The rejection letter always starts with “we regret to inform you that we have decided not to progress with your application. We know how disappointing this must be……”

These words constitute some of the worst and most disappointing endings to the cabin crew recruitment process for the candidate, particularly if they felt they have made some progress at the assessment day or worst still - to get rejected after the final interview.

The candidate may have all the soft and hard skills and performed reasonably well at all the rounds including the final interview, yet did not receive the offer. Although not disclosed, ‘Cultural fit’ is often the reason — it is a reason for rejection that is near indisputable to the candidate, as it is subjective and leaves little room for debate. Often, these candidates will have taken a lot of time out of their day to prepare and interview, only to be rejected without any constructive feedback or advice for future interviews. It happens so often at Emirates, Etihad and Qatar. But here is a guideline to help you recover and understand why.

What is cultural fit?

A candidate’s cultural fit describes how they fit in with teams and the overall Emirates, Etihad or Qatar culture, values and behaviours. Yet, cultural fit has taken on a life of its own, covering anything that is not directly related to skills.

Dissecting cultural fit

Airlines typically reject candidates for a few overarching themes. For example, if a candidate has ‘low energy’ or is ‘too aggressive,’ they may have poor personal chemistry with the recruiter. Breaking this down, most rejection reasons tend to fall into one of the following themes:

1. Personal chemistry

2. Leadership style

3. Difference in values

4. Their experience may make them less suitable.

5. First impressions

6. Interviewer’s and airline biases

7. Over qualified, recruiters fear they may get bored, or unlikely to be good at taking instructions. Being an ab-initio role, the candidate may not be able to adapt to starting again.

8. The recruiter may feel the candidate is not too intelligent, and unlikely to complete the training. The aviation terminology and technical terms on different aircraft types may be overly daunting for them.

   
   

   Poor chemistry between a candidate and the recruiter is a very good reason to reject someone on ‘cultural fit’. Similarly, it would also make sense to reject a candidate if their values or leadership style differs too far from the airline’s preferred style, such as being ‘too aggressive’ or ‘too top-down’.

   On the one hand, candidates who worked in previous or current cabin crew roles will likely have more overlap with the ME3 requirements. But this is not necessarily a ‘cultural fit’ — rather, it relates to the skills and experiences they have picked up e.g. bad habits.. On the other hand, having no prior experience of cabin crew is better for the airline. as people are remarkably flexible to adapt to different environments and company cultures.

   Lastly, first impressions and interviewer’s and airline’s biases — are far removed from ‘culture fit’. Though first impressions are important, they are not indicative of a candidate fitting in well with the culture. The same applies to implicit biases. Within this theme, you may find a lot of subjective preferences, such as wanting people from specific nationality, people with stronger native language skills, or a preference for one gender over another to meet diversity quotas required by the airline cosmopolitan ratio.

   Though it is very reasonable to keep a candidate’s cultural starting position in mind, ultimately it does not indicate whether they can (or cannot) adapt to the airline’s culture.

   We can help you overcome these cultural fit criteria. We offer zoom sessions where we guide you on how to navigate your way around these elements. Can they be avoided? Let’s say they can be mitigated with good interview techniques and good content in your answers. Click the button below to learn more.