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Through nineteen rejections (yes, 19, not a typo), I never made it past the first round. At my eighteenth interview, I self-rejected at the entrance of Virgin HQ. At the nineteenth, I walked out before the first eliminations.
I succeeded with Emirates on my 20th.
Keep going in your journey and don’t give up.
Rejection is a problem that needs to be solved, and problem-solving is a core cabin crew skill.
Rejection comes with feedback — just not the kind spelled out for you.
Think of the interview as your black box. Every flight has one, recording the truth of what happened — not guesses, not impressions, but the raw data. You’re the only one who can interpret the recording. And your job after rejection is to tune into what actually happened. Because that’s where the real learning lives.
You need a report. A proper one. Written like an incident at 36,000 feet — because if you keep crashing in interviews, that’s exactly what it is. Step into accident investigator mode. Fill out an accident report card. Open yourself up. Pull the wreckage apart. And get honest — the uncomfortable kind.
A good, honest debrief doesn’t fix the accident that just happened, but it can prevent the next one.
Plugging gaps in your CV might take three weeks. It might take a year if you need experience. For me, it took two years. Slowing down doesn’t mean giving up. It means getting smart. It means buying yourself time to become undeniable. There is a valid reason why airlines have a mandatory waiting period between reapplication, it is so we can go away, improve our candidacy, and return.
We all need a crosschecking buddy. But…Groupthink and forum gossip are turbulence in this journey. Remember, when you enter forums, you’re all survivors of the same crash (rejected interview), standing around the wreckage, trading theories about the cause — without having the skills to decode the signals.
It’s great having camaraderie and support, however, be sure to crosscheck everything and everyone because there is a lot of misinformation out there. And crosscheck me, too. Build your dream with integrity.