Confession of an Ex Cabin crew
Look, I’m not saying this to demotivate anyone. If you didn’t get selected and you feel like your life is over, I promise it’s not. I worked at crew from 2021 to 2024 (and resigned—I’ll get to why later), and I want to give you total transparency.
Here is what it’s actually like:
1. It’s a beauty pageant.
I’m sorry, but Emirates is all about looks. The selection process is literally a beauty pageant. A lot of new applicants misunderstand the group 1 stage and think it's all about confidence and speaking skills, but the first stage is literally just checking if you look good in real life. That’s why so many confident people get cut even when they totally outperformed others.
2. There is a bit of white supremacy.
They talk a lot about diversity and inclusion, but people of colour are never their first choice. I'm not saying you won't get recruited, but you definitely have to work harder and have way more credentials. Their brand posters and promos always feature white models, and they want to maintain that specific image.
3. The environment is extremely toxic.
This depends on the person, but a typical workday for me felt like walking on broken glass. Supervisors watch you with laser eyes and nitpick everything—you didn't smile enough, your lipstick is a bit smudged, whatever. You literally lose control over your own appearance. Even making slight alterations to your hair can get you written up. I couldn't have bangs, wear slightly dramatic lashes, or thread my eyebrows to the length I wanted because of the uniform code. You have no personal life. Every single decision you make boils down to: Will I get fired if I do this?
4. You don’t travel as much as you think.
This sounds shocking because the whole job is supposed to be about travel. But 24 to 48 hours is way too short to actually explore a city. And let's be honest—flights are usually 4 to 12 hours long. Traveling that long, even as a passenger, is exhausting. Working it? Most crew just crash after flights or stay locked in their hotel rooms. The absolute most exploring anyone does is maybe 2 to 3 hours. It's like seeing 1 percent of the city. 48 hours feels like hitting the jackpot, but you don't always get your dream destinations, and some flights are just turnarounds where you see absolute zero. When I went back to some of these countries on my own money later, I realized I hadn't even seen 0.5 percent of them while working because we had zero time or energy.
5. Mental health does not matter.
You can literally get fired for seeking medication. It's a high-stress job with totally unreliable hours, zero sleep, nagging supervisors, and demanding customers. It destroys your mental health. But if they find out you're taking any meds for it? It's genuinely over. And I don't even mean heavy stuff like psychotic disorders I mean things like anxiety, depression, or stress. It makes zero sense given how insane the workload is, so most crew just hide their struggles and try to cope without help out of pure fear.