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Flight Attendant Interview


I can't sleep! gonk I am thinking about the flight attendant interview that is coming up on December 10th. Skywest seems to do a lot of hiring! They've already been through at least 2 other cycles of interviews before this in this year, both of which I couldn't go to because they were in faraway cities that I couldn't afford to travel to. In fact, even the interview on the 10th is someplace far away, but if my unemployment check comes before then, it should be enough to cover the rent, the air fare, and basic needs for the month.

Skywest has several domicile locations that are in southern California, so if I was hired by them, I might not even need to move. Of course, for a flight attendant job, it is fairly likely that there would be a need to move. I believe that the Skywest domicile closest to me is Los Angeles. Still quite a commute though ... about an hour's drive from where I live (if you are driving at or under the speed limit, lol >.< wink I like the house I'm living in now, and I would miss my roommates if I had to move.

Lately, I've been reading a book about becoming a flight attendant, and it seems that coworkers who meet during the training phase while in company-provided housing often end up rooming together after the training is over. It's easier to find a good roommate that way. If you spend 8 hours a day, 6 days a week with a group of people, you'll probably have a good idea, by the end of a few weeks' time, which of them might be good matches for you as roommates. All the more so because, during the training phase, from what I understand, you are all living together already anyway - you would know their habits and personalities pretty well by the end of training, I think. As long as I'm not actually sharing a bedroom (after training) but just one room in a multi-room apartment, I'd be fine with it. I can't sleep in a room in which there is light and noise, so sharing a room with someone who goes to sleep at a different time of night and gets up at a different time in the morning would be bad for me.

The chances of actually passing through both the first interview and the second are slim to none, but ... even if I go and am not hired, at least I'll be able to look myself in the eye later on and know that I tried. I'd want to keep applying at other airlines, though - enough that I would know I'd done the best I could to try to get a job as a flight attendant. I read that only 3 % of all applicants are hired. *sighs* Yeah ... I'm not really thinking it could actually happen, but wouldn't it be marvelous if it did? heart

Even if I can't enter that field, there are other things I am passionate about, so I'm sure I'll find my way to something I can do for a living long-term that won't break my heart and my will as much as filing and data entry did. I ended up in the hospital from severe depression last year, and I am convinced that that would not have happened, or at least not to that level of severity, if I had been in a career I enjoyed - or at least one that I didn't loathe from the very core of my soul. Even now, in the midst of financial hardship, I can honestly say that even if they wanted me back and doubled my previous salary - that I would not go back there to do that kind of work. The people were nice, the environment was nice. The work was ... a nightmare ...

I would love to be a flight attendant! One of my concerns, though, is whether or not I can maintain the outer persona of confidence and sophistication that a flight attendant must be able to project, whether or not that's who they truly are. I am shy and insecure - sometimes clumsy, stutter when I'm really nervous (not very often) - kind of doubt I could do it, but you never know ... For me, it would be a case of needing to be an actress, of sorts, in this job - until the acting of this role became so easy that the confidence I'd need to pretend to have would become real once I felt I had mastered the work and the image I'd need to project. The INFJ's (my personality type) natural desire to please people and help them is probably my greatest and most applicable strength in regards to this kind of work. I genuinely enjoy: serving people, setting them at their ease, making them smile, helping them with problems - and, to me, finding a peaceful and respectful solution to potential conflicts is very important. I feel happiest when everyone around me is getting along with each other and everyone is happy. Being in a situation where people around me are arguing stresses me out - I worry that the people who are arguing will go so far that they will say or do things that they can't forgive each other for, and I worry that, as a bystander, I might get yelled at too, something I find frightening. That last part is not so good. That's really a weakness, I guess - it's a part of my personality, though - doesn't really seem to be anything I can do about it. One good thing about being uncomfortable in the presence of arguing people is that I will, wherever and whenever appropriate, try to diffuse the situation. It's much harder to deal with hostility directed at me. I usually just sort of curl up inside and nod at whatever is being said. I need to be better at responding to situations when open hostility is directed at me. Ugh ... I'm really sensitive, so I pretty much always take it really personally. *sighs*

I wonder if I could really do that kind of job ... well, you'd think the irate customers are less in number than the ones who are satisfied with service, so that's a good thing. I've flown a lot, and I can't even think of one time that I saw a flight attendant being treated poorly or subjected to open hostility about stuff like making connecting flights, meals, etc.

I love the sky ... I love flying! I have sometimes wondered if the vision of the flying phase of the winged unicorn's metamorphosis might not partially represent literal flight in the sense of a career that involved a lot of flying. I wonder ... well, if that's the case, then my efforts now might bear fruit. If not, then in the future I might possibly be in a career with a lot of travel involved (I would LOVE that!)