The Dubai Diaries
My life as a flight attendant in the Middle East!

SEP Training has started!

The SEP Training (Safety and Emergency Procedures) has started! This, along with GMT (Group Medical Training) is supposedly the hardest part of our 7 weeks of training, and I can see why! It’s a lot to do, with theory and practials all day. Our batch has been put on the late shift, so we have training college from 3:30pm to 11:30 at night! We also get given homework to do – we have a thick workbook which is gradually being filled out and revision to do each day. This means either staying up after getting home at midnight or getting up early the next morning to do it before class.

Yesterday was our first time in the simulator….and it was so fun! We took a trip to Doha (not really, but that was where the flight simulation was going) and experienced some turbulence. We had all learnt the day before what to do during light, moderate and severe turbulence, and in groups we took turns acting out different scenarios.

The whole time the trainers were making notes about us and writing down anything anyone did wrong, so everyone felt quite a bit of pressure to do well. Luckliy we all passed the simulator practicals, but we still have a lot more to go. This is literally just the beginning of training! We will start having theory tests from next week as well, and need a pass grade of at least 80% or else we will have to repeat the week!

Something else that happened this week….it was Christmas!! Our trainers gave us the day off (which unfortunately means that we have to go in on Saturday to make up for it) and a group of us arranged to go to the beach. On Christmas Eve we all decided to go out in the evening, and a few of us who live in the same area met up before to get a taxi together. We had such a fun night! It also ended pretty differently to any Christmas Eve/day I’ve had so far…with the taxi driver taking us to a McDonald’s drive-through on our way home! I have to say, I never thought that I would be eating a McChicken on Christmas Day!

The next morning (Christmas Day!) we all met up to go the beach and spent the afternoon sunbathing. We wanted to go for a swim in the sea as well, but after putting 1 toe in decided it was too cold! Afterwards of course we had to go and have Christmas Dinner, so we wandered along Jumierah Road (at least that’s what I think it was called!) until we found a restaurant that looked nice. I ordered chicken, lamb and beef skewers with wild rice and grilled vegetables – definitely not the normal roast turkey but still pretty tasty!

We also had our uniforms fitted the other day, which was pretty exciting! They gave me a skirt which was about 3 sizes too big, but refused to even let me try on a smaller one, so once we get our uniforms I’ll have to see just how much too big it will be! The rest all fitted fine though, so I’m really looking forward to getting our uniform (especially the hat!) and suitcases in a couple of weeks. I’ve also heard that we get our roster with our first supy flights (= supernumerary flights are where we are considered an “extra” onboard, so we can get to know how everything works in real life!) at the same time, so I’m really looking forward to finding out where my first layover will be! I’m hoping for an exotic destination somewhere hot, by the beach!

Now it’s time to get back to some more revision – at the moment I’m learning about Pre-Flight Checks. This basically means checking all the emergency equipment is available and in the correct place on board. We will all be asked questions on it tomorrow in our 15 minute brief at the beginning of the session, and then I think we are going to do decompression (loss of pressure in the cabin) in the simulator tomorrow – should be fun!

I can’t wait until we get our residency visas (hopefully in about 3 weeks time!) so we can finally get wifi in our flat – it’s so annoying having to come to the internet cafe any time I want to get on the computer!

I’m off!

Right now I’m sitting in Vienna airport just near my gate. My flight is meant to leave at 14:35 but had been delayed til 15:15 so I’m having a coffee, way too nervous to eat right now!

Luckily I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and checked in quickly. The lady at the desk didn’t seem to mind that I was 7kg over my 50kg limit (could have been expensive otherwise!!), and she even gave me a window seat in the exit row, which is perfect as I’ll have lots of leg room and (hopefully) an amazing view of Dubai by night when we land!

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My next post really will be from Dubai! 🙂

Last weekend at home!

With only 3 days to go now (actually only 2 full days as I will be leaving early Friday morning) I definitely needed to make the most of my last weekend at home. A couple of weeks ago I decided to organise a little leaving party, and told my best friend Lucy about it. She lives in England, so she checked Ryanair flights and believe it or not booked them a few minutes later, for less than 40 Euros return! So this Saturday I drove to the airport (one thing I’m not going to miss – driving on snowy and icy roads!) and picked her up. In the evening a group of friends came round and we cooked Mexican food, and then all went out into town, where a whole load of other friends came and met us.
We had such a good night out and it was definitely a great way to say bye to all of my friends!

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The next day (surprisingly we weren’t as hungover as we were expecting to be!!) my mum drove us up to a place called Magdalensberg for a late lunch. There is an amazing restaurant/guesthouse on the top of this hill, which serves traditional Austrian food and is all family run. It was the perfect day to go up, as although it was pretty chilly the sun was out and there was a beautiful clear sky. 
As we were having our meal the sun was setting, we even went out between courses to take pictures of the sunset! 

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On Monday we decided to do some shopping! We wondered round the Christmas Market in my town, but it was too cold to stay outside for long. Both of us managed not to buy too much in the shops, I have been having to restrain myself from buying winter clothes by thinking about Dubai every time I see something I want!

In the evening one of my good friends from work arranged to go for drinks, and when we got there a whole group of others from work had come, which was a lovely surprise! They also got me a book called “1000 Places to see before you die” – I’m hoping my new job will help me do that!

