Tiffany Hawk's Blog
May 6, 2013
How to Become a Flight Attendant
There is a chapter in my book called How to be a Flight Attendant, and even though it is tongue-in-cheek and focuses on the emotional challenges of airline life, people often ask me for a real how-to guide on landing a flight attendant job. I can't blame them - it really is one of the best jobs on earth.
Unless you’re extremely well-traveled already, you’ll probably see more places in your first few months on the job than you have in your life. You’ll work with incredible people, have a lot of time off, and no matter what, life will never be boring.
Although there is a lot of competition, airlines are hiring flight attendants, and by being prepared, you can stand out at the interview.
What they’re looking for
Hint – it isn’t what you think. There is no one typical path to flight attendant training. In my class alone, we had people as young as 19 and as old as 63. We had recent high school grads, flight attendants from other airlines, a former soldier, a mortgage banker, a fire fighter, and a chiropractor.
What you’ll find is that some flight attendants haven’t taken a single college class, others have associates or bachelors degrees, and every now and then you’ll even fly with someone who finished medical school or law school before having a change of heart.
What airlines do want is someone who is hard working, flexible, dependable, friendly, and who has stamina. They want to know that you can be on call, work odd hours, and check in on time, every time, even when they don’t give you much notice. Fyi, the only way to achieve that consistency is to show up early.
So try to demonstrate a few of those qualities in your resume, in your elevator pitch, and in your answers to interview questions.
How to prepare
First and foremost, if there is only one thing you do, have your one-minute elevator pitch memorized. Nothing is worst than standing in front of a group or speaking with recruiters and freezing when they ask a vague question like “tell us about yourself.” I don’t know about you, but if I’m nervous enough, I can have a hard time remembering my own name, and “um, uh, um,” is not the best response.
You’ve probably already been advised to skip the age-old statement, “I love people and I love to travel.” Hopefully you do love people and travel, but so does everyone else in the room. That won’t se you apart, and worse, it only tells the recruiters why you need them, not why they need you. Use this opportunity to sell yourself. There is more competition than ever, so you need to convince them that they can’t live without you.
Spend some time before the interview thinking about your strengths and then practice talking about them. No matter what your current job is, highlight qualities and experience that will make you a good flight attendant. For example, if you’re never late to work, or if you haven’t called in sick, or if you’ve done well under pressure, bring it up.
These days stamina is more important than ever. If you can say you’ve worked long days on your feet as a bank teller or personal trainer or factory worker or whatever, you will definitely stand out. If you’ve worked night shifts, get that in there. If you’ve had to take care of difficult customers or pleased needy clients, say so. If you’ve remained calm while working at a daycare full of wild toddlers, by all means, mention it.
Sample elevator pitch
Hi, I’m Susie. I’m from Maryland, and I currently work in a daycare full of energetic toddlers. I’m used to working long hours on my feet, staying calm under pressure and keeping my little customers happy and healthy. I would love to use that experience to give outstanding service to SuchandSuch Airline’s passengers.
At the Interview
Hopefully you’ve come prepared to talk about your strengths and highlight your experience. Now is the time to relax and let your personality shine. A job interview is a high-pressure environment, just like an airplane can be. If you can be calm and pleasant here, that goes a long way to demonstrating your readiness for the job.
Be nice, and be polite. Listen when other candidates are speaking and be encouraging and friendly with them during breaks. You obviously want to come across as a friendly and agreeable person, but more importantly, this is your opportunity to turn a stressful experience into something fun by connecting with others. Incidentally, that will be the best part of the job should you get it.
Unless you’re extremely well-traveled already, you’ll probably see more places in your first few months on the job than you have in your life. You’ll work with incredible people, have a lot of time off, and no matter what, life will never be boring.
Although there is a lot of competition, airlines are hiring flight attendants, and by being prepared, you can stand out at the interview.
What they’re looking for
Hint – it isn’t what you think. There is no one typical path to flight attendant training. In my class alone, we had people as young as 19 and as old as 63. We had recent high school grads, flight attendants from other airlines, a former soldier, a mortgage banker, a fire fighter, and a chiropractor.
What you’ll find is that some flight attendants haven’t taken a single college class, others have associates or bachelors degrees, and every now and then you’ll even fly with someone who finished medical school or law school before having a change of heart.
What airlines do want is someone who is hard working, flexible, dependable, friendly, and who has stamina. They want to know that you can be on call, work odd hours, and check in on time, every time, even when they don’t give you much notice. Fyi, the only way to achieve that consistency is to show up early.
So try to demonstrate a few of those qualities in your resume, in your elevator pitch, and in your answers to interview questions.
