Some applicants feel they stand a better chance of getting selected if they stuff their CV with keywords. Be careful that keyword stuffing will get your CV to the bottom of the pile.

So what is keyword stuffing?  It is taking the key requirements from the cabin crew's job description and then proceeding to fill their CV with them, and doing it as much as possible.

A few years ago when web designers created websites for clients, they adopted this practice of keyword stuffing.  Web designers repeated keywords and phrases a few hundred times throughout their site in the hope that Google would rank these sites on Page 1 and they did!  Google then changed its algorithm and rejected web pages that contained keyword stuffing, and in some cases blacklisting some sites altogether! 

The automated recruitment software used by the airline HR team, the likes of HireVue, are now using  ATS (Applicant Tracking System) to look for keywords that are used excessively by the applicant and if such is the case, would reject the full CV altogether.  I came across one candidate who used invisible text to ensure the keywords were repeated more than 20 times on her CV.  She submitted it and received a regret email. But before we go on, it is important to say keywords do play a part in the cabin crew hiring process.  For example, if Emirates or Qatar are looking for cabin crew, and you do not have the keyword 'customer service', your CV is likely to score badly.  However, if "customer service" appears several times particularly when it is not used efficiently, your CV will be sniffed out by the ATS system and it gets rejected.  

Let's face it, by adopting keyword stuffing, you are treating the reader (human or robot) like a total idiot, and this will backfire.

Describing examples of your achievements and using keywords sparingly in the right context will make your CV look truly professional.

It is also important that you use associated terms for hard and soft skills that are related to the main keywords but not mentioned in the cabin crew job description. These are known as action verbs and are scored highly by the ATS software.  Lots of different action verbs will bring your CV to the top of the pile. Using action keywords such as 'negotiated', 'created', 'improved', 'reduced', 'won', 'delegated', 'resolved', 'referred', 'escalated', 'influenced' 'generated' and 'achieved', will add to a higher score.  

I hope the above is useful for those preparing their CVs for Emirates, Qatar or any other international airline.  We also review and make changes to CVs (GBP£35) for cabin crew wannabes, and if you are interested, please use the button below to send your CV to us.