So I've applied for a couple of positions in the past with JetBlue, and the newest prospect is InFlight Crew Member (AKA flight attendant). I've been invited to interview next week at their headquarters in New York, and while it's an eciting prospect, I'm struggling with some questions, so I thought I'd throw them out here for your feedback.
The things I like about the idea of being a flight attendant:
1. Travel Perks - OK, this is admittedly the biggest reason I've been interested in working for an airline. I love...LOVE...the idea of being able to take off to wherever I want for a weekend, whenever. I know it would get old after a while, maybe sooner rather than later, but it would make it easier to visit family and friends, visit different locales for photography, and gather stories of daily interactions with all sorts of people. Oh, and I could visit friends around the country and get a feel for different places and an idea of where I might be interested in living that I'd not considered before. You know, the whole nomadic lust thing.
2. Novelty - It's just one of those jobs I've always wondered about, and though I've always worked in some form of customer service, I've never worked a job quite like that.
3. Personal customer service - I like working directly with customers or guests and making sure they know they're being taken care of. I respond well and with patience to worked-up customers and can often effectively calm them down.
4. Foot in the door - It's a quick way in to see the airline/travel industry a bit closer, primarily out of curiosity to see if I'd be interested in other work there. And JetBlue is supposed to be a great company to work for. I really enjoyed the company "culture" when I interviewed for a reservations agent position in Salt Lake a few months ago (I was politely declined). If I'm gonna work for a big corporation, it might as well be one I believe genuinely gives a rip about its customers and believes in a positive, person-centered, morale-building business model.
The things that make me hesitate:
1. Low pay - I wonder if I wouldn't be better off finding a better-paying, less intriguing job (like the office work I've done so much of) which would allow me to pay for my own @#$% plane tickets when I want to travel or, when I'm not in the traveling mood, would put some money in savings or towards other more pressing needs or wants.
2. Tedium - I'm worried the job would be a bit repetitive or mindless. I like to use my noggin for productive and, preferably, creative plans and ideas and organization and...whatever. I like a mental challenge. While working with a lot of different kinds of people with various requests may challenge my problem-solving skills in some ways, and may provide fodder for my analysis of communication, I still wonder if the job may be too...mundane for my taste. I mean, aside from the occasional puker or terrorist.
3. Coworkers - I really don't mean any offense by this, but I've had a friend or two who have said they had trouble with their coworkers as a flight attendant because conversation tended to be pretty crude and meaningless, and moral standards...well...were hard to find. I like to be around people who can banter in a fun way but also are concerned with personal progress and improvement, world issues, etc. I like academia, at least the non-pretentious, non-snooty side of academia. I've had a couple of jobs where I struggled with the fluffy pop culture focus of my coworkers, and it's...trying, even though I can totally get along and like the people.
4. Relocation - I'm actually interested in relocating to somewhere interesting and preferably where I have some connections from which to form a circle of friends, but I am worried about the cost and whether I can afford to live in one of their base cities on that pay...although I guess if others are doing it, so can I. I'm just worried I'll have to live with 10 people in a 2-bedroom place or something. Ew.
So those are some pros and cons as I see them. Any other input or suggestions from the peanut gallery?
4 comments:
You can come visit me!
FYI- the gay culture is huge with male flight attendants, so either you gotta be super strong or be willing to give in.
Seems to me that the pros outweigh the cons. Seems you could get past #2, and #3 could happen at any job, really. Good luck.
Josh, I can. I'm trying to figure out if I'm going still, now that I know they don't cover travel to the interview, and if I do, what I have time to do in the 2 days or less that I'm there. Bleh.
Quinn, this I know. I don't have interest in the "culture", so that's actually a pretty big turn-off and source of doubt as to whether I'd enjoy the work. I mean, when you're with your coworkers for close to a week at a time, and you just don't get along with them...eh...
Alex, they could happen at any job, yeah. Hard to know. I might get lucky and work with just enough people I really relate to to make it all worth it. Who knows?
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