Common cabin crew CV mistakes and how you should avoid them

Attending an Open day or recruitment event at Emirates or Qatar is a daunting process.  Long queues of hopefuls making their way in the morning to the hotel venues to hand their CVs and photos to the Emirates and Qatar recruiters.  They then wait all day long to receive news that they are successful and have been invited to attend the Assessment Day.

At the Emirates and Qatar Open Day, you are only judged by your CV and photograph.  Many candidates still fail to realise that these two documents are so important and it isn't good enough to just copy a format from an online cabin crew sample CV.  

To design the perfect CV that is unique to you takes time and effort.  Lots of hard work needs to be allocated here.  If you do not plan and design your CV well, it will be most disheartening to hear your CV gets rejected within few hours of the CV drop.  It has wasted your time and puts your confidence at an all time low.  Some then resort to the facebook group where everyone who attended the open day can then moan and rant how unfair the system is and how others who are worse than them seem to have miraculously got through to the next round.

Most candidates seem to think they have a good idea of how to write a CV, yet the CVs that are sent to me for review contain so many errors, and these are the errors that cost them their dream cabin crew jobs.

Poor formatting

At the Open Day, the recruiters (2  to 3 of them) may have to go through 600 CVs and can only spend an average of less than 10 seconds on each CV - this means you need to stand out to create a very good impression.  If your CV is just one page long, full of clutter, small sized fonts and look busy with many columns, it will fail.  

Tailor your application to Emirates or Qatar job specification

You cannot use the same CV for all your job applications, it simply will not work.  It has to be tailored to the company's cabin crew requirements.  This makes the recruiters see that you have the right experience and skills to match their perfect candidate.  I receive CVs that are full of irrelevant experience that should not even have been there.  Never be afraid to remove irrelevant experiences.  Remember to always match your skills to their job requirements.  Both Emirates and Qatar have subtle differences in what they look for in an ideal candidate.  Know this, and you will not get rejected at the first hurdle.

Spelling and Grammar

Your CV must be error free from spelling and grammatical errors.  A CV that has errors here show to the recruiters you have lack of attention to detail and you do not cross check your work before submission.  It gives them a poor impression of you so your CV goes into the bin after less than 10 seconds. Cast a critical eye and always cross-check your CV several times before printing off your final version to take with you to the Emirates or Qatar open day.

Lying

ALWAYS tell the truth about the places you have worked at, your skills, experience and examination results.  These facts are so easily verifiable with your previous employers, schools etc.  Never believe they are not going to check.  Today's emphasis on security and the company's reputation mean they are even more thorough on checking before they hire.  

Use all your energy to focus on your relevant key skills and experience than making up stories.  If you make it through to the final interview, they will drill down on your experience and if you have lied about the experience you will not be able to answer some of their more difficult questions on bits that are untrue.  Your body language will also reveal you are uncomfortable with answering some of these questions.

No adequate evidence on your CV

You must always evidence your experience.  Not good just saying you work well in a team and take the initiative to finish jobs on time and provide first class customer satisfaction.  But where are your examples? Never forget that this also shows your poor written communication skills where you do not explain yourself well.

We are here to help you get your dream job at Emirates or Qatar

Each day, we receive dozens of CVs from wannabes asking for our help to rewrite their CVs professionally.  We are pleased to say that a large majority of them have been successful and are now flying with Emirates and Qatar.   Most of them are successful at first attempt!  Getting through Emirates and Qatar recruitment process is not difficult if you know how to do it.  This is where we would love to help you.