How a white middle-class male became an oppressed minority (Part 2)

As I mentioned last week, the months following the open day were quiet. Very, very quiet. Martian mausoleum quiet. I thought the best way of getting this across would be to talk you through the e-mails they sent me over that extremely long period. However, I'll do the same thing that I did last week and sum everything up with bullet points the the end.

Etihad Airways Recruitment Team	Thu, Jun 14, 2012 at 4:10 PM
To: trolleyY_dolly

Dear James

Thank you for your participation in our recent recruitment day.

Following your final interview, we are pleased to inform you that your application for the position of Cabin Crew has been successful.

You will now be kept in our holding pool and we shall notify you when we have a training course date available for you.

However, should we not be able to place you on a training course within the next 6 months you may be required to reapply for the position online.

This letter does not constitute an offer of employment and you should not make any decision to terminate your current employment based on it.

Your employment with us is still subject to the successful completion of the necessary clearances. Once we receive all clearances, a member of the recruitment team will be in contact with you.

Please note:

We can only proceed with your application into the next stage, once we have received all your documents.

If you could not provide all necessary documents on your assessment day, kindly forward them as soon as possible to ccrecruitment@etihad.ae

For our reference, kindly include your Name, Online Application ID (ID*******)
as well as the details of your assessment day into the subject line of your Email.


Thank you and best regards

Cabin Crew Recruitment

Hot diggity, I have my foot in the door! Now to practise doing the safety demonstration and pack my bags! I'm sure you noticed all the disclaimers and "re-apply in six months", but I was too busy dreaming of hunky pilots to notice all of that.

Etihad Airways Recruitment Team	Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 10:11 AM
To: trolleyY_dolly

Dear James, As a follow up to your recent interview for cabin crew held in Dublin on the 11th of June 2012; we require outstanding documents from you in order to be able to further process your application for employment.  Kindly arrange to send the following document so that we can move forward with the process; 2 service letters (please note service letters must be on company headed paper and should contain reference to dates of employment and mention position held) All offers of employment are subject to certain processes being completed; once this process is completed, we will be in touch with you. Please be aware that this additional processing can take up to 3-4 weeks once we have received all your necessary information. As we cannot guarantee employment for you at this stage, please do not resign from your current job until you have signed and accepted any draft offer received from us at a later date. Should you have any questions in the interim, please do not hesitate to contact us. Kind regards, Cabin Crew Recruitment I wouldn't know what a "service letter" is if it jumped up and bit me.  I'd be all like "agh, what is that mysterious biting thing!?"  I duly harassed my friendly current and previous employers until they gave me some pretty pieces of paper. Now folks, I need you to check the date of the next e-mail carefully.  Etihad Airways Recruitment Team                    Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 11:30 AM To: trolleyY_dolly Dear James,  I hope this email finds you well.  Currently your application with Etihad Airways is still pending as we are missing the email details of two reference contacts.  Please can you provide us with the name and professional email address of  previous or current employers who we are able to contact immediately in order to complete the reference checks on your file. Please do not provide the email of your current employer if you do not wish for them to be contacted now. Emails must not be yahoo/ gmail or hotmail accounts. I would be obliged if you could please provide me with the missing information by the 9th of August. Unfortunately failure to provide reference details may result in the termination of your application. I look forward to your reply. Kindest Regards Cabin Crew Recruitment Do not adjust your monitors. 44 days of radio silence. In the desert-island-survival movie of my life, my wife has re-married and my children have long-forgotten me. Who will teach them the art of mindlessly insulting strangers over the Internet? I received this e-mail a day before I was due to visit my girlfriend in Korea for three weeks. Imagine a headless chicken that has been told that if it can run in four different directions at once, it will earn back its head. Over the course of 3 hours I re-sent my references to Etihad, discovered that one of said references had taken extended leave, pleaded for a new one over the phone and in person, re-sent the new one and confirmed that Etihad had received a competed assessment form from both references. All while working in a cinema where we weren't permitted to use mobile phones. I was making phone-calls to confirm that all of my odious little ducks were in a row while boarding the plane. Etihad Airways Recruitment Team                   Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 3:35 PM To: trolleyY_dolly Dear James, We have implemented a new security form which all new joiners will have to fill. I understand that you have already filled one, but as per procedure this new one has to be filled. I have attached the form for you, once you have filled all fields required, please send it back to us. We apologize for the inconvienience. Best regards Cabin Crew Recruitment At this point, I didn't know what to think. Did this mean I was back to square one? The security form was one of the first things I filled out back in June as part of my visa application. I was told that it shouldn't hamper my stagger towards gainful employment. In hindsight, having been exposed to the ponderous machinery of U.A.E bureaucracy, if I'd known then what I knew now I would have forever given up on the dream of serving drinks at 35,000 feet. Unfortunately folks, the paper trail stops here. For some reason I can't seem to lay hands on the ensuing e-mails. I had to re-scan my passport and fill out a bunch of forms, but in the last few days of August, I got a wonderful phonecall asking when I would like to start. More e-mails followed - workbooks, manuals, more paperwork and finally my ticket to the desert. I flew out of Dublin on the 25th of November, waving goodbye to my family, pork and Smithwicks Ale, and began my training two days later. The Wait For the vast majority of you, it will be a wait. Unless you speak a language that the company is currently looking for - keep an eye on what routes they are expanding, or if any new routes are opening soon - you will have to join the queue. Arabic and native English speakers are always in demand. