British Airways Archives - Mondrago My Travel Teacher

Cabin Crew Jobs – Corona Virus Update

You’ve probably now binge-watched all Tiger King Episodes on Netflix

So, you’ve binge-watched Tiger King, met your friends for drinks via Zoom and decluttered. EVERYTHING in your house that could be decluttered, so what’s next?

Because the reality is, you’ve now got more time on your hands than you’re used to. If this sounds familiar, then know you’re not alone and more and more people are looking at online learning as a way to use their time productively throughout their lockdown.

Maybe the time has made you focus much more on your future and what you would like to do withyourself when this is all over. We’ve been forced to confront the fact that life can change very quickly and things that seemed so important a few weeks ago, now seem so irrelevant now. And I’m sure I won’t be the only one planning big changes when I get out of here!

Is it time to re-evaluate your life?

It’s giving us time to re-evaluate our lives and think to ourselves- is this really what I want to be doing with my life?

If the answer is no, then believe it or not, you’ve been given an amazing once in a lifetime opportunity (hopefully) to take time off from the treadmill of life and think deeply about where your future lies.

And, if you had been fed-up of working in hospitality, retail or admin. and always dreamed about being cabin crew, then the time you start preparing for this should be NOW.

Qatar Cabin Crew — Now could be the time to start preparing for a Cabin Crew job

Now, I’m not going to sugar coat things, aviation is in a bad place at the moment. Most major airlines are not flying at present. Current industry projections claim it will take between 6- 18 months to get the aviation industry back to full capacity. But it will return and it will continue to grow.

Air travel is expected to double over the next 20 years – pandemics not withstanding! Forbes.com

So, although it doesn’t feel like it in these darkest of days, air travel does have a bright future ahead of it and as someone who dreams of being cabin crew- so do you!

These are bad times for airlines but it won’t last

So, why is now the perfect time to do an online course?

Because you have so much time on your hands!

Now, I’ve said it many times before, but getting a cabin crew job is difficult. In fact, the success rate on average is 5%.

Yep, of 100 people applying for the job, only 5 people will be successful.

So, in other words, 95 will be successful.

Why not let us help you be one of the 5 who are successful?

Because, here’s the thing- we really do know our stuff.

I’ve applied for every cabin crew job and I’ve ever encountered and my success rate is 100% But, I should be good at this stuff as it’s my job!

Pauline Park, Co- Founder & Director Mondrago My Travel Teacher

After successfully applying, Kenny (my fellow co-founder here at Mondrago) and I created a range of courses based round the recruitment processes of the world’s major airlines. Learn more about us here

So, you can rest assured that if it’s included in the airlines’ recruitment process, then it’s included in our courses too!

Whether it’s the perfect CV, how to complete a situational judgement questionnaire, what to do during video interview, how to prepare for a group activity or how to use SAR answers during your final interview- we cover it all!

So, I want you to think of this situation as an amazing opportunity to get yourself ahead of the game, so that when airlines start looking for cabin crew again- and they will- you are READY!

I also am sure every single airline recruiter you will encounter over the next year or so will ask you what you did with your time in self-isolation.

And what better answer than you were preparing for your future as cabin crew? They can’t fail to be impressed.

What should you think about when you are looking for high quality online learning?

Because, you will probably know as well as me that there is a lot of dodgy training out there on the web!

So, as someone who has been teaching for 26 years now (OMG- how did that happen??), let me give you some advice on what you should be looking for:Make sure the instructors are qualified to teach you. ANYONE can create an online course so please believe us when we say that all courses ARE NOT created equal.

As well as teaching for over 25 years, Kenny is also an award-winning creator of online courses and he is always showing me examples of some really bad ones he encounters. So, make sure the people creating the course have decent credentials.

Kenneth and Pauline PaRK — Kenny and I have over 50 years of teaching experience combined – yikes!

Make sure the content is interactive. Life is boring enough right now without having to listen to people on a talking head video droning on and on (and on…).

This is what teachers call passive learning, as there is nothing for you to do and they are proven to be highly ineffective.

Look for courses that have a high level of interactivity which work by keeping you highly engaged. This type of learning is called active learning. And the more engaged you are, the more information you retain.

