As with most things, it depends on the airline.

Virgin Atlantic would smirk at a pair of seven inch heels, but wear those shoes to Emirates, and it’ll get you a side eye. Assuming you get close enough to an Emirates recruiter for them to even notice your shoes.

But if you’re in a corset so tight you can’t bend, or a skirt so short you can’t reach the mark on the wall — those aren’t fashion statements. They’re cut-off points.

I say this with love, and with a wardrobe full of regrets. I’ve worn every silly thing mentioned above — and worse.

So before you think about livery, work on your structural integrity. You need to move like crew. If your outfit stops you from reaching, sitting, or demonstrating safety basics, that’s the problem — not your outfit’s colour, cut, or cleavage.

Let’s stop this nonsense now, shall we.

There was a 32 yo woman in my batch. I won’t name and shame the poor women here, but you’ll see her in my one of my photos around the site. And whilst you are perusing for said photos, look at real world appearances, not the influencer one’s. It’s time to get grounded in reality.

When you’ve done as much research as I have, you see who really gets hired. And I see success amongst a range of ages.

There’s a lot of bad advice about it and it’s destroying blossoming careers, don’t let it destroy yours. I call these “Old Wives” because that’s what they are, generational hand-me-downs — glamourised in the golden age, kept alive by the Old Wives, and now monetised by influencers.

In one thread you’re too old at 30, in another your stuffed at 21. When I succeeded, everyone told me I was too old at 25.

Here’s a reframe for you. The recruiters are senior crew, former flight attendants, and trainers. Think about that so you can humanise them for a second.

They might work with you one day aboard a flight. So, what do they care about in their teammates? Are they really saying, “ugh, you’ve got one too many wrinkles, I can’t work with you”? Or are they saying, “huh, you’d be really good at managing a stressful flight”?

It’s time to restore some critical thinking.

You’re in a wonderful position.

Start by getting customer service experience — and not just any kind. Get variety.

A job at a yoga retreat might sound good, but if everyone’s calm and the mood’s serene, you’re not being tested. Cabin crew deal with chaos, not calm.

Find roles that put you in front of angry customers, sad customers, drunk customers. That’s where your real crew skills get forged — and that’s what shows up in your CV and interview.

Can you earn a first aid certificate? Take a language class? Volunteer at an event where you’re working with strangers?

And if I can leave you with one thing that’ll take you far: learn how to say people’s names properly (yep, those foreign ones especially). Learn to say hello in ten languages. It’s the smallest gesture with the biggest return.

Read more here.

I missed both my Golden Email and my Golden Call. It’s no big deal.

Mistakes happen all the time, and they usually resolve. At my final interview, the recruiter drew a blank and sent me away, saying she was heading back to Dubai that evening. The process is long and cumbersome, you’ll get used to it.

Still, be proactive. Chase it up with a phone call, don’t rely on emails.

That’s a common belief — and it’s understandable. When you don’t hear back, or get cut early, or don’t understand why someone else succeeded when they seemed to get so much wrong, it’s tempting to chalk it up to chance.

But here’s the truth: what feels like “luck” is usually just a lack of understanding.

Recruiters — often senior crew — are trained people-readers. They spot patterns you don’t even realise you’re showing. They’re filtering for specific traits, behaviours, and red flags.

So no, it’s not luck. It’s pattern recognition. Once you understand the process, the steps make sense.

Red my about luck.

“Should I make my CV ATS-friendly? My first one wasn’t, but I still passed somehow — haha — I’m confused.” ^{(grammar corrected for readability.)}

The obvious answer: don’t change what’s already working. But it’s revealing, isn’t it? Even when success is happening in real time, the noise from online hearsay can still shake your confidence.

This is what happens when Old Wives’ tales start sounding louder than your results.

It also shows something important: non-ATS CVs are passing. Because they’re human. Because they sound like real people, not spam.

Don’t fix yourself into failure.

You can read my post on ATS myths and how to approach CVs with intent here.

Let’s talk boobs. Yes, already.

Voluptuousness looks great — shapely, poised, polished. But if your chest is blocking your reach, none of that matters. You’ll miss the black mark on the wall and be thanked for your time. No second chances.

If that’s your reality, you’ll need to outsmart your boobs. Skip the balconette. Spanx them. Bind them. Flatten the curve — just for the test.

If cleavage is costing you progress, go for compression.

And if you are only a finger-tip away from reaching, stretch your spine. Spine compression is a big deal, and it can shrink you height, by as much as an inch. That means, you might be hoarding additional height right there in your spine. Do some downward dogs, hang upside down, and do it consistently, every day, and see if that helps. Now, remember, this requirement is for more than just an interview. It’s for the practical purposes of the job, so don’t stretch on the morning of your interview and then stop, keep up the good habit.

Requirements get updated all the time, but here is the feedback I received from the onboarding team when they rejected seven, yes seven, sets of my photos:

• Clean white background (a bedsheet does not count.)
• No hair covering your face (not even a fringe, and no, not even a little curtain of hair to frame your face.)
• Males, no facial hair, clean shaven only.
• No digital adaptations to the image other than slight colour correction.
• Straight posture, standing square to the camera.
• No head tilt, no crossed hands, no picking your fingernails with your thumb (pay attention to all those little details).
• Smile, of course (with or without teeth showing).
• Fake smiles are just fine, they’re called Pan-Am smiles for a reason — flight attendants invented them.
• Red lipstick was never required for my photos.

If unsure, speak to someone in your chain of command, or follow the instructions and feedback. And you will get feedback. Emirates will allow for corrections, so don’t worry about mistakes.

Once your application has been assessed — at any stage — the countdown begins. Most airlines enforce a six-month wait before you can reapply. If you were rejected at a final interview, that wait is often a full year.

If you withdrew before assessment, you’re free to reapply at any time.

Yes, even if you misclicked during your video interview and got rejected — it still counts. You’ll need to wait the mandatory six months before trying again.

No, you can’t outsmart the system by using a different email or turning up at another open day. Your application will eventually be flagged and rejected.

This is a regulated industry, backed by high-security systems and precise tracking. Airlines know every workaround — because they’ve seen them all. This is a serious role, in a serious environment. Act accordingly.

Here’s the good news. You now have 6 months to assess what went wrong, recalibrate, and improve your candidacy. However your application fell short, that was feedback.

That’s the point of the 6-month wait — Airlines want you to reflect, develop, and come back stronger. Not rush the process or try to game it.

Absolutely not!

Never resign from your current job until your new airline explicitly tells you to.

The next phase is onboarding — and that means medicals, background checks, visa approvals. The timing and depth of these checks are out of your hands — and yes, some people fail at this stage.

You’ll be assigned an onboarding team. Communicate with them. Ask questions. Any problems, be a problem solver. Because that’s your job now — crew solve things, they don’t crowdsource panic. Your chain of command isn’t a Facebook group.

I had none of that either.

My mum left when I was 12 and took all our childhood records with her. Dad used to glue his own teeth back in, so he wasn’t exactly NHS-ready. I had no medical history, no documents, not even a baby photo. None of it was a problem for Emirates. I just had to get everything done from scratch.

If this is your reality too, just be prepared for a few rounds of vaccinations and communicate with your onboarding team.