Flight Attendant Career Articles

What About Those Basic Requirements?
author Wendy Stafford

If you have ever considered the list of basic flight attendant requirements, you may have questioned some of them as they refer to you. In an attempt to clarify and simplify, some of these will be explained in more detail here, starting with the basics.

First and foremost, when you apply to a United States airline, you must be a U.S. citizen or authorized to work with unrestricted U.S. entry and exit. If you need to check with the United States Immigration and Naturalization Department, you can go here to get more information: http://uscis.gov/graphics/index.htm.

As an applicant for a flight attendant career, you must be a high school graduate; if you do not have a diploma, a GED is sufficient. A college degree is not required, but you must have at least 2 years of college or 2 years experience working with the public. Airlines like to see stability - proof that you can finish things that you start is important when an airline is considering you for employment. They are also interested in any jobs you have had which show you are able to work well with the public.

In order to become a flight attendant, you must have a clean background. Airlines perform a 10-year background check, so it is important that your resume does not contain any gaps. For security purposes, they need to know where you have been for the past decade, that you can account for your whereabouts. If you have a gap in which you were raising children as a stay-at-home mom or you were traveling for an extended period of time without employment, you will need to get a friend or acquaintance who can write a statement to vouch for your activities during that time. Included in the background check are drug screens; be aware that some substances can remain in the body for 30 days or more, and airlines are a no-tolerance industry when it comes to illegal drug usage.

When applying for a flight attendant job, it is imperative that you have a valid passport. Most airlines now will not even interview you if you do not have a passport in your hand, even if that airline does not have international routes! The reason for that is, you could find yourself in a situation where you are involuntarily diverted to another country during flight. In some countries, you can find it difficult to get home or even seek contact with your homeland if you can’t prove your citizenship.

You must have an acceptable range of vision to work as a flight attendant. Vision must be correctable to 20/40 or better. Should you encounter an emergency situation, it is especially critical that you have good eyesight, as you will be better equipped to cope with any difficult conditions that may arise.

Airlines require you to be at least 18 years of age. Most require age 20 as a minimum, but several airlines accept 18- and 19-year-olds. Stressful situations may occur inflight, and naturally, the more life experience you have had, the better your ability to handle the situation. Maturity and reliability are important attributes to airlines. Episodes such as inebriated customers, difficult personalities, medical problems and inflight irregularities may transpire, and younger applicants can lack the skills necessary to deal with these unpredictable circumstances.

Airlines typically carry customers from points all over the globe, from all walks of life. While they welcome diversity in employees and truly need employees who can relate to people of diverse cultures, U.S. airlines require their employees to possess a good command of the English Language. Airlines very much appreciate bilingual employees, but they must be able to be easily understood by customers for the express purpose of being able to direct customers effectively during an emergency. Things happen quickly during crises, and flight crews must be able to communicate clearly and accurately.

Finally, airlines like to hire people who pleasingly project their company image. Beauty is not a prerequisite, but employees do need to be well-groomed and professional, with a positive attitude and pleasing personality. Flexibility is mandatory, and weight should be in proportion to height. The weight requirement is not so much for aesthetic reasons as it is a safety issue. A flight attendant must be able to fit comfortably on a very narrow jumpseat, seated alongside another flight attendant; be able to move easily down aisles that have become increasingly narrower, and be able to exit the small window exit openings. Flight attendants must be physically fit enough to work extended hours, lift at least 50 pounds, work while standing for prolonged periods, and deal with fluctuating schedules and working conditions. Even flight attendant training is challenging. Learning to become a flight attendant is not always easy, and the job itself is hard work. A flight attendant career is not a job for the faint of heart, but if you meet these requirements, you can be on your way to a fun career in the skies!

What You Can Expect to Experience In Class
author Wendy Stafford

So you want to be a flight attendant. You may have walked through airports looking longingly at flight attendants in their attractive, stylish uniforms and dreaming of the day when you will be able to become a real flight attendant. You might have read books about flight attendants and you probably look skyward whenever an airplane flies overhead. After awhile, you can actually recognize the colorful markings of each plane and learn which uniforms belonged to what airline.

