becoming a flight attendant

So as most of you already know, I'm currently employed as a flight attendant for Jetstar Australia. I've been working for almost two months now and so far I'm loving it! It does get intense sometimes and people can be really shitty (crew and passengers) but nevertheless I'm still so happy to be making at least some progress in pursuing my dream hehe

1. Applying

I actually applied in December last year, I think I was just browsing for jobs on seek or something and it caught my eye. I wrote a really long and passionate cover letter and hoped for the best.. Looking back on that cover letter I'm just like ugh cringe but wHATEVER THEY LIKED IT! A few days later they got back to me requesting that I complete an online exam on geography, first aid, maths, customer service etc.

Aaaaaand I didn't hear back for another six months..

2. Phone interview

Finally in May this year they called me out of nowhere and asked if I was still interested in the job. I said yes and they were like 'is it okay to do a phone interview right now?'. I was soooo unprepared obviously since they hadn't been in touch with me for six months and I forgot I even applied for the job.. After the phone interview I was pretty sure I fucked it up so I didn't think much of it

Until they emailed me yay!!

3. Assessment day

I don't think I even slept the night before... I was so nervous about what was ahead of me - the group interview, one on one, roleplay, everything!! I got there and immediately wanted to go back home because everyone looked so intimidating omg I felt so young and out of place. Now that I look back, I don't know why I had such little confidence in my abilities tbh I think I compared myself to the other applicants too much. The day started with an introduction on the company followed by a short one on one interview. And then we had a group interview which involved some roleplay, selling, group work etc. - I was dreading this part so much but I actually did alright! After that we were all sent outside to have lunch and they told us 'if you don't receive a call from us by 12:45 it means you won't be proceeding to the next stage' fUCK this was literally the longest half an hour of my life. I couldn't even do anything during this time so I just sat in the car and stress ate my lunch. It was like 12:42 and by this time I was already heaps depressed snapping Gina all these sad pictures with captions like 'who was I kidding why would they hire me' HAHA. They ended up calling me with 2 minutes to spare and I was so happy I wish I had the snaps I sent Gina after the call they're so funny omg. I went back to the assessment centre, did my second one on one interview and then went home and waited for a response.

About a week later I got an email inviting me to the final stage, ground school!

4. Ground school

Ground school was the most intense four weeks of my life. Most people have this misconception that flight attendants don't know anything except how to serve food and drinks and clean up after people. While I do have some damn good selling and cleaning skills, I'm also the person who's going to save your ass in an emergency. Nobody really thinks about what kind of training we have to go through to ensure everybody is going to get out of that aircraft safely. Some days we'd be on the aircraft until two in the morning yelling out evacuation commands over and over again. At one point in the ground school we were all sent to Melbourne where we even had to act out a ditching evacuation in the water, rafts, fake rain, and everything!

I was given three manuals, all hundreds of pages long, all about the procedures we have to follow in both normal and non-normal situations. To make it even more intense, we'd have an exam related to some kind of safety or emergency procedure almost everyday and the pass marks were always either 80 or 100%. We all basically had to give up our lives for four weeks and devote all our spare time to studying our manuals and memorising our drills. Tbh I think I put in the least effort out of everyone and I eventually became known as the one who went out all the time and still somehow managed to not fail anything.. I think I opened my manual maybe idk once in the whole four weeks and still managed a high 90s average in the end (senk d lord 4 d ability 2 learn quickly)

Some didn't make it until the end which was pretty sad, apparently we started with 26 people and only 17 of us graduated. At the very beginning we were told that there's always about two people who don't make it through and straight away I thought I would be one of them since I was one of the quieter people in the group.. LOL I WAS SO HARD ON MYSELF ZZZzz

5. Line training

In this last part of our training we were sent out on actual flights to do what's called a 'line check' where the cabin manager would basically watch you do what you've learnt and then decide your fate. At this point there were still many opportunities to fail so it was pretty scary. After a few training shifts, I was finally checked to line and was ready to be sent out on my own dun dun dunnnnnn

6. First shift

Since I'm the luckiest person in the world, of course I get one of the strictest cabin managers in existence for my first shift. It was so bad he even made me cry LOL..... it's okay I've learnt to be stronger since then no1 fuks wit me now

7. Now

I think everything is going really well so far. Most passengers think I've been doing my job for years which I guess is a good sign! I love how everyday is different and how I'm constantly learning new things and developing more as a person. Even though some people can be really shitty, most of the people I meet day to day are heaps cool. Deferring uni and starting this job while I wait for an opportunity to get into flying was definitely the right decision ~no ragrets~

Okay w o w this post is getting really long. Tldr; the entire process in becoming a flight attendant was hard but well worth it LOL I hope you guys were able to gain some sort of insight on my experience and found this post somewhat interesting!

best meal of my life

I'm literally about to explode from being so full (my fault for eating so much cake after dinner) but before I fall into the deepest of food comas I need to blog about the amazing experience I had at Sepia restaurant earlier tonight.

Amuse bouche - this had sardines in it, normally I wouldn't eat sardines ok wait actually prior to this I had never eaten a sardine in my life because they look really unappetising. The actual sardine component of the dish was reaaaally crunchy and the whole time I just pretended the crunch wasn't coming those tiny little fish with their tiny little eyes omg (I can not stand small seafood, I have the same problem with fish eggs and dried shrimp idk why)

First course - I'm not even going to bother explaining any of these dishes because it'll take way too long and I've already forgotten most of it, but this first one was a spanner crab dish and I loved it. It was sweet and savoury and acidic and refreshing all at the same time! Great way to start a great meal.

Second course - also amazing even though it had a runny egg in it! I find yolks really gross especially when they're runny so I was kind of bummed when I lifted the fish and saw all this yellow ooze dripping onto my fried potato.. Since I already bursted it by the time I discovered it I just put it in my mouth and I actually liked it a lot .. 

By this point my tastebuds were in shock like how can food be so good what even

Next we were given our bread and butter. EVEN THEIR BUTTER WAS AMAZING HOW DO YOU EVEN MAKE BUTTER LOOK LIKE THIS

I swear, put 'Japanese' in front of anything and it's almost always better hahaha this was Japanese milk bread and wow who knew something as simple as bread could be soooo good

Third course - Abalone! It doesn't look like much, but this dish was basically a cupful of orgasms in my mouth ugh

Fourth course - Seared scampi sushi. I didn't think things could get better than the first three courses but I was wrong... Very wrong. This was one of the highlights of the whole night. It looks like a simple and humble little gunkan sushi but don't be fooled holy shit. The flavour and texture combinations in this dish were on a whole new level I'd never experienced with sushi before. Absolutely amazing.

Finding it hard to comprehend what I just ate

Fifth course - Shiitake mushroom nigiri. This one was also very good but not on the same level as the one we'd just had. Nevertheless I still very much enjoyed it!

Sixth course - Roasted duck. I loooove duck, it's one of my favourite meats! This did not disappoint at all, the duck was cooked perfectly and went perfectly with the sauces on the side.

7th and last savoury course - David Blackmore wagyu beef. A great way to end the savoury component of the meal. Again, everything worked so well together and even though I'm not a fan of mustard at all, I found myself using it all up because it was that good paired with the beef.

Pre dessert - Berries with salted white chocolate and frozen sherbet?! Normally when I think of sherbet I just remember those little sickeningly sweet packets from a long time ago that came with the plastic spoon LOL. This was nothing like that (thank god), a very light refreshing dessert to prepare us for what was coming next heheheh

Dessert - this dish was pretty much what made me want to come to Sepia in the first place. I'd seen it a million times in photos finally today was the day I got to try it!!! I was not left disappointed at all w o w it had soooooo many elements in it and they all just worked together in such beautiful harmony (I sound like I'm on drugs sorrry). I mean what the fuck it even had liquorice in it, I hate liquorice but I still thought it was great

I only had a spoonful of this dessert so I can't really say much, but apparently it was also really good!

'Japanese stones' - this is a not-so-secret secret item which is only available upon request. Our waiter was kind enough to ask the kitchen to make it for us and I'm so glad they did because it was deeeeelicious. They look like ordinary stones but the outside is actually made of chocolate and each one was filled with a different flavour mmm

Overall, tonight was a faultless dining experience I'll never forget!!!! Feeling very blessed ahhhhh time to fall into my food coma ^-^