How to prepare
First and foremost, if there is only one thing you do, have your one-minute elevator pitch memorized. Nothing is worst than standing in front of a group or speaking with recruiters and freezing when they ask a vague question like “tell us about yourself.” I don’t know about you, but if I’m nervous enough, I can have a hard time remembering my own name, and “um, uh, um,” is not the best response.
You’ve probably already been advised to skip the age-old statement, “I love people and I love to travel.” Hopefully you do love people and travel, but so does everyone else in the room. That won’t se you apart, and worse, it only tells the recruiters why you need them, not why they need you. Use this opportunity to sell yourself. There is more competition than ever, so you need to convince them that they can’t live without you.
Spend some time before the interview thinking about your strengths and then practice talking about them. No matter what your current job is, highlight qualities and experience that will make you a good flight attendant. For example, if you’re never late to work, or if you haven’t called in sick, or if you’ve done well under pressure, bring it up.
These days stamina is more important than ever. If you can say you’ve worked long days on your feet as a bank teller or personal trainer or factory worker or whatever, you will definitely stand out. If you’ve worked night shifts, get that in there. If you’ve had to take care of difficult customers or pleased needy clients, say so. If you’ve remained calm while working at a daycare full of wild toddlers, by all means, mention it.
Sample elevator pitch
Hi, I’m Susie. I’m from Maryland, and I currently work in a daycare full of energetic toddlers. I’m used to working long hours on my feet, staying calm under pressure and keeping my little customers happy and healthy. I would love to use that experience to give outstanding service to SuchandSuch Airline’s passengers.
At the Interview
Hopefully you’ve come prepared to talk about your strengths and highlight your experience. Now is the time to relax and let your personality shine. A job interview is a high-pressure environment, just like an airplane can be. If you can be calm and pleasant here, that goes a long way to demonstrating your readiness for the job.
Be nice, and be polite. Listen when other candidates are speaking and be encouraging and friendly with them during breaks. You obviously want to come across as a friendly and agreeable person, but more importantly, this is your opportunity to turn a stressful experience into something fun by connecting with others. Incidentally, that will be the best part of the job should you get it.
February 26, 2013
The Next Big Thing
I was recently tagged for this interview by Kim Fay, author of The Map of Lost Memories: A Novel, a lush, beautifully written and wildly entertaining novel that goes deep into the heart of 1920s Cambodia. Kim is a gifted writer and a warm, generous person who gives so much back to the writing community and I’m thrilled to be part of her Next Big Thing interview:
Where did the idea for the book come from?
I spent my early twenties working as a flight attendant and found the airline subculture to be so fascinating and unique that I knew I would eventually write about it. Flying all over the world, staying in a new hotel every night, meeting hundreds of new people every day…it was so intoxicating and difficult, intimate and lonely all at the same time.
What genre does your book fall under?
The topic is obviously very commercial, but I believe the writing skews a bit literary and covers deeper topics than what might be called “chick lit.”
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
I would love to see Kirsten Dunst as Emily, the shy 23 year-old who finds both her awakening and her undoing up there in the sky. Dunst played a flight attendant superbly in the movie Elizabethtown. Although it wasn’t a movie about flight attendants, I think it captured the essence of that job and lifestyle better than any movie I’ve seen.
I fear it would be a challenge to cast Tien, the married man who throws Emily’s life into a tailspin. Hollywood isn’t known for embracing Asian males as romantic leads (I could devote an entire post to that prejudice). There is an actor named Vic Chao who might be perfect, though. Like Tien, he seems to exude this mix of gentleness and strength, sexiness and steadfastness.
Adrianne Palicki was flawless as Tyra from Friday Night Lights, and I think she would really showcase the various sides of KC, a twenty-year-old party girl who is looking for the father who abandoned her as a child. Like Tyra, she wasn’t given a lot of opportunities as a child, but she is willing to fight for a better life…if she isn’t sidetracked by her need for male attention.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A darkly funny, coming-of-age novel about two young flight attendants escaping troubled pasts.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
It will be published May 7 by St. Martin’s Press.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I think I spent about a decade writing it in my head, but as far as actual words to page, the first draft took about a year. Then after querying agents and working with a not-so-great one, ultimately, it went into the garbage. Then while I was in an MFA program, I spent about six months on a whole new first draft, which I revised for about a year before it sold.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I love books that combine women’s fiction with thoughtful and literary writing. Some of my favorites are Some Girls by Jillian Lauren, Still Life With Husband by Lauren Fox, and Pictures of You or Into Thin Air by Caroline Leavitt.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
All of the irresistible flight attendants I worked with. I love them and miss them and am thrilled that the old days will live on inside the pages of this book.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
The ”inside baseball” details about the airline world – from swiping tiny bottles of liquor to smoking in the lavatory by way of a carefully timed flush, from the hazing of rookie flight attendants to the code of male flight attendant sexual orientation (red ties and lace-up shoes mean gay, blue ties and buckles mean straight).
