Some of you out there tell me that you always make it to the Final Interview of Emirates, Etihad or Qatar but always receive a rejection email thereafter. Some have even tried as many as six attempts and repeatedly fail the final interview.

One prospective client asked if I could assist her in helping her understand why. Many feel they did well and do not understand why they keep failing and lose confidence in the recruitment process.

Her text is reproduced here but her identity will not be revealed for confidential reasons.

================================

Please advice me if this was a total fail or I’m just overthinking, I made it to the final interview yesterday The recruiter asked me questions based on my cabin crew experience: {she is a cabin crew currently).

1. Tell me about a stressful time in your life? I said : When i heard that my previous company was going to closed down due and instead of feeling sorry for yourself I started focusing on my hobby ( make up or wig installation) beauty and charged family members and friends. It helped cause it kept you busy and financially you managed to pay small bills.

2. A time when you went above and beyond for a customer? I said when I was disembarking passengers, mommy was carrying baby and her bags fell with the contents out , so I picked up everything and offered to carry her bags for her up to the A/C Shoot where ground staff would assist her further & she was so thankful because I could see she’s overwhelmed with keeping people waiting behind her as her bags fell.

3. A conflict with a Colleague? I said to be honest I rarely had conflicts with colleagues however when ever there may be one I would always first listen to the next persons point of View , then whenever I have to say something I’m aware of my facial expressions because sometimes it’s not what you say it’s how you say it,, Then she stopped me and said okay yeah yeah so…

4. Tell me a time you have a miscommunication with a Crew to crew : I said it was during the covid times when we’re wearing masks and as we’re doing service in the aisle my colleague signaled with her hands that she wants something hot in a cup- so I made Tea and when I took it her she said she actually wanted Boiling water only - so that was our miscommunication as we couldn’t take off our masks infront of passengers.

Please give me an honest feedback based on this, do you think it was an epic fail ?

=====================================

I responded by saying she answered interview questions 1 and 2 very well, good content, well chosen examples using the STAR approach which is the preferred approach when answering situational questions such as “tell me… or give me an example…”

For question 3, she answered that she rarely had any conflicts, it is as good as saying you never had any conflicts. This is a no-no. It’s like asking the candidate what are your weaknesses, and you answer I rarely have any weaknesses. She then went on to answer the question in a generic sense. She was stopped by the recruiter, and you would expect that as she is not pleased with the answer and had little choice but to stop her and interrupt. This will be a complete fail to this interview question and very costly indeed.

Question 4 - sure she attempted the STAR approach to this situational question but some parts were omitted completely. She described the situation, task and action but, omitted the result. The story was incomplete - it’s like watching a movie not knowing what happen in the end. This will be a complete fail to the 4th interview question and again very costly.

To pass the final interview - it is all about the answering techniques involved. You can have some good examples but, if your story is incomplete, then it often results in a rejection letter. With the 3rd question on conflicts or even weakness, again you are expected to tell her a good example and use the full STAR approach.

For those of you out there who are having difficulty with answering this style of interview questions, you are welcome to book a session with me. We will train you on how to give near perfect answers to these questions.