CABIN CREW STORIES – “My goal in life: be happy, embrace freedom!”
By Alex Iovanovici – Corporate Cabin Crew
The cabin crew job was not necessary a dream for me, a Romanian young man from Moldova-Noua. I grew up in a very nice country, being educated to believe that family should be the top priority in everyone’s life. I lived my childhood very intense and I was for my family like Kevin, from the “Home Alone” movie. That’s why now I am taking this opportunity to thank them for showing me and offering me everything they could. I can’t be more proud of such a great family!
While working on a ground staff position in the Duty Free area, inside the airport of Vienna, I was told while interacting with different crew, that I should give it a try and become a flight attendant. As a 21-year old young man originally from Romania, usually people see in me commitment, positivity and a person who believes in love. Maybe these qualities helped me during the hard days when I moved to Austria. It was really challenging because of the new language and culture, but I kept on saying to myself that nothing is impossible. In fact I was lucky to find a job as a waiter really fast, due to the fact that I speak Serbian too, besides English. The job was very interesting and most of my customers were asking me why I left Romania for Austria. They were all saying how brave I was to take this risk of changing countries at the age of 19. This happened just because at that time I didn’t focus on education that much, even if I was thinking that someday I should graduate a university in Romania probably. But I kept this thought in my mind and finally decided that I have to gain some life experience and continue my studies in the same time. So this year I also got my degree, knowing that this is the key to my future.
Until April 2015 I have never stepped into any international airport, when accidentally I had the chance to see Vienna International Airport. That moment really impressed me and somehow a thought immediately came to my mind: ‘I wish one day I could work here.’ One year later, surprisingly my chance came and I think that this experience of working in an airport completely changed my life. My cousin was working there and I remember asking her if there is any chance to get a job and work in the aviation environment. It was more like a joke, but she quickly forwarded my CV and in one week I was already scheduled for an interview. That was the beginning of a new chapter in my life and I was really happy to pass successfully my one month of probation. The job I do was not for everyone, as I was working in sales. For this job you must have very good communication skills, a bit of luck, lots of charm in order to get the attention of your customers. In an airport, the possible customers are in a hurry almost all the time to reach the boarding gate assigned as there is little or no time to get their flight. So sometimes it can be difficult to interact with them and recommend them beauty products. That’s why I always have to work hard and scan the customers quickly in order to get their attention, to offer them immediately feedback or the products they need. I discovered in time that working with and meeting new people every day it doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I am really grateful that due to this job, I realized I love being around people, helping them choose the best beauty products, even if sometimes it is a tiring job, especially during the busiest flying hours or during holidays.
Sometimes passengers can transmit or share their feelings. One day, being in a hurry to serve everybody, by mistake I spilled a cup of coffee on a customer. I got scared a bit, imagining how upset the passenger would get, but luckily the lady’s reactions were very calm and lovely. I apologized, of course, and offered her a wet napkin, but her answer was that it could happen to anyone. Other time I noticed a girl crying her eyes out in the airport and I didn’t know how to help her. So I approached her and just said: ‘Free Hugs’. She immediately came to me and opened up. She just needed to talk about the fight she had had with a dear person and kept on talking to me for around 20 minutes. She felt good after pouring all her heart out and thanked me for being such a good listener. So if I thought at the beginning that working in a big international airport would be a normal job, it took me a short time to realize that every day one can deal with different situations. I also realized how lucky I am to meet lots of people from different backgrounds, cultures, etc. All these made me improve myself, my knowledge, feel and understand better the persons around. I meet a lot of people from all around the world and with some of them I still stay in touch. I am thankful, happy and honored to know all of them and their life stories.
My goal in life has always been: stay happy, embrace freedom, be a better version of myself, improve my current skills – in few words: be cabin crew. Even if I have always thought that a crew job is not for me, later on I started realizing that I feel comfortable around people, that I want to communicate more, all being possible if I get a job into the aviation field, as a flight attendant perhaps. While working on ground, I noticed that there is a high growth registered daily, when speaking of the number of passengers travelling, airlines, taking off, landings and the frequency of flights. So in a fast growing environment, like the aviation field, normally it must be clear to everyone that airlines also need to increase their number of employees as well. So the moment when I asked myself or others asked me ‘What is your next move in life? What are your plans for the future?” I was always answering that I have to listen to my heart and move forward to higher grounds, up between the clouds.
In order to do that, I started attending some interviews and from the beginning I chose only the airlines that seemed interesting to me. The interviews were not difficult and so I realized I can do better by joining a major international carrier. I knew that studying more the cabin crew lifestyle and understanding what it involves, then a better offer would come. I heard that working as cabin crew is not easy when you have to deal with 50 or more passengers on a flight. I had to confirm that to myself and this is how I started preparing. For a while I did this on my own, but then I heard about Nicoleta Gherman, the aviation trainer. I spoke with her several times about my dream. I learnt from her experience of almost 11 years as cabin crew with an international top airline and helped me more to dream higher. Mrs. Nicoleta is not only a lovely person, she became my friend and I realized I really have so many things to learn from her. I believe I was really lucky to meet her by chance and get answers to any question I have addressed to her regarding aviation, learn more things about the cabin crew life and became more confident in myself. I can say that meeting her opened my eyes even more than before. She is like a role model for me now and I thank her for making me think big and take a risk. She made me believe in myself, encouraging me to ‘create’ and visualize myself as a future cabin crew. She became a mentor for me and I can say that she prepared for a new life. She even invited me for the interview she organized for Small Planet Airline. I successfully passed the interview stages and got employment offers from a two European airline, Ryanair and Small Planet Airline and a five star Middle-Eastern one, however I turned them down as I felt my wishes do not match these companies’ profile. Of course money or facilities were not decision making factors for me. It was all about how I felt about those airlines. I attended an interview afterwards with another Arabic airline, but I still wanted to find my place with a European airline. That happened shortly and I was very happy when I was informed that I passed the interview with one of the most important private company in Europe. When I started my cabin crew initial training I was so happy, feeling that is the place where I want to be. After passing my final exams, I started flying and few days ago passed the line check. Suddenly I feel ready to take the skies!