If your idea of a dream job is flying to all parts of the world, then you’ll need a job winning cabin crew CV!
In this blog, we’ll look at what recruiters want to see in a cabin crew CV, and we’ll also lend a few helpful tips on how to make yours stand out in a never ending pile of applications. You’ll also find advice on how to structure your CV, and general best practice. We’ll also provide an example CV to help you build your own.
Important Things To Remember
Height
Some airlines want to know your height. You should include this somewhere in your CV, and perhaps any other essential parts they have asked for like, your swimming ability, any extra languages you speak etc.
Just make sure that if they have included it in their job advert as a requirement, that you can confirm it to them in your application. It’s all a tick in the box for them.
Photograph
Unlike other industries, cabin crew jobs require you to include a photo. It’s important that this photo is highly professional, a head shot of your face and shoulders, and you should be in business attire – it might look something like a passport photo.
Airlines look for neat and tidy individuals who are articulated and well presented – if you can portray this in your photo, you’ll be one step closer to achieving your dream job.
Hot tip: If you know what the cabin crew members wear at your chosen airline, try to emulate this in your picture e.g. hair tidy and scooped back into a bun, and neat makeup (or clean face and shave if you’re a male). You could also wear the same colour blazer and short to show that you think you would fit the bill.
Contact Details
So the first thing that you need to make sure you have included in your CV is your contact details – and the right details at that! Because how on earth is a recruiter going to be able to contact you if you have an old phone number or a spelling mistake in your email address?
Trust us, this happens a lot! A simple mistype could mean a recruiter has to bin your CV because they can’t get in touch with you.
This section will sit at the very top of your CV.
Set your details out like this:
Amanda Warden
635 Purley Avenue,
Paisley,
Renfrewshire,
PA7 RTU
Hot tip: You don’t need to add Curriculum Vitae‘ to the top of your CV – because it’s quite obvious if you’ve applied directly for a role. Instead, use this space to include the job title you aspire to have e.g. Cabin Crew for Virgin Atlantic.
Personal Summary
A personal summary or statement is a short paragraph, consisting of a few sentences that sits at the top of your CV (after your contact details). It might be around 100 – 200 words long.
This is an essential part of your CV, that unbelievably, a lot of people forget to include. But as the first main paragraph of your application, we would advise you to make sure it’s in your CV – and that it’s highly tailored to the role.
On average, recruiters look at a CV for around 8 seconds – that’s not a lot of time to convince them to love you – so by crafting a highly targeted personal summary, you can hit all the right notes in the short space of time they view your CV
Things to consider including in your personal summary would be anything you feel is essential for the role e.g. experience in customer service, or a positive and confident personality, and a real team player.
It might look something like this:
An outgoing individual who is passionate about customer service. With over 6 years’ experience at top retailer Boots, I am highly skilled at maintaining hospitable environments and engaging with people from all walks of life. Confident in my ability to communicate from a history of public speaking, I am committed to ensuring passengers receive the highest level of customer care and safety standards to ensure they have a positive experience.
Hot tip: Target your CV to specific airlines if you really want to give it the wow factor.
Skills
Many recruiters outline key skills they think candidates should have to be successful in a job. So you should take note from this job description that these skills should be showcased on your CV. Include a new section on your CV so these stand out immediately to a recruiter. Skills or areas of expertise for a cabin crew job might include:
- Competent in X amount of languages (then list which ones)
- Outstanding customer service
- Excellent communication skills
- Avid team player
- Professional
- Highly adaptable
- Problem solver
- Organised
Hot tip: Skills related to communication and customer service are valued for a cabin crew role, so you can always go into further detail about this in your cover letter too.
Work Experience
If you’re new to the aviation industry, don’t worry! Many airlines hire cabin crew at entry level, so as long as you can relay that you have transferable skills for the job, you’ll still be considered.
If you have previous experience in customer service or something similar, include it here, and bullet point any relevant tasks that might help to showcase that you can perform the skills needed for your cabin crew job. Emphasis on relevant. Recruiters are time poor, so don’t fill up valuable space with tasks that don’t relate back to the job you want.
If you’re just coming out of school, you might want to include your education section first, before, your work experience, and then highlight any part-time jobs you may have had while you studied.
And if you have previous experience as cabin crew, great! You should have no problem with this section – just try to keep it short and relevant.
Education and Qualifications
Include the relevant qualifications and your school education e.g. high school, sixth form or college, and university, if applicable. Set it out like this, with the name of the institution, date you attended and the level of education you received there:
Corley High School 2006-2010
GCSEs – English (B), Maths (C) and Science (B)
Art – A
Religious Education (A)
Geography (B)
And so on…
You might have achieved relevant want qualifications for your cabin crew job, so make sure you include these. For example: first aid, emergency procedures, customer service and safety. Again, for credibility, be sure to include the name of the place you received your qualification form, the name of the qualification, date you completed it and the level of qualification you achieved.
Hot tip: Take a look here if you’re searching for relevant courses for cabin crew.
Hobbies
Many people don’t consider including hobbies and interests on a CV, but for a recruiter, understanding your interests helps to back up the type of person you are and if you are the right personality for the job.
For example, if you’ve claimed to be a team player, the fact that you play volleyball and are also team captain shows that you have that skill. If you enjoy speaking publicly at clubs or member events, this shows you are confident with communication. So don’t count this section out.
