cross_check

Right, so I guess it’s time to add something of interest now that the new blog has been sitting here vacant for a few months. Not vacant by choice of course but vacant because right now, life is painfully stagnant. I’ve officially now been playing the waiting game for going on 10 months. 10 months of, will the phone ring today, will I receive an email this afternoon, should I put my phone on silent, What if I don’t hear it & they call? What am I doing in NZ, should I go home?  It’s been reminisant of a never ending, abusive relationship!

So maybe while I continue to wait I’ll detail what lead me up to where I am now & how it is that I got be sitting here at my desk staring at an empty inbox waiting for (what feels like) my life to start.

In short, I’ve wanted to be a flight attendant since I was knee high to a birds eye; way back in the day when cabin crew were known as air stewardesses, flying was still seen as glamorous and you could happily smoke cigars in economy & butt them out in your armrest.

I first flew when I was 5 years old & not 10 minutes after setting foot on the plane bound for LA, turned to my Dad & said “Dad, when I grow up I want to be like her, I want to be a flight attendant!”. Since then, I’ve been hooked on the idea that one day, when I grew up the sky would be my office. It was never a matter of ‘if’ but a matter of ‘when’.

From the age of 5 I lived and breathed everything about travel & aircraft – I loved the sleek design of the Boeing 747, the smell of jet fuel, watching the flight attendants complete service, wandering around airports & I religiously watched every episode of Air Crash Investigation I could get my hands on. Probably not the healthiest of fascinations for a child I’ll admit but hey, at least I had goals! I’ve often joked that if I found myself unemployed I’d sit at the airport & watch planes take off all day when in reality, all I did 7 years ago when I was devoid of a job, was stuff my face with re-heated fish & chips, packets of salami & watch Oprah & Dr. Phil all day. Go me!

After completing high school at 18 I immediately applied with every airline that was recruiting in Australia, I was hopeful but as the years went by with no news on any of my applications I started to loose hope. During that time Ansett went into liquidation and the success rate among an application pool of flight attendants sunk to 2%.

As the years dragged on I found myself working as a receptionist at various jobs, still applying for positions whenever they arose. I tried and failed to come up with a back-up career, none of filling me with any kind of burning desire, inspiration or passion. I eventually conceded that I would probably wind up being 40, uninspired, docile & working in an office still not knowing what it was that I wanted to do with my life; that was until I moved to New Zealand. 

Two years earlier I’d left Melbourne and spent time living and working in London, met a Kiwi and moved to Auckland on a whim. I applied with Air NZ, Pacific Blue & Jet * when I first arrived & behold, 9 months later I received an email from Jet * (on my birthday of all day’s) inviting me to a recruitment day in Auckland. I remember clearly how hard my heart was thumping when I first opened that email, I don’t think it stopped for the entire 2 weeks leading up to the interview.

In the interim I had to re-sit my Senior First Aid Certificate which had expired a year earlier, buy a new suit, new shoes, stockings, have passport sized photos taken for my file, have my hair & nails done & attempt not to hyperventilate from sheer nerves, excitement & anticipation! $1,200 later! I do remember irrationally loosing it at some point because a month earlier I’d dyed my blond hair black & I didn’t want to be a black haired flight attendant… where that came from I’ll never know!!

The Assessment Centre was held at a hotel in downtown Auckland, in all there were about 40, maybe 50 of us. It was a really odd experience to say the least. It almost looked as though it could have been the interview portion of the Miss America pageant crossed with something resembling American Idol. It was a very surreal experience; one I know I’ll never forget.

At 8.30am we were all brought upstairs and organised into tables of 7; each table was designated a recruitment coordinator. Everyone was given a name tag and for the first hour chatted amongst ourselves while the recruitment coordinator took us into a separate room for a one on one interview.

I was first up and was asked to give a brief account of my work history and then asked about 3 or 4 questions such as why I applied to work with Jet * & also why I wanted to become a flight attendant. I’m not lying here when I say I became teary while giving my answer, i felt overwhelmed although, I think he actually appreciated my sincerity. When everyone at our table had been interviewed the copies of our RSA Certificate, First Air Certificate, passport & references were collected as well as having the original copies sighted; then our height was taken. Afterwards we sat back at our tables for a presentation about the company, their routes, planes & history.

Shortly after we started the group activity portion of the interview which I must say probably made me more nervous than the interview process, mostly due to not knowing what the expectation would be. For the first task our recruitment coordinator threw a packet of playing cards into the middle of the table and we, as a group, had to organise them back into correct order while he sat back with a clipboard & pen & began taking notes. The second task we were given a card with a picture on it (mine was a ruby player) and were required to speak to the group about how we thought our picture related to a Jet * destination. I remember one of the younger girls in my group having a picture of a Tasmanian Devil & trying to pass it off as some relation to Movie World even as the recruitment coordinator was trying to steer her in a more literal direction (i.e. Tasmania!). For the third and final task we were given puzzle pieces and had to put them together to make a square which was harder than it looked. It became evident that everyone in the group wanted to be heard and to be seen as making a contribution to the overall goal; mostly it was just a situation of not enough Indians & too may chiefs.

Finally we completed a quick 15/20 minute general knowledge test with questions on things like time zone changes, geography & maths. After this we were free to go and would be notified by phone as to whether we were successful thus making it to the morning/afternoon tea session of the interview process.

I received a call back to the afternoon tea about 15 minutes after I left the Assessment Centre *insert excitement* & of course the first thing I did was call my parents. It all felt as though it was happening too fast and I couldn’t quite believe that it was certainly possible that I could make it through successfully and be offered a job.

The next session commenced 2 ½  hours later, about 3 people from my table of 7 had been called back including myself. I expected it to be a lot easier than the morning session but actually found it to be fiercely competitive and a bit more difficult; the pressure & nerves from everyone was palpable. There was also another group from the Assessment Centre the day before so all up there was about 80 of us in a pretty small room and it was the hottest day Auckland had experienced in about 40 years – combine that with nerves, hot suits and a lot of waiting around.

Firstly, we all went back up to the interview room to watch another presentation where we were given more information about the job, including expected pay, hours & lifestyle considerations. After we were free to grab tea/coffee from the front of the room while the recruiters invited candidates out to another room one at a time per recruiter for another one-on-one interview. There was however a couple of recruiters who hang about in the room to have a casual chat with people & watch how we all interacted with each other. After the one-on-one interview we were free to go and told to keep an eye out for an email with a medical form and security clearance form if successful.

I received the ‘congratulations’ email about 3 day’s later which I completed as soon as I received it. The medical itself was very thorough and intensive. I was also required to be immunized against measles and Hepatitis. The security clearance was also rather extensive & long winded with questions in regards to all my residential addresses over the past 10 years(!) & criminal convictions… which didn’t apply to me thank you very much! It was also very costly. The medical cost $200, Hep B injection $50, security clearance was another $150 NZD. After I’d sent all my results off to the head office in Melbourne I had my referee’s contacted & the wait began in earnest.

3 weeks later I received this email:

Thank you for your recent application and subsequent participation in our Selection Process for the position of Auckland cabin crew.  

We were extremely fortunate to receive a large number of suitably qualified applicants and following a review of your application, we will place your file on 'active hold'.

We will be in touch with you again with a formal written offer once we have confirmation of a Ground School date that we can place you in. We do not expect any ground schools to take place in the next 6 months and will endeavour to give you a minimum of 4 weeks notice when one is scheduled. When we have further information we will be in contact via email.

To maintain your eligibility it is important that you keep all your contact details e.g. first aid certificate and passport details up to date on your online application.  Also please advise us if your situation changes and you wish to be removed from our hold list.

I would like to thank you for your keen interest and the effort involved in applying and participating in the selection process and thank you for your patience at this time.

For all it was worth they might as well have told me that I’d never be a flight attendant and that the whole process I’d gone through, money I’d spend & time I’d put into studying had amounted to nothing. I can’t remember the last time I ever cried like I did that night. It obviously wasn’t the case but having my hopes up throughout the whole exhausting process only to be told that I had to wait for god knows how long was, at the time quite crushing.

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That was back in March & it’s now been 9 months since I was placed on active hold. During that time life became difficult and complicated. The relationship I moved to New Zealand for came to an end & I’ve also been stuck in a job that kills my soul a little bit every day. I’ve wanted to pack my bat and ball and go home more time’s than I care to count; I’ve missed my family & my friends & as a result was forced to seek therapy some months ago. If I’m to be truly honest, (& I hate to be a Negative Nancy!) I hate New Zealand, there’s hardly anything about it I find any joy or satisfaction in other than that it might provide me with a platform to my dreams. I don’t know what else to say other than, it’s been rough. I'm just hoping that it's been worth it... Anyway, enough dwelling...

Things for the last month have been on the incline & I’ve been swept up in a sea of hope & positivity after receiving this back at the start of October:

Thanks for your continued patience after being placed on our active hold file.

We have recently been advised that a ground school will be going ahead in early 2010.  As yet, we have no specific dates.  Could you please advise if you are still interested in the role of Cabin Crew.
 
Please reply with your name in the subject field followed by a 'YES' if you are still interested or 'NO' if you are not by close of business Wednesday 14th  October 2009. 

Again, we thank-you for your continued patience and look forward to hearing from you. 

So I’m back on the roller-coaster again, the waiting has intensified and I’m excited at the possibility of achieving the beginnings of my dream in perhaps as little as a month or two. I’m thrilled and I’m hoping that I might receive more information or a possible job offer in the next few weeks. As long as being here hasn’t been in vain. I know that whatever doesn’t kill you is supposed to make you stronger so here's hoping!

For now, I sit here in front of my computer (my arse and my attitude growing bigger by the day), bloggin rather than working & desperately waiting for my phone to ring.... RING.... RING ALREADY!!!