Today I had my Open Day! It started at 9am sharp - I made sure I was up, ready, and out of the house for 7.50am - arriving at Gateshead (after taking a slight detour...) at 8.20am. There were about ten people in the queue ahead of me, waiting to get in to the conference room. I was joined by a lady who works where I work - we didn't know each other but it was nice to have a chat and make a friend for the morning!
There were about forty or fifty people behind us by the time we were let in to the room. Before this though, I caught a few people looking at others up and down... don't do this! Everyone's got an equal chance of being selected and giving out the dirty looks isn't gonna do you any favours!
One tip, if anything... WEAR YOUR SUIT. Follow what it says in the invitation e-mail! Including myself there were around five people out of the 70 or so who had stuck to the dress code.
LADIES!
Black suit jacket, white shirt, black knee length skirt, skin coloured stockings and black shoes. Preferably a court shoe but as long as they're black it shouldn't matter for the OD.
GENTS!
A suit in normal, decent colours. Shiny shoes, clean shaven - tidy hair!
Ladies make sure your make-up is pristine - foundation, eyeliner, red lips - you're trying to show Emirates what you'd look like as Cabin Crew. Don't forget the pearl earrings girls!
Some people wandered in dressed to go to a nightclub - mini skirts, super high heels, suit jackets not matching skirts, trousers etc. Don't do this! Make sure your hair is up and in a bun, out of your face. SMILE. I can't emphasise smiling enough!
So we got in to the conference room and sat down. I was in the second row and I had a good view of the screen where the presentations would be given. There were people coming in late - don't be late! If you're late for an Open Day - will you be late for your flights?!
Because there were more than the allowed limit to turn an OD in to an AD (booo!) they decided to hold the AD tomorrow instead. I'm pleased in a way 'cause it means I can get a good night's sleep and come back refreshed!
We were given an information sheet about being Cabin Crew with things like pay, accomodation, healthcare, UAE rules etc just general stuff we should know before applying. We were also given a small sheet of paper which asked for our name, level of education, date of birth, application number, languages spoken, phone number, and if we'd been to an OD/FI before. We had to fill these in and hand them in with our photos and CV.
We listened to our Recruitment Officers talk a little about themselves, and then we were shown a clip about Dubai and about Cabin Crew life. We were asked if we had any questions - many people asked questions which had already been answered in the past five minutes. I think others were just asking questions to get noticed. I didn't ask any - I listened intently and nodded in agreement when the Recruitment Officer and made sure to make eye contact! It shows you're listening! EK likes good listeners! One of the RO's said that if we hadn't heard from them before 5pm tonight (it was about 11am at this point) then we should consider ourselves to be unsuccessful and should re-apply in six months' time.
After the presentations and question time we had a five minute break. We then came back and the room split in to two, where we handed our CV's to one of the Recruitment Officers and had a brief chat with them about what we currently do for a living. This is your time to shine! The RO said "Hi! How are you?" to which I replied "I'm very well thank you - how are you?" - be polite! Don't just say "I'm fine" - engage with them!
She then looked at my CV and asked where I was working - I told her and gave a brief explanation about why I like my job. I said it was challenging and that there were new situations each day, but the best part of my job was being able to meet people from hundreds of cultures and countries from around the world. She then asked if I'd had an experience of an unhappy customer and I then explained about a new procedure we have to do at work which not many customers are happy about. She then asked how long I'd been working there and she said "okay, I've got no more questions to ask you - thank you very much"
Some people were shaking their hands as they left the table but I didn't shake the lady's hand purely because I don't know if she's the type of person who likes touching strangers or not. If she offered a hand first then I'd be okay with it.
Anyhow I left and felt sick with nerves. I got home about half an hour later and sat and waited with my head in my hands (for the most part) constantly going over in my head what if I'd said something wrong, had I rambled on too much? Did I answer her question thoroughly? Did I look smart enough? I was reading the information sheet over and over and it just seems like a dream being CC! It's like the perfect job! Hard work, don't get me wrong - but absolutely perfect!
At 1.40pm I got a call from one of the RO's asking me to attend the AD - wooo! High fives all round. She gave me a time and a number to remember which would be my number for the AD. I think about 30 people are going - I can't be too sure but from what number I was given and the one another girl I knew was given then it seems likely.
Time to do some revision and I will update you lovely dreamers tomorrow xx