I look forward to reading interviews with some of my favorite author friends next week:
Susan Segal - Susan and I were editors at Coast magazine together, and after successful hardcover and paperback runs, her moving and stunningly well-written novel, Aria, has just become available as an e-book. I highly recommend it.
Andee Reilly – Andee was the first person I met at grad school orientation and we have been writing and reading and editing and commiserating and dreaming together ever since. She is a creative writing instructor at Cal State Channel Island, and her novel, Satisfaction, is currently on submission with publishers. Ginny, her main character is compelling, funny, and endearingly obsessed with the Rolling Stones. I can’t wait to see it in print!
Jennifer Brody – I’m part of an online writer’s group led by Jen, and she is one of the most enthusiastic and supportive, not to mention prolific, writers around. Her debut novel about celebrity rehab is currently on submission.
Natashia Deon – Although Natashia and I haven’t met “in real life” we share an agent and a grad school. What I’ve read of her sweeping historical novel about three women on the eve of the Civil War absolutely blew me away. I am dying to read the rest when it inevitably gets published.
Where did the idea for the book come from?
I spent my early twenties working as a flight attendant and found the airline subculture to be so fascinating and unique that I knew I would eventually write about it. Flying all over the world, staying in a new hotel every night, meeting hundreds of new people every day…it was so intoxicating and difficult, intimate and lonely all at the same time.
What genre does your book fall under?
The topic is obviously very commercial, but I believe the writing skews a bit literary and covers deeper topics than what might be called “chick lit.”
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
I would love to see Kirsten Dunst as Emily, the shy 23 year-old who finds both her awakening and her undoing up there in the sky. Dunst played a flight attendant superbly in the movie Elizabethtown. Although it wasn’t a movie about flight attendants, I think it captured the essence of that job and lifestyle better than any movie I’ve seen.
I fear it would be a challenge to cast Tien, the married man who throws Emily’s life into a tailspin. Hollywood isn’t known for embracing Asian males as romantic leads (I could devote an entire post to that prejudice). There is an actor named Vic Chao who might be perfect, though. Like Tien, he seems to exude this mix of gentleness and strength, sexiness and steadfastness.
Adrianne Palicki was flawless as Tyra from Friday Night Lights, and I think she would really showcase the various sides of KC, a twenty-year-old party girl who is looking for the father who abandoned her as a child. Like Tyra, she wasn’t given a lot of opportunities as a child, but she is willing to fight for a better life…if she isn’t sidetracked by her need for male attention.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A darkly funny, coming-of-age novel about two young flight attendants escaping troubled pasts.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
It will be published May 7 by St. Martin’s Press.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I think I spent about a decade writing it in my head, but as far as actual words to page, the first draft took about a year. Then after querying agents and working with a not-so-great one, ultimately, it went into the garbage. Then while I was in an MFA program, I spent about six months on a whole new first draft, which I revised for about a year before it sold.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I love books that combine women’s fiction with thoughtful and literary writing. Some of my favorites are Some Girls by Jillian Lauren, Still Life With Husband by Lauren Fox, and Pictures of You or Into Thin Air by Caroline Leavitt.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
All of the irresistible flight attendants I worked with. I love them and miss them and am thrilled that the old days will live on inside the pages of this book.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
The ”inside baseball” details about the airline world – from swiping tiny bottles of liquor to smoking in the lavatory by way of a carefully timed flush, from the hazing of rookie flight attendants to the code of male flight attendant sexual orientation (red ties and lace-up shoes mean gay, blue ties and buckles mean straight).
I look forward to reading interviews with some of my favorite author friends next week:
Susan Segal - Susan and I were editors at Coast magazine together, and after successful hardcover and paperback runs, her moving and stunningly well-written novel, Aria, has just become available as an e-book. I highly recommend it.
Andee Reilly – Andee was the first person I met at grad school orientation and we have been writing and reading and editing and commiserating and dreaming together ever since. She is a creative writing instructor at Cal State Channel Island, and her novel, Satisfaction, is currently on submission with publishers. Ginny, her main character is compelling, funny, and endearingly obsessed with the Rolling Stones. I can’t wait to see it in print!
Jennifer Brody – I’m part of an online writer’s group led by Jen, and she is one of the most enthusiastic and supportive, not to mention prolific, writers around. Her debut novel about celebrity rehab is currently on submission.
Natashia Deon – Although Natashia and I haven’t met “in real life” we share an agent and a grad school. What I’ve read of her sweeping historical novel about three women on the eve of the Civil War absolutely blew me away. I am dying to read the rest when it inevitably gets published.
