It’s been said that it’s harder to get invited to the Delta flight-attendant training center than to get into Harvard University.
“It’s very competitive, and people get passed over all the time,” Annette Long, a flight attendant with 14 years of experience, previously told Business Insider about the flight attendant hiring process.
If a candidate has a compelling enough résumé, they may face a variety of interview techniques including video interviews, Q&A sessions, and in-person meetings.
Long says that many flight attendants apply and interview several times before getting the job, having to wait six months to a year between interviews because job openings are so scarce.
“When you make that first impression, you’ve gotta do it perfectly – you don’t get a second chance,” she says.
Here are some of the toughest questions flight-attendant candidates have faced along the way, according to anonymous candidates on Glassdoor:
'You have one seat left on a flight, and you have five passengers waiting on standby: A military man in uniform, a pregnant woman, a woman and her infant child, an elite customer who is a frequent flyer of Northwest Airlines, and a gentleman trying to go and see his ill sister. Who will be the one to get the empty seat on the flight, and why?' — Northwest Airlines (now Delta Air Lines) flight attendant candidate
'You are mid-flight and the pilot asks you to preform a task which you are not authorized to preform. How would you handle the situation?' — Air Wisconsin Airlines flight attendant candidate
'Create a PA announcement for a couple celebrating their 50th year anniversary' — Delta Air Lines flight attendant candidate
'If a coworker was removing items from the aircraft would you talk to them about it first or report to management?' — Delta Air Lines flight attendant candidate
'What would you do if a passenger told you it was their loved one's remains inside the urn they were holding and they didn't want to place it underneath the seat?' — Alaska Airlines flight attendant candidate
'Describe the color yellow to somebody who's blind' — Spirit Airlines flight attendant candidate
'If you were working and there was a passenger complaining about sitting next to someone of a different race, how would you handle it?' — ExpressJet Airlines flight attendant candidate
'I'm a customer who refuses to close their laptop before takeoff — what do you do?' Then, 'You come back and I still haven't turned it off — what do you do now?' — United Airlines flight attendant candidate
'Can you recall a time when you had to break an obligation, and for what reason?' — JetBlue flight attendant candidate
'What is the international distress signal?' — US Airways flight attendant candidate
'If you could be anywhere in the world right now where would you be?' — American Airlines flight attendant candidate
'Convince us that you can work under pressure.' — Virgin America flight attendant candidate
'Describe a time you were in an emergency situation and how did you handle it?' — Southwest Airlines flight attendant candidate
'A fellow employee is texting during take off — what do you do?' — Alaska Airlines flight attendant candidate
'How many basketballs would fit in this room?' — Delta Air Lines flight attendant candidate