Yesterday evening and this morning Lucy helped me sort out my clothes – 1 pile to take with me, 1 pile to give to charity and 1 pile to keep but not take with me. Somehow I have a feeling I’ll never wear the “keep but don’t take with me” pile again, but I can’t justify getting rid of over half of my wardrobe! I don’t even want to know how many pairs of shoes were thrown away!

This evening after taking Lucy back to the airport, I started on the packing. I honestly have no idea how I am going to fit everything in! I’m allowed 50kg, plus hand luggage. One of my suitcases is already over half full and pretty much all it has in is shoes and underwear! 
Here’s a picture of me squeezing into one of my suitcases!
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Well, this was quite a long post! The next time I write anything will probably be from Dubai! Only 2 full days left, when did this even happen! I’m so nervous and excited at the same time – it’s crazy!

Ticket and Visa!

This morning I logged into the airline’s website, and could finally click on the button that says E-Ticket and E-Visa! Very exciting, as you just couldn’t click on it before. So I downloaded and printed out my ticket and visa; I’m leaving next Friday (14th Dec) at 14:35 and arrive in Dubai at 22:55. I’ll be met by their meet and greet service and taken through immigration/ passport control, where I also have to show my employment visa.

It’s getting more and more real every day! Only 9 days left! 😀

The interview process

So I thought I would tell you about the interview process I went through to get the job, as I know how helpful it was when I was looking for tips online and reading other people’s blogs and their experiences.

I applied online for an open day that was held in Munich (the closest city to where I live that an open day was being held in – about 5 hours drive away) and got an automated message back thanking me for applying online. It also said I would be contacted if they were interested in me, however I knew that anyone could just turn up to the open days, so I made my travel arrangements to go to Munich for the open day on the 15th of September. I got there the night before as the open day was being held in a hotel starting at 9am.

I got the underground to the hotel, and happened to meet a girl who was going there as well, so had someone to chat to. She told me that she had been to an open day before but hadn’t made it to the final interview. Once we got there (about half an hour early) there were already lots of people waiting around and filling out the forms. By 9 there were about 50 people. The two recruiters (whose names I have forgotten, one was Eastern European and the other I think was from Dubai) came out and welcomed us all, and we went and sat in the conference room it was being held in. They introduced themselves and told us a bit about how the day would progress, and we then were shown a couple of videos about what life as a flight attendant is like, and what living in Dubai is like.

After the videos we were all told to come up to the front where they were sitting, hand in our CVs and photos, and get a sticker with a number and our name on. I was number 28! I was also asked how many languages I speak (other than English, my mother tongue, I also speak German and Spanish fluently) and what I was currently doing (work, studying, etc). While everyone was handing in their CVs we had a chance to look at a couple of pieces of paper that were hanging up with some rules about dress codes, tattoos, and those kind of things. We were then split into two groups and the second group (which I was in) was told to come back in hour.

Once back in the conference room we were split into two smaller groups and told to take a seat in a circle. We were told we would be introducing the person to our right and had to tell the group what their favourite subject at school was and why. Not exactly a difficult task! While this was going on each person was called  up to the side and made to do a “reach test” to see if we could reach 212cm with our hand stretched out. This wasn’t a problem for me especially as I had checked at home beforehand! Some girls couldn’t reach, and were eliminated. After we had done the introducing we were all called back in, and given a little folded over piece of paper. They called out our numbers one by one and on the paper we were told whether or not they wanted us to come back for the next round. So nerve-racking!

About 20 people were eliminated after this first round. The next thing we did was another group task, we had to sit in the circle again and discuss what we would do if we were given 1 million dollars. We had to think of 3 things, and weren’t allowed to vote. After this round we were given more little pieces of paper. I was through to the next round! We then had an English test as the open day was being held in Germany. I was the only one whose mother tongue was English so I still had to do the test but was finished pretty quickly. Quite a few people had to go as their English wasn’t good enough, so we were left with about 19 people by this time.

After quite a lot of waiting around we were split up into two final groups, and I was in the second group again. We were all given a piece of paper with the names and details of 8 passengers on, and we had to decide which 6 would have to be downgraded from business class to economy. As a group we decided pretty quickly, and then the recruiters acted as though they were the passengers and we had to explain to them why they were being downgraded. 
6 people didn’t make it after this, so we were left as the final 13. As we went back into the conference room the recruiters congratulated us on making it to the final interview. We then had quite a bit of paperwork to fill out about ourselves and had to pick an interview time for the next day. Mine was at 11am.

The same night we had to complete an online personality test, which was I think 170 questions with yes/no/maybe answers. Not too hard if you are truthful.

The next morning I made it back to the hotel with plenty of time to spare and chatted to the other girl who was waiting for her interview. Mine lasted roughly half an hour, and it was a of of questions relating to specific things that I had done in jobs and how I had reacted, such as “tell me about a time when you felt you were treated unfairly by a colleague, and how did you react?”. I felt like it was going on forever and couldn’t think of any “good” answers, but I guess they thought I was alright! 😀

We were told it would take 4 – 6 weeks until we heard anything back, but I still checked online every day to see if my status had changed! Exactly 2 weeks later I checked my phone and noticed 1 missed call from a strange number, sure enough when I called back they had called to offer me the job!!
I will be leaving for Dubai on the 14th of December – so exciting!!