Back in early June, flydubai suddenly reopened its recruitment process for new cabin crew. The airline’s decision to start recruiting again came by surprise but candidates had to be quick – the application window was closed without warning after a couple of weeks. Still, thousands of people around the world managed to submit their application for the chance to start a new life in Dubai.
So what’s happening with the recruitment process now? There’s been very little news from flydubai as to how many people they plan to recruit – or when they’re due to start working for the airline. And if you were lucky enough to pass the video interview, you’re probably still waiting to hear from the flydubai recruitment team.
Here’s a quick reminder of the recruitment process so far: flydubai accepted applications from anyone interested. Apart from some basic criteria like a minimum age and the ability to speak English, it didn’t matter what nationality you were or where you currently lived in the world. Then things started to get difficult…
First, the recruitment team used an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to filter candidates using the resumes they had submitted. Those who were shortlisted then had to complete a set of online assessments including two personality tests, two English tests and a logical reasoning test. It was an undoubtedly hard process but if you successfully passed that stage you finally had to complete an on-demand video interview.
Completed the video interview and heard nothing?
Now, by this stage, the flydubai recruitment stage had managed to massively reduce the pool of potential candidates and were quite quick to update candidates. If you didn’t pass any stage of the recruitment process, flydubai automatically sent you an email very quickly. But what if you’ve completed the video interview and heard nothing?
This is the bit where things get tricky. If you thought the recruitment process was difficult for you, spare a thought for flydubai recruiters. The ‘online’ element of the process was easy for them but now they’ve got to make some tough decisions – and this is why candidates are being forced to wait so long.
The recruitment team will have a good idea of the type of people they want to join their airline as cabin crew. But this isn’t about your personality or work experience anymore – instead, recruiters need to make decisions about the nationalities and language skills of candidates.
What the flydubai recruitment team are doing now…
Just like most Middle East airline’s, flydubai is incredibly proud of its multi-national workforce – And its ability to hire people from around the world makes it popular with candidates. But the airline also needs to address certain needs. So far, the airline has released details of two Assessment Days (the next stage of the recruitment process). One will be held in Tunis, the other in Morrocco – the airline needs Arabic speakers and recruiters have clearly identified lots of good candidates in these two locations.
So now the recruitment team have to assess what other locations they are going to hold Assessment Day’s in – We already know, flydubai is planning expansion in Russia so that could be a positive sign for Russian speaking candidates. India is also an important country for flydubai, as too are countries in East Africa.
Unfortunately, if you’re waiting to hear back from flydubai there’s not a lot you can now do to improve your chance of success. If the recruitment team choose to visit your country you should hopefully receive an invite to an Assessment Day. Remember, because they are choosing locations based on the need for specific skills, you won’t be invited to attend an Assessment Day in any country.
Why haven’t I heard from flydubai?
So what if an Assessment Day is announced in your country and you still don’t hear anything from flydubai? At the moment, the recruitment team are busy ranking candidates in order – clearly, they couldn’t fit everyone into one Assessment Day so they might only invite their top ranked candidates. If anyone drops out or more positions become available, they’ll start inviting lower ranked candidates.
It would, of course, be better if flydubai kept candidates regularly updated but their workload is incredibly high at the moment. The situation is also very fluid – circumstances could change at any moment so the chances of giving out incorrect information is a big risk (just look at the situation at Etihad Airways).
Bottom Line
Patience and a Plan B is really important now – It may be several more months before you hear anything from flydubai. Keep checking the flydubai careers website to see if any Assessment Day’s have been announced in your country. If you do get a regret email, please don’t see this as a reflection on your skills – you passed the Video Interview and did really well in the process. Sadly, flydubai had to make difficult decisions about who could attend an Assessment Day.