Perhaps you were sidetracked by getting married and the flight attendant career was put on hold and replaced by raising children and making mortgage payments. As the years go by, sometimes the fervor for becoming a flight attendant does not wane; it only becomes more intense and one day, still not having realized the dream, you may have attended an airline interview. The whole process can be so intimidated that you may wonder if attaining the dream is out of reach. The competition is fierce, and questions are thrown at you with lightning speed with the effect of poison arrows – you are on the spot, often with no quick answers. Even though the questions are about you, you may be unprepared and not able to think of good answers fast enough. The whole situation can be overwhelming – nothing you learned in college could have prepared you for that kind of pressure, but there was someone out there who understands your frustration.

Flight Attendant Express’ Flight Attendant Preparation Course can help you to not only pass the airline training which is pretty difficult, but will also help you get through the interview process. As soon as you complete the online contact form, one of our friendly marketing representatives will call you within a few hours. We will answer your questions and walk me through the program. Within 3 days you will receive your study guide, with information on safety and first aid. You will have at least 2 weeks to learn 34 pages of information. None of it is difficult, but there is a lot to learn and a few things to memorize. You are then on your way to Orlando to begin the quest for a flight attendant career.

Upon your arrival at the Orlando International Airport, the courtesy van from the Wingate hotel will pick you up a few minutes after you arrive. The hotel, about 5 minutes from the airport, is only a couple of years old and the staff is very friendly. I checked in at 12 noon and freshened up before class. Class begins promptly at 1 pm in a first-floor conference room.

The first day of class you will receive a new workbook, containing information on how to make a resume for a flight attendant job, interviewing skills, how to bring your background into the answers to the questions the airlines typically ask and how to dress for the interview. There is also a directory of airlines and their requirements in the back of the book.

Our highly experienced instructors have all been flight attendants with recruiting experience. Presentations are very informative and include group interaction. The mission at Flight Attendant Express is to build confidence and skills, not tear people down or disqualify them. However, if there is something you need to change, we will tell you, because airlines won’t! The only way you might know why you messed up in an airline interview is if our instructors enlighten you, including the proper body language and a lot of other little things, which most people don’t even think about. All this will prepare you for the airline recruiters who come to our classes to interview while you are here.

After class on the first day, the group is encouraged to practice their presentations. It is important to give you an idea of what it is like to be in airline school, and the group interaction is similar to what you will experience there.

On the second day of class, instructors will review the information in the study guide that you have been studying for the past 2 weeks. They go into a lot of detail about all the safety procedures, making sure students comprehend the material. Students then practice presentations and are put us through a barrage of questioning while being video-taped. It is a very effective learning tool to show you what you actually look like in the practice interview. After a grueling day of review, you will need to buckle down and study for the challenging, 200-question final exam which is given on the 3rd day.

On the third day, students are given an hour-and-a-half to take the test. Flight Attendant Express requires that you make a 90% on the test, just as many airlines require. After the tests are graded, the instructors go over all the questions that were missed from the whole class, until they are confident that the students understand the things they got wrong. If you do not pass the test, you can take it again after you get home, through your local library. We WANT you to succeed, and work very hard to help you do so. But you have to make the effort yourself. None of the information is really difficult, but there is a lot and if you don’t study intensely, you may have trouble. THIS IS WHAT IT IS REALLY LIKE IN AIRLINE SCHOOL, and we want you to get the feel of that experience.

After going over the test, the class practices oxygen and lift vest demonstrations. Following a catered lunch, students participate in scenario practices, which some airlines use in their interviewing process. Graduation comes at the end of the day – students receive certificates and referral letters, which can be copied and taken to airline interviews. Flight Attendant Express will also contact any airlines that you want to work for, to refer you to them.

You will meet many wonderful people when you attend our class. You will probably want to keep in touch with some of your classmates. Anyone who is really serious about becoming a flight attendant should really consider this program - it is so much easier with this kind of preparation. Most of our students receive job offers from the airlines present at the class, as well as other airlines to which they apply.