The primary goal in submitting your Flight Attendant Resume to an airline is for it to sell you in a way that will get you an interview. In effect it is your promotional sales letter. And it's logical that your resume leads to an interview and should therefore be prepared as an intentional seamless process. That means that presentation has to be professional or even striking and your content has to address the selection criteria and be relatable to your own experiences so that any reference to your resume during a subsequent interview can be immediately validated, justified or elaborated on.
As important as the presentation and content of your resume, there are a number of other obvious reasons for getting your flight attendant resume right first time and one of which is the time delay before you can reapply if you are unsuccessful. For most airlines, if you fail in your application you will be required to wait anything up to 12 months before you can reapply for that position again. The added frustration to that is if no Flight Attendant positions are available at the very time that you are allowed to reapply causing further delay in achieving your dream to fly.
The other critical reason for getting your Flight Attendant Resume right first time is that you need to get 'in-front' of the sheer weight of numbers of applicants that apply to most advertised flight attendant jobs. In fact aviation jobs in general. The commonly accepted industry percentage rate of those that apply for a flight attendant job and who go on to actually succeed in landing a job is less than 3%.
To highlight this point more so, you only have to read of the publicized figures on the web site of Southwest Airlines for the number of applicants who applied for all jobs with the airline as an example. It is a sobering realization for any 'want to be' airline job holding applicant. The facts read that in 2009 Southwest received 90,043 resumes across the board. Of that staggering number just 831 new employees were hired.
That is far less than the recognized 3% who actually land a job let alone a position as Flight Attendant. In fact it is a paltry 0.0092%. Any wonder that there is great importance placed on every step of the hiring process and the need for you to stand out or to be recognized before other applicants.
The first step of this process is obviously your professionally presented resume that addresses the selection criteria. However here are two more great tips when it comes to resumes that put you in 'front of mind' of any HR department.
Tip one - A picture paints a thousand words. Kinesics which is the interpretation of body language such as facial expressions and gestures states that up to 70% of our communication is usually non-verbal. That means that we get cues about what somebody is saying or implying through gestures, body movements, and facial expressions be they live or in a picture.
And while many so-called 'resume experts' don't recognize the value of a picture, Professional Copywriters who live or die on the success of their sales campaigns do which is why you will see their photo on the front of their sales letter and is reason enough to place a picture of you on the front of your flight attendant resume. Ideally this should be a professional upper body/head shot which befits the look that the person looking at it would expect. That means that if you are applying to be a flight attendant then wear your hair, clothing and make up if applicable, that fits with the job description and 'look' of the airline that you are applying to. It provides an immediate connection with the person 'assessing your resume'.
Tip two - Stand out from the crowd, get in front of other applicants, be different, be recognized! According to Wendy S. Enelow & Louise M. Kursmark, authors of Expert Resumes for Managers and Executives, who state that 90% of resumes are in Times New Roman font, this difference can be achieved very easily and with subtlety.
If you want to be different to 90% of other applicants and still present a professional resume simply use professionally accepted business fonts of Arial, Tahoma or Calibri. Your resume will still be very easy to read and will still present professionally and with correct format it may even be striking in its almost subliminal difference.
The Essential Guide To Becoming A Flight Attendant
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