October- online application
November- video interview, questions easily found on Glassdoor
January- invitation to Face to Face
Mid February- face to face date options
I’m going to talk about my experience at the Face to Face, because the video interview has been covered in depth here. I got the 10 am time slot, but I arrived at 9:30 and most people were already in the room. I would recommend arriving about one hour prior to the start time if you want to feel more included and relaxed about everything. I don’t think arriving at 9:30 hurt me at all, but it would have made me feel better to be earlier.
Next we were led to a room where we sat at tables of 5-6 and did a writing exercise. The exercise presented is with a scenario about being a flight attendant and had us rank some options about what we would do from 1-5, then explain our #1 choice. During this time they checked our passport and resume and took any letters of recommendation or honors/awards you may have to share. If you have any, I would highly recommend bringing them. After that we did a group activity where we had to find things in common/different within our group, which many people have already talked about here. This activity was fun and made everyone feel more relaxed. Smile and have fun with it! It’s a great way to show you’re a real person with a sense of humor. Make sure you listen to the recruiters’ example demonstration! They had a specific way they wanted people to say their names, but some still messed up after being reminded.
After that we had a short break, then were broken up into groups for the group interview. They called groups of 4-5 into separate rooms which each had 2-3 recruiters. They asked 3 questions: “tell us about yourself and why you want to be a flight attendant,” answered left to right, “describe a difficult customer situation you have encountered and how you handled it,” answered in any order, and a random question chosen from a deck, answered in any order. I was familiar with 4/5 of the questions in my room from reading up on Glassdoor. You pick the card but can’t look at the question until you are ready to answer. I recommend taking a card with lots of text on it (the cards are presented to you facedown but you can see how much is written on it through the paper). The shorter questions led to less involved answers which definitely hurt me and another member of my group.
After the group interview, we went back to the main room where we watched a presentation on life as a flight attendant and its benefits. Finally, recruiters came in and started pulling us out one by one for what was described as an “application review,” but was either taking people for a one on one interview or showing them to the door. I knew I had messed up the group interview so I was prepared to be shown out.
Once your interview is over, I suggest checking the AA app/website to see what terminal the next flight to your desired location departs from, then take the shuttle to THAT terminal rather than the one for your scheduled flight. I was at the airport at 12:15 and my flight wasn’t until 5:30, but I talked to the customer service agent and she was able to get me on the next flight leaving at 1.
Overall I had a very positive interview experience. I got nervous and had some bad luck which caused my own downfall, but the rest of the experience was great. I really got the impression that while the recruiters were looking for the best candidates, they were very friendly and wanted everyone to succeed. All of the other candidates I talked to were very friendly and I had a great time meeting everyone. Remember, if you get to the face to face at all it’s still a big deal! Out of 50,000 spots only a few thousand get to go to Dallas to interview, with a much smaller number actually getting the job. You’re allowed to apply again 6 months and 1 day from your face to face interview date.