HireVue Interview Guide Flight Attendant Edition

You are preparing to take the next big step into the incredibly demanding career of becoming a flight attendant, with huge responsibility, offering the adventure of a lifetime and a close-knit community. Starting a career in cabin crew is a big decision, however, unfortunately, it is not the only step on your way to securing a position. Whether you are applying for Delta, American, United, Emirates, Singapore, Cathay Pacific, WestJet, Jazz, Mesa Airlines, Envoy or one of the many other carriers, a new challenge awaits you. That challenge is the HireVue Interview.

Getting off the ground and into the skies means you have to take off in your HireVue, so we have made the below guide to help you prepare with some tips, tools to practice, and common questions as post-COVID-19 pandemic hiring picks up and returns to pre-pandemic levels.

Putting in some time to prepare is definitely worthwhile given how few opportunities there are.

The HireVue one-way video interview (also known as the on-demand interview), a tool that airlines love and candidates love to hate, is a challenge that is often underestimated. Seemingly an easy task to record short video answers to behavioral and situational questions, the HireVue often takes applicants by surprise. Speaking to a mirror image of yourself in your laptop or phone is unnatural and difficult. Many strong applicants fail at this stage, so preparation is key.

Today many applicants just like you are struggling to find a reliable method for preparing for HireVue and succeeding. Even on HireVues that you feel you did well on, without any feedback, it is hard to know exactly what went right or wrong when you don’t progress to the next stage. This is very frustrating as you may have missed out on one of the few opportunities to pursue the career you love, and consistently doing badly on the HireVue could eventually mean you have to look for opportunities elsewhere, in other industries.

Having to work in an area you didn’t imagine and aren’t interested in can lead to feeling unhappy and unfulfilled, and losing hope. Often there are very few opportunities to get back into many industries if you don’t come through the standard applicant process with flying colors on your first try.

Once you discover Voomer, you can practice the HireVue with the actual questions used by many airlines and get instant AI-powered feedback on how you do. This helps you improve and understand what you do right and what you do wrong. Practicing the HireVue with Voomer gets you used to the awkwardness of speaking to the screen, helping you to not freeze in the moment if you get an unexpected question. Leaving you thinking: “omg this is absolutely freaking awesome - I know exactly what this will be like, I’m prepared to do my best”.

Alongside Voomer, understanding the broad variety of questions you can be asked in your video interview is essential. Generally for cabin crew, this is split into two categories. Firstly behavioral, and secondly situational questions. Behavioral questions want to learn about what motivates you and your overall approach within a position. Situational questions pose you with a problem, for example: “What would you do if you noticed a colleague taking food from the cart and placing it into their bag before deplaning?”.

Here is a list of the most common questions you can prepare yourself for (all of these are included in Voomer and more):

• Describe a time when you had to adapt your work behavior in response to new information or changing conditions. What was the situation, what actions did you take, and what were the results?
• While cleaning the aircraft after your flight you witness a flight attendant taking items from the beverage cart and placing them into their pocket. No other member of the crew witnessed the event. But you are certain the flight attendant is stealing. The flight attendant is gathering their personal items to disembark from the aircraft. What would you do?
• Describe a time when you displayed a high level of effort and commitment towards performing your work. What was the situation, what did you do, and what was the outcome?
• During your preflight service check, you notice that some items are missing from the inventory. If you do not acquire the items there will not be enough inventory to serve everyone on the flight. If you request additional items the flight will most likely be delayed. What would you do?
• Why do you want to be a flight attendant for this airline?
• How would you handle a passenger who refuses to comply with flight attendant instructions during takeoff and landing?
• Tell us about your most memorable flying experience?
• How would you react if a passenger was being rude to other cabin crew members?
• What destinations does our airline fly to?

Putting your best foot forward in the HireVue is straightforward with Voomer. You can create a preparation program on Voomer for your selected Airline, along with specific AI-powered feedback on the areas to improve the most, which will enable you to pass the HireVue stage. You will become more comfortable with speaking to the camera and delivering answers confidently with practice and feedback.

Being confident and comfortable on video comes with practice, especially one-way video interviews

Prepare yourself as you would do for any other interview. Mirror the airline that you are applying to. Check the standard hair, makeup, and dress style for the airline that you are applying and if you can’t mirror exactly add accent colors that match the airline. Remember, if you have multiple interviews with multiple airlines you will need to adapt your style each time.

Prepare as if you are going to work today so that the interviewer won’t see any red flags when reviewing your VI (video interview):

• Remember to wear a watch! It is an FAA and airline requirement to have a working wrist watch for use in emergency situations and also useful for knowing if boarding slow.
• Rings should be limited to two, and many airlines do not allow thumb rings.
• Earings should be no larger than a quarter, and not pose a safety hazard. 1 to 2 earings are allowed depending on the airline. Wear a stud to be on the safe side. Don’t wear any crazy jewelry!
• Take out all other facial piercings.

Now you have a fast and effective way to get a clear understanding of how to improve your performance in the HireVue interviews you take on your journey to become a flight attendant. When you are invited to the HireVue stage it will no longer be fear-inducing and never a disaster. Just don’t forget to put your phone on silent!

Trusting that preparation will make you feel confident and dynamic is the first step. Knowing that the video reviewer from the airline and Artificial Intelligence will see how enthusiastic, engaged and motivated you are will reduce the stress massively and keep you motivated and pushing onwards to pursue your dream in an incredibly fulfilling and exciting career. That’s the difference preparation can make.

Sign up to Voomer here now to start practicing for success in your HireVue Interview.