Qatar Open Day and how to ensure you are well prepared

Preparing for the Qatar Airways Cabin Crew Open Day

When you attend a Qatar Airways open day or Qatar Airways recruitment event as they call it, you need to dress in formal business attire. By this, I mean business skirt and matching jacket. Go for black or dark grey business business attire with white blouse.

And do not forget to bring theses essential requirements with you when you attend the open day:

- Your CV (ensure it has been checked over for Qatar keywords and use of correct English grammar by us before you even show this to them). For more info on getting your CV to us, click here.

- Your passport photo then in business attire (this means with your jacket) on a white background. Do not be smart and use a blue background - this is for their finalists only who are required to submit additional pictures for their visa etc.

- Copy of your international passport (just your first page) but ensure it is a proper scan and not holding the passport in one hand and taking the picture with your camera phone.

- Your applicant ID. To get this, you must first pre-register before you attend the Qatar Open Day. It is like a pre-approval to ensure you meet the minimum standards that they require.

- A copy of the invitation - After you have registered at the Qatar recruitment portal, you will receive an invitation from them to attend the Open Day. Yes, bring this copy with you.

After the Qatar CV drop off day or Open Day, you may be shortlisted and will be requested to attend the assessment process on the same day or to return the next day.

PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR REGISTRATION & YOUR CV
Preparation you need before you attend the open day

• Qatar uses the HR technology called Applicant Tracking System Software to track and progress applications. This also means it uses the software to allocate scores to high performing keywords that they require. And you need to score well in these keywords. It’s not the case of flooding your CV with all of the keywords from Qatar’s job description. If you did that, the system knows you are spamming it, and will reject you for too many keywords. You need to use some logical sense when using keywords and also repeating them at least twice in your work experience.

• Get your CV reviewed and updated by us if you want to increase your chances of getting shortlisted. Learn More here. We use the 5 major keywords they have highlighted and scan that you have enough of them interspersed with your experience. None of the “free ATS” on Google are good enough to check these as they do not allocate weightings to keywords. All they do is a simple keyword matching and scores your CV accordingly, so passing that at 70 or 80% is of no use whatsoever.

• If we find you are lacking a little in the major keywords, we will rewrite those sentences for you and you will be amazed that this could make or break the deal in getting shortlisted.

• During the CV drop off morning, your will be asked questions on why do you wish to join Qatar or why do you want to be a cabin crew, or what are you currently doing. These are ice breaker questions but it is also to test you come across well when speaking, have good interpersonal skills, a welcoming voice, smiling at the end of each answer and look approachable. After we review your CV, we will also give you a tip sheet on how to answer these questions according to your CV experience.

Do not attend the Open Day if you have one of the following any form of skin allergy on face, hands and lower arms, some acne, shaving rash (for males), cold sores around your mouth, scarring or burns, tattoos or henna designs, any form of facial injury or scarring, or skin swelling caused by mosquito bites or stings.

Grooming Standards

Females:

• If you are wearing a white blouse, ensure you wear a plain white camisole inside to prevent your blouse from having the “see-through” effect.

• Ensure you have clear, clean and oil free facial skin and well groomed hair. For make-up, please use foundation, mascara, lipstick and blusher.

• Your nail polish should be in one of the following - clear, rose, burgundy, pink or French manicure. These are the colours that blend in well with the Qatar cabin crew uniform and part of their guidelines for their crew. Do not use white, matt, metallic colours or frosted colours.

• For your lipstick, use burgundy, rose or pink. Your lip liner should be the same colour as you're lipstick. Do not use pale or nude lipstick.

• For your eye shadow, use colours to match your skin tone and compliments the burgundy tone of their cabin crew uniform. So, the burgundy, brown, pastel pink and rose pink shades will go very well. Do not use eye glitter, white, green or blue eye shadows.

• For eye liner, use the same shades like brown, charcoal or grey.

• No false eye lashes or extensions.

• Microblading is definitely not allowed unless you are absolutely sure it will not be noticed during close examination.

• For blusher, use peach, warm pink or rose.

• For hair, ensure it is non-oily, dandruff free and combed away from your face. Remember, that for hair, only your natural colour or as close to your natural shade is allowed - no highlights or lowlights.

• Very short hair is not permitted. Gelled and oily hair is also not permitted.

• Do not wear glasses, use contact lenses. Contact lenses must be clear.

• For hosiery, wear neutral or matt skin tone stockings, holdups or tights. Ensure you check for holes and tears. Always carry a spare pair of hosiery.

• Ensure your weight is proportional to your height, have a healthy BMI that is between 19 to 25, and you are fit and healthy.

Males

• Must be cleanly shaven

• Oil free skin

• Clear complexion

• Hair must be well styled, neat, tidy and combed away from your face.

• Length of hair must be above your collar.

• Minimal hair styling gel or cream.

• No facial hair.

• Moustaches and beards are not allowed.

• Crew cut hair is disallowed.

Do not wear watches or rings on open days.

Ensure your shoes are in good condition, well polished and presentable.

I cannot stress enough on image, style and self presentation. Even with an average CV, if you score well on personal presentation, there is a strong chance of getting shortlisted. At Qatar Airways, remember they are the only 5 star airline in the Persian Gulf and they emphasise a lot on their image appearance which has to be impeccable and professional at all times. You want to show that you are well capable of repenting the State of Qatar and be an ambassador for the Qatar Airline.

Finally, ensure your spoken English is excellent. Do not apply if you are still struggling to explain certain terms in English. For age, please ensure you are at least 21 when you apply. Although an upper age limit is not specified and you are welcome to apply, you may however wish to note that they often will only take girls between 21 to 30 and have an average cabin crew age of 26.

If you are attending the Qatar Open Day, follow the tips here and get your CV reviewed by us.