u/Comfortable-Swan-616

I just need to rant and hopefully get some advice from people in aviation.

After 12th, I joined an aviation/hospitality institute because I was sure I wanted to become cabin crew. I didn't pursue graduation because I genuinely thought I'd get selected and could figure out higher education later.

It's been almost five years of interviews and rejections. For a long time, I assumed the problem was my communication and body language, so I worked really hard on both.

In my most recent interview, I finally reached the medical round, only to be declared medically unfit because of visible facial asymmetry. In my case, one ear is slightly different in position/shape from the other. I've had it since childhood and never had any hearing or functional problems.

I'm honestly devastated because I now don't know if this could have been a factor in my previous rejections too.

I'm 23, don't have a graduation degree, and have only my 12th + aviation/hospitality training. I've given almost five years to this career, and now I genuinely feel lost.

Should I continue trying with other airlines? Could this be an issue everywhere? Should I get it medically evaluated/corrected, or should I finally move on and start building another career?

I don't want sympathy. I just want some honest advice from people who understand aviation recruitment or have experienced something similar.

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I honestly just need to rant and maybe hear from people who have been in a similar situation.

After 12th, I joined an aviation/hospitality institute because I was completely sure that I wanted to become cabin crew. I didn't pursue graduation because, at that point, I genuinely believed I would get selected as cabin crew and then I could figure out higher education alongside my career.

Five years later, I'm still here.

I've given interview after interview and faced rejection after rejection. For the longest time, I thought the problem was my communication. I thought maybe I wasn't fluent enough, maybe my body language wasn't confident enough, maybe I wasn't presenting myself well enough.

So I worked on it.

I spent years practising my communication, spontaneous speaking, fluency, confidence, body language, interview questions, grooming — basically everything I thought could be holding me back. Every time I got rejected, I tried to identify what I had done wrong and work on it.

But I never actually got a clear answer.

Then, in my most recent interview, I finally made it to the medical round. And that's where I was declared medically unfit because of visible facial asymmetry.

In my case, the asymmetry is mainly because my ears aren't positioned exactly the same. One ear is slightly more prominent and positioned differently than the other. I've had it since childhood and it has never caused me any functional or hearing problems.

And honestly, this has completely shaken me.

Because now I'm sitting here thinking — was this something that could have been affecting my previous rejections too? Was I spending years trying to fix my communication and body language when there was another factor I didn't even know was being considered?

I'm 23 now. I don't have a graduation degree. I only have my higher secondary education and my aviation/hospitality training. I invested around five years of my life into this one career because I genuinely believed this was what I was going to do.

And now I'm completely lost.

I don't know whether I should keep trying with other airlines, whether this could be an issue everywhere, whether I should look into correcting the ear asymmetry, or whether I should finally accept that I need to start building an entirely different career from scratch.

The scariest part is that I don't really have a Plan B because I never thought I'd need one this soon.

I'm not posting this for sympathy. I genuinely want some perspective from people who have experience in aviation/cabin crew recruitment, especially anyone who has faced a similar situation.

Would you keep trying? Would you consider getting the asymmetry evaluated/corrected? Or would you take this as a sign to move on and start building another career?

Right now, I honestly don't know what the right decision is.

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