Goes without saying, as experienced teachers, all of our courses are highly interactive and lots of fun. (Don’t believe us, then check out our many 5 star reviews on Facebook)

There are loads of great reviews on our Facebook page here

Pick a course you are passionate about as this will help you stay more motivated.

Pick a course that is well structured as it is difficult to stay motivated with self-directed learning.

Luckily, as an experienced learning technologist, Kenny is very aware of this and all of our courses are structured using learning paths, to allow you to follow your progress throughout.

So, hopefully, you’ve come to the conclusion that doing an online course during this time is an incredibly useful thing to do.

But, we get it.

Online courses cost money and that’s the last thing you have right now. If you’re lucky, you’ve maybe been furloughed by your employer, but how long will that last for? Or you’ve been one of the unlucky ones and you have lost your job as a result of the pandemic.

We would LOVE to give you access to all of our courses for free. However, as a small business that simply isn’t possible, as there are costs associated with the hosting of our courses.

So, what we have decided to do is to offer all our courses with 80% off as this allows us to cover our costs.

This is the best we can do for you at this incredibly difficult time and we really do hope it is enough.

Use discount code Corona80 to access all of our courses with an 80% discount

Show me the courses

Pauline Park

British Airways Cabin Crew Recruitment

Ok, so last time we met Stephanie she had just been invited to take part in the British Airways online tests (eek!) So, let’s go and find out more. Ok, so the British Airways online application process is split into three sections:

Work-related scenarios
Working style
Verbal and numerical ability

The British Airways online assessment is split into 3 sections

Ok, so as the title suggests, you are given a range of work-related scenarios and you have to choose what you think are the most effective and least effective solutions to the scenario. You are given a practice question to allow you to understand what they are looking for and then it’s into the real thing!

The British Airways Work related scenario questions look like this

I have to be honest, some of the scenarios were quite difficult and I really had to think about it as the answers certainly weren’t obvious and there were times when I swithered between one answer and another. My tip to you would be to eliminate the least effective option first of all (i.e. the worst solution) and then think about what would be the best solution between the two remaining options. Another thing I would advise you to do, is to really think about what cabin crew do and learn as much as you can about the role before applying. Remember, that the key role is safety on-board and you should always bear this is mind when answering these scenarios. So, for example, there is a scenario relating to a passenger who won’t do up her seatbelt before take-off. Passengers must fasten their seatbelts when the seatbelt sign is fastened, and cabin crew cannot deviate from this rule so you would need to INSIST that the passenger fastened her seatbelt or she wouldn’t be allowed to travel. So, the more you know about what cabin crew actually do, the better prepared you will be for this section. You also need to make sure that you understand how important good customer service is to British Airways and the more you can demonstrate your understanding of this in these scenarios, the better you will do. There are 15 scenarios in total, so you really do need to know a lot about the role of cabin crew. After this you move on to the next section where your working styles will be assessed.

Working Styles

This is effectively a psychometric test which is basically a personality test, to see if your “personality” fits with what British Airways are looking for. Please don’t try and second guess the airline here and give answers that they “want” to hear. If you are not being true to yourself, then ultimately, are you making the correct career choice? So, ultimately, please just give your most honest answers. When I did it, sometimes I knew what they were looking for (like a good team player) but a lot of the time I didn’t, so my advice is just to be as honest as you can. People say you can’t practice psychometric tests and to an extent you can’t. However, an acronym known as OCEAN is often used by airlines when it comes to these tests. These are often known as the “Big 5” personality traits and they stand for openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. Airlines will generally look for a high degree of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness and a low degree of neuroticism so this is what you should be looking for if you do try online psychometric testing. The questions look like this:

You had to decide if a statement was completely untrue, fairly untrue, neither true or untrue, fairly true or very true. As you can see, I chose very true for 2 and fairly true for 2, but it wouldn’t allow me to do this as you are only allowed to choose each category once each time, which I certainly think made it more difficult. There are 12 of these questions in total and there are four statements in each one, so it did take quite a time to do it! Then we were on to stage 3 where you were given a numerical and language test.

Verbal and numerical ability

I was surprised at how difficult it was and to be honest, I think a lot of people will really struggle with it. There are 10 questions in total- 5 relate to your numerical skills and 5 test your language skills. In order to be cabin crew with British Airways, you have to be a fluent English speaker and the questions they asked would be difficult to answer unless you had a really good grasp of the language. Because you are also dealing with money on-board your flights as well as bar and catering paperwork, you have to be good at dealing with numbers and that’s why your numerical skills are being assessed. You get the chance to try a practice numerical and language question.

As you can see, you are given the value of 100 euros in a range of different currencies and you have to be able to do currency conversions. You are then given a practice language question:

You are asked to read a passage and then asked a question relating to the passage. Please read what they are asking for very carefully and take your time answering these types of questions as they can be tricky. Now what makes this section of the application more difficult is that it is timed. So, you have 20 minutes to complete this section. There are 10 questions in total, so my advice is to spend two minutes on each question and if you haven’t got an answer in two minutes, then move on to the next one. The first few questions relate to local time in different destinations in the world and they were hard! I have taught this topic, but not for a few years and I have to admit, I found it difficult! You are then asked a range of currency conversions, so if this is not your strong point, please download my FREE currency conversion guide. You are then given five language questions, similar to the one above and that’s it- all of your online testing is over! All you can then do, is sit back, take a deep breath and wait to hear from British Airways! I think the online tests must be marked automatically because within an hour of submitting them, Stephanie received this email…

Stephanie received an email from the British Airways Cabin Crew Recruitment Team

Hooray- Stephanie got an invite to an assessment day! So, let’s hope you’re next! Pauline x

British Airways Jobs – Cabin Crew

Ok, so British Airways are currently recruiting for cabin crew, so I thought I would write you a blog telling you all about their application process. I completed the online application and was invited to THE NEXT STAGE OF THE SELECTION PROCESS JUST ONE HOUR LATER
In this blog I’m going to cover

British Airways Video questions
British Airways Qualifying questions
A perfect British Airways CV
Using British Airways Keywords
Why People Fail at the British Airways CV Stage

British Airways Jobs — British Airways are recruiting at the moment

Now, for those of you who don’t know me, my name is Pauline Park and my passion is helping people like you become cabin crew. I have extensive experience as I have been teaching Travel and Tourism for 23 years now and, in this time, I have helped 1000’s of students get their dream jobs (including British Airways Jobs in the travel industry.

And, now I would like to help YOU.

As I’ve been teaching for such a long time, I’m (ahem) pretty old!

I’m Pauline Park and I’ve helped 1000’s of people get cabin crew jobs

So, I applied for a job as cabin crew with British Airways using one of my alter-egos called Stephanie and I would like to share our experience with you. Oh, and just so you know, here is the email I got just one hour later inviting me to the online assessment

Within an hour of submitting an application I was invited to the online assessment

British Airways Video questions

So, first up you have to watch a series of 10 videos and then you are asked a multiple choice question after each one.

This isn’t actually part of the application process but it’s been added in there to make you more aware of what the job of cabin crew actually entails.

So, for example, you are shown a video of someone having to get up at 3am to get ready for work and you’re then asked how you would cope with this.

You’ll be asked about how you will cope with early rises

Or, you see someone realising that they can’t go to their friend’s wedding as they are on duty and again, you are asked how you would deal with this.

So, in effect, what they are doing is giving you a range of typical scenarios to help you decide whether the job is really for you or not.

And, it’s not a bad idea as the reality is that the job is not for everyone and these videos highlight a lot of the more challenging aspects of being cabin crew, like the early starts, missing out on important engagements, having to deal with difficult passengers, having to sit yearly exams and having to work with different crew every time you fly.

So, whilst you are watching these videos, do have a good think about whether this is the job for you.
You are asked to answer a question after each video and you are given feedback from your answer.
Read this feedback carefully and take notes of what it says as you may find it comes in useful later in the application process.

So, then the application process begins!

British Airways Qualifying questions

You are asked to answer a range of qualifying questions.

These are the BASIC requirements that British Airways are looking for, so if you are unable to meet these requirements, then the airline will not be able to take your application any further.
You can see some of their qualifying questions below:

British Airways Cabin Crew Interview Questions

Some more British Airways Interview Questions

ONLY if you meet these basic criteria will you be able to move on to the next stage of the process.
Please DON’T lie as all of these requirements will be checked and verified before you are offered a contract of employment.

These requirements are quite detailed, so read them through carefully and do not proceed with your application until you know that you meet them all.

And, if you can’t for example, swim?

Then don’t apply at this time and go and learn to swim!

Remember, if you are unsuccessful with your application, you have to wait 6 months to apply again, so why not prepare well and pass first time instead?

Anyway, once you have answered all of these basic requirement questions, it’s time to create an account on their careers site:

British Airways Careers Portal — British Airways Careers Site

You will then be asked to upload your CV.

A perfect British Airways CV

Now, I have written many a blog about CVs and you can access them here, but all I will say is that once you have uploaded your CV, there’s not much more to this stage of the application process.

So, they are deciding to invite you on to the next stage of the application process based ONLY on your CV.

So, your CV has GOT TO BE GOOD

In fact, I’d go one step further and say that your CV has to be FANTASTIC!

You really can’t afford to get this stage wrong, because if you do, that’s it for you and you will have to wait another 6 months before you can even try again!

So, don’t upload a bog-standard CV- this simply isn’t good enough.

98% of applicants who apply to become British Airways cabin crew are rejected.

And, the MOST COMMON REASON IS THEIR CV IS RUBBISH!

I see this all of the time and it drives me mad!

Really good candidates with amazing work experience and who would make really good cabin crew, but are let down by using a terrible CV.

It’s simply not enough to use a CV you wrote in school or college.

Your CV has to be absolutely tailored to the job.

And, if it’s not?

Then it will be rejected

Simple as that!

I run a FREE Facebook group called the Departure Lounge (and if you’re not in there you’d be mad not to join, as there are loads of current cabin crew- including BA- in there who would love to help with your cabin crew journey) and some of the posts in there make me laugh (or scream depending on my mood!)

There are SO MANY posts in there asking what colour scarf to wear to the assessment day or if their shoes are too pointy, of if they should wear red or pink lipstick on the day?

Reality check here guys!

#realitycheck

The simple fact is that if your CV is no good, you won’t even make it to the assessment day so all of your worries about lipstick or shoes or make-up are completely pointless!

Focus on what’s important and here, the most important thing is your CV.

So, as I said, I have written a lot about CV’s and I recommend you check it all out, but if there was only ONE piece of advice I could give you, it would be to make sure your CV is stuffed full of keywords.

Using British Airways Keywords

What are keywords?

Simple- they are the skills and characteristics that British Airways are looking for,

And, do you know what’s so amazing about keywords?

British Airways actually GIVE THEM TO YOU!

Say, what?

Yep, British Airways actually tell you their keywords.

Isn’t that incredibly kind of them?

Yes, indeed it is!

So, where are these keywords?

Well, they are found in the job specification.

So, anyway, we uploaded Stephanie’s CV and sent it off.

What happens next?

Well, we sent off Stephanie’s CV and got this email one hour later…

Woo hoo- Stephanie had got through the first stage of the application process.
Go Stephanie!

Remember, this is the stage of the application process that THE VAST MAJORITY OF CANDIDATES FAIL AT.

So, this is the stage you MUST FOCUS ON.

Don’t let yourself become distracted with lipstick colours, skirt length and shoe height.

FOCUS ONLY ON YOUR CV

Because if you don’t get that correct, it’s game over!

The reality is that if you get through the first stage of the application process, you’ve actually got a much higher chance of becoming cabin crew.

The numbers get smaller and smaller as you move through the process, so conversely your chances of becoming cabin crew become higher and higher!

Research has shown that over 80% of applicants will not move on beyond the CV stage.

So, if 1,000 people apply, only 200 will move on to the testing stage.

Approximately 100 will then be invited to an Assessment Day.

And approximately 20 of them will be offered a position as cabin crew.

Why People Fail at the British Airways CV Stage

So, if you’re any good at arithmetic, you’ll quickly realise that 800 people (out of 1,000!) will FAIL at the CV stage.

Yep, that’s 80% of applications will not even make it past this stage.

AND ALL BECAUSE THEIR CV IS RUBBISH!

So, this gives you an amazing opportunity!

Why?

Well because you now know the importance of having a brilliant cabin crew CV.

I’ve also given you all the keywords British Airways are looking for.

So, you’ve no excuse now!

Go and get working on that AMAZING British Airways CV.