You look forward very much to this day. You even make plans to check your travel, get your travel documents together, and occasionally air fares and hotel to travel to the city where Emirates or Qatar will be holding the Open Day recruitment event.

You also research the internet, checkout specific websites, blogs and even facebook groups to find out more on what to expect at the CV drop off day aka Open Day. You then spend hours in the high street shops trying out your new suit and outfit to ensure you are able to create that cabin crew look. You even find out the best way to put up your hair and learn how to make-up as a cabin crew would.

You find time to update your CV and photos and bring along what the recruiters require and check out the location of the hotel venue and where you will be staying the night before.

Then before long, the day comes, you feel nervous and a little worried as you want the job so much. You arrive at the venue early in the morning, hand over your CV, smile and answer two or three questions that the recruiter asks. This brief encounter is often less than a couple of minutes.

Typical questions your recruiter would ask are:

1. What are you currently doing?

2. Why do you want to be a cabin crew?

3. How many times have you applied?

4. Why do you want to work for us?

These few minutes spent with the recruiter will now determine if you go onto the next round or get sent home. Even before they look at your CV, the first round is truly based on first impressions and personality. A decision is made in the shortest possible time and if you do not have the personality they are looking for, you will be dropped here.

So, how do you ensure you get through this very first round.

1. Be Confident - Carry yourself well, take a deep breathe before speaking, smile, and speak clearly and not too fast, and not too loud.

2. Ensure your facial expression and tone of your voice do not give the impression that you are nervous.

3. During the CV drop off day, all CVs handed to the recruiter are scanned onto the system, and the software application reads the CVs in seconds! This is why shortlisting hundreds of candidates are so quick and painless. In some venues, there is only one recruiter and the whole process works very fast.

4. In the first round, ensure that you are highly fluent in English. Both Emirates and Qatar requires a high fluency in spoken and written English. They are looking and assessing your listening skills and the ability to answer the recruiter’s question correctly.

5. Throughout the day, please show that you are positive, helpful, kind, patient and courteous.

6. Ensure you dress in business attire. For girls, please dress in a skirt suit.

   For those of you that require assistance with your CV or photo edits or have any questions regarding the process, enter your comments below or send me an email.