No experience. No fashion sense. No hope.

I can’t honestly remember the first time I thought I might like to be a flight attendant. I was not even two years old the first time I flew on a plane, so I’m pretty sure it wasn’t then! But I was fortunate enough as a child to fly a bunch of times with my family and by myself and I think the way that flying was always regarded as a treat in our household – a holiday you’d saved up for, something you’d counted down to so eagerly – made me wish I could be apart of that wonderful world every single day.

When I was at school, and then when I was at university, it always hung in the back of my mind, but I never truly considered it, because I knew already that it was not the easiest job to get and I was far from the ideal candidate. And besides, I’d been to uni and I was supposed to get a job with my degree right? Wrong. Word of advice: don’t do an arts degree folks! When I ran around Europe and the US for three months after I finished said useless degree, I was merely wasting time having fun and I knew when I came back I would have to look for a ‘real’ job (aka not just doing waitressing and pulling beers at music festivals). I knew I wouldn’t have much luck, but I tried anyway and at the same time started applying for airlines, knowing I probably wouldn’t get very far with that either.

Once upon a time, I’m sure soon after this fascination with flying began; all I wanted to be was a flight attendant with one big Australian airline. I’d flown with them almost exclusively every time I’d ever flown, not by choice, that was just the way it had happened, and I’d come to admire this airline’s stylish and glamorous uniforms, the far off destinations they flew to and the pure household name thing they had going for them. But I knew I’d be shooting myself in the foot if I only applied to that airline, so I applied to every airline known to man and waited.

And waited. It was a good six months before anybody called me. The day I got a call from a relatively new international carrier, it broke up the monotony of my day of clearing tables and making cappuccinos like you wouldn’t believe. Needless to say, it was probably the worst phone interview ever and one which I was totally unprepared for. It was my first bite from any airline and just the fact that they’d called me had me thinking I’d aced it, but I would soon learn that that was not the case.

Two weeks later I got the thanks but no thanks email – one of many that would pop up in my inbox unexpectedly every now and then – sometimes two months after interviews had taken place and have me crossing another airline off my list.

Then one day what I like to call an open cattle call, for a large middle eastern airline, was advertised in the weekend paper and despite my doubts about moving to another country to work for this airline I went along anyway…and found myself so far out of my depth it was all I could do not to run screaming and crying from the hotel it was being held in.

I thought I was dressed just fine in black pants, a crisp white shirt and heels. But when I rocked up and saw 100 other candidates there dressed as if they were cabin crew already (I suspect most of them probably were actually) I knew I was totally out of my league. I wasn’t so naïve that I bought with me my high school resume portfolio like a smattering of barely 18 year olds did. And I wasn’t dressed in too short dresses or jeans like a few others barely eighteen year olds were. I was 23 and dressed just fine, but just not for this occasion.

It was an all day event, with videos making the airline look all shiny and exciting and someone who anyone in their right mind would kill to work for. But I wasn’t ready to move half way across the world for this – yet. So I hightailed it out of there and walked straight into the city and spent far too much money on some flight attendant-like garb. Armed with the right clothes and shoes and after experimenting with my unreasonable and boring hair, I suddenly felt a lot more prepared for the aviation world than I had the day before.

Then just before Christmas I had another phone interview, this time with a small state airline. This time I was certain I had aced it, but still, being new to the industry I knew nothing of what to expect. But a few weeks later I got the magical email…

 “Dear Candidate. You are invited to attend the Cabin Crew Recruitment & Information Day”