In the last couple of weeks, we’ve been inundated with questions about the new Emirates cabin crew recruitment process. We’ve done our best to answer as many of those questions as possible and where necessary, we’ve even reached out to our sources to give you as much information as we can lay our hands on.
More than ever before, Emirates has made information about its recruitment process readily accessible. Around eight months ago, the Emirates Group careers website received a significant update and the specific cabin crew section of the site is a fantastic resource. Yet questions remain and the recruitment team haven’t been very fast to react.
Of course, some teething problems are to be expected. The news that Emirates was about to restart its hiring programme actually came out of the blue – a reaction by senior Emirates executives to rising discontent amongst its cabin crew community to serious understaffing. So what do Emirates have to say on the matter?
We reached out to Emirates to find out some more information and ask a series of specific questions to address your biggest concerns.
For example, what happens if you complete the new digital interview successfully but then find the system doesn’t allow you to submit your application. The error may only be affecting a small number of candidates but for those who are impacted, it’s a really serious issue. How did Emirates respond?
Along with that question, here’s what we asked Emirates:
- Where do you plan to hold Assessment Day’s?
- When will successful candidates join the company?
- How many cabin crew does Emirates plan to hire?
- When will the application window close?
- What are you doing to address technical problems with the application system?
Unfortunately, a spokesperson for the airline decided to completely duck all of those questions and instead issued this statement:
“Emirates hires talent from around the world in order to meet its operational requirements. We are currently inviting applications from candidates to join our cabin crew team. We encourage interested candidates to visit our Emirates Careers portal (emiratesgroupcareers.com) for up to date information.”
This probably doesn’t go far to ease the concerns of candidates who are currently waiting to hear back from the Emirates recruitment team. So instead, we’ve collated all the latest Intel in order to answer these questions ourselves…
Where will Assessment Day’s be held?
We know a small number of candidates have been invited to one of two Assessment Day’s scheduled to take place in Dubai during February. Those candidates are believed to be resident in Dubai although, even then, there are other applicants living in Dubai who haven’t received any update from the airline.
At the moment, we have no indication of where the recruitment team will visit next. This will largely depend on what nationalities and language skills the airline currently needs, as well as the level of interest and candidate calibre they identify in different countries.
When will successful candidates join Emirates?
While the Emirates spokesperson didn’t want to be drawn on this point, we do know specifics were given at a recent internal cabin crew forum. During that event, hosted by senior executives, serving cabin crew were told that ab initio training courses would start in April.
It’s understood that up to 360 new joiners will start training in April and the same number every month thereafter. The normal processing time from completion of Final Interview to moving to Dubai is between 3-4 months – in order to meet that timeline, we would expect Emirates to ramp up recruitment very soon.
How many cabin crew does Emirates plan to hire?
We heard a familiar phrase in the official Emirates statement: “operational requirements” – those candidates who are successful and go on to work at Emirates will get to hear this phrase often with little further information.
The best we can therefore do is estimate – if Emirates does plan to bring in 360 new cabin crew every month, then the maximum number of candidates they can hire in a 12-month period is just 4,320. That’s very close to the airline’s official training figures from 2015 when Emirates was in the midst of a massive recruitment drive.
But in 2014, Emirates received 483,944 online job applications – clearly, the vast majority of candidates may well be disappointed.
When will the application window close?
We’ve been asked this question, a lot – and it’s completely understandable why. The new application process is intensive and you need everything prepared before you even create a profile. It’s not only about creating a great CV – you also need a set of photographs (both casual and formal) and of course, you have to be prepared for the video interview.
Unfortunately, Emirates isn’t willing to share any information to calm peoples nerves. This is a really unusual move – the vast majority of airlines will clearly state what their closing date for applications is or at the very least, encourage candidates to submit their applications as soon as possible.
We would, therefore, recommend, gathering everything you need for your Emirates application as quickly as possible. That doesn’t mean rushing – you need to make sure your application is as good as it can be but don’t procrastinate either.
What about the technical problems?
This is also another really interesting question that we were surprised Emirates didn’t address. At the moment, the recruitment team hasn’t provided a means of contact to deal with technical problems – if you are unlucky enough to encounter a problem we can only suggest emailing the recruitment team, using their standard mailbox:
cabincrewrec.dubai@emirates.com
Unfortunately, you probably won’t receive a reply.
To minimise your risk of encountering an error, we would strongly recommend being ready to complete the application from start to finish in one go. Ideally, you should use a computer with a strong internet connection.
You may see an error message telling you to complete a questionnaire – the questionnaire is actually the video interview. Once you have completed the interview, the message will not disappear but this is perfectly normal and nothing to be concerned about.
What other questions do you have? Let us know in the comments below…
