the chance to read it on their website what it means. And than she asked me: "Why do you want to join us?" so I told her that "it is my dream. I love flying, it is my passion, that my mother, former flight attendant, is a person I have always looked up to and there is simply no better way than Emirates." That was all, I said good bye and went home. At 2:59 p.m. I recieved a call from one of the recuiters that I was succesful and that I should be in the hotel at 9 a.m. Believe me I was shocked but very glad!
Second day - 28.8. The day started again exactly at 9 a.m. There were 35 of us (there was another group that was told to come at 11 a.m. - around 25-30 people). We were than asked to go into the conference room and tell one of the Recruiters our name. We recieved numbers which we had to stick on our jacket. From than on we had to use this number as a refference number of ours. Mine was for some reason no.1. So we than had to sit in circle (there were two of them) first circle number 1-16 and number 17-35 second circle, than we had to ask person sitting on our right-hand side as many things to get to know something about him as possible. And most importantly. what is his/hers dream house. While doing this we were called by our numbers to do a reach test. And we did a quick chat too. I do not remember what was I aksed. But it was again something from the CV. Than after all went through the reach test, we had to discuss in the circle what are 3 disadvantages of living in Dubai and why (circle one) and what are 3 advantages (circle two). Than three people were picked by the recruiters to present the answers. After this excercise we had to wait for about 10-15 minutes till the gave us the letters. I was so nervous when I recieved mine. But I found Congratulations... So I was in for another game!
We had a free time till the second group, that came at 11 a.m. finished. After that we wrote an English test. I would say it was rather easy but I think it is just a personal point of view. Another elimination. And I continued.
Than we had to go in, 44 of us made it for the last excercise. We where divided into 4 groups of 9 and one group of 8. when the group was called in we sat in the circle again and we were called one by one to do the tattoo and scares declaration. I have a burn scar on my right hand which is barely noticible and completely unvisible when in shirt but still I have it and I wanted to be honest. Than we had to do another group activity. We were like a crew on board of a plane with overloaded bussines class. We had to downgrade 6 of 8 passangers whose personal info we had on papers we recieved. There is no correct or wrong answer! It is just how you cope and how you can work together. This whole thing is like 15 minutes long. At the end one of the recruiters even played an angry passanger and we had to explain the reasons why she had to be downgraded. We than waited for some 5 minutes and recieved letters... mine was again Congrats... Than we booked an interview date.
29.8. - Final Interview. some 28 people made to the finals! The Recruiters themselves said this could be a record. Those who amde it recieved in the evening 28.8. personality online test instructions and had some paperwork to do. This had to be done before the interview. The Interview itself wasnt hard. I was asked about my jobs, what I liked and what I did not. Some examples of customers service and so on but because it was my first interview only in English I made several mistakes when speaking which I immediately corrected. but still I made them! At the end we I was aksed to do IQ test. That was all!
Because of the amount of people who made it to the Finals, The recruiters will be in Dubai not earlier than Friday so on Friday my 6 weeks of waiting game starts!
I hope this is not too long to read and maybe it will hepl someone. Thank you for your patience guys when reading it and I wish you all All the best!!!