Abbas Jafferali May 2020
Outline of the skills and experience of cabin crew, and how an employer would benefit from them:
A future employer would highly benefit from a crew members, skills knowledge and life experience. From delivering exceptional levels of customer service, problem solving, multi-tasking and thinking quickly on ones feet, to tackling on-board fires, dealing with medical situations from heart attacks to nose bleeds, and from having to handle large groups of people to dealing with aggressive and unpredictable behaviour. As cabin crew you also get to experience the best of mankind and the human sprit, where in unprecedented situations you see people pulling together, helping crew members out and assisting where they can, as the majority have been during this pandemic, and it really enhances your already long skill set, handling and dealing with different behaviours and how not to handle and approach various scenarios and situations in a very unpredictable and confined environment. As cabin crew you are also highly trained in dealing with numerous emergency and evacuation procedures, as well as first aid, self-defence and disruptive behaviour, fire fighting on-board an aircraft, and crew resource management. The level of training, both practical and theoretical exams and assessments, gear you up to tackle most scenarios you could be faced it up at 35,000 feet.
How you felt after being laid off:
For me, when this happened, I didn’t just lose my job, I had to give up my apartment, and move back to my parents and had four days to make the decision and be out or I would have had to pay next months rent. I had to make some cut throat decisions, and I lost a whole life I had built around the job, the freedom, the independence and the friends and the foundations I had built, everything was gone just like that in a matter of days. Having this job was almost my security blanket, it gave me a right to be me and it gave me a reason and purpose. Having a job as cabin crew was also quite a personal achievement, it defied and broke all my cultural and religious boundaries, and once I had done the role a couple of years, it almost became part of me, and something I never thought I would have had to give up.
How difficult is it for cabin crew to get a job:
As this was so sudden, having to re do a CV, write applications and answer competency based questions, in a position of being in unchartered territory was completely unimaginable. Not knowing what do, where to go or how to even start. I managed to remain in aviation, but decided against going back into flying initially as I did not want to go through the whole process again. The skills and experiences are quite recognisable in mainly service industry organisations, however it is still very difficult to find the right opportunities that would match the skillset of a crew member.
How there is currently nothing out there to help:
Having no help or support, when I first lost my job was extremely hard and very debilitating. If I wasn’t strong willed and hadn’t had the support of other colleagues who were going through the same process, or friends that supported me, I would not have come out of the other side. There is no support, guidance or acknowledgment as to what steps to take in finding a new career path or job role, nor is there any platform to assist in helping people, guiding people and steering them in the right direction.
A company like Miramar dedicated to Cabin Crew:
Having the support, network and a platform like Miramar would give potential employees a purpose and a path to go in the right direction, guidance, support and a helping hand in finding the right career choice. It would allow employees to express themselves freely in what they had to offer through the support of a company like Miramar, and it would give employers the opportunity to find the right, suitable and competent candidates, through a platform that allows people to shine and be at their best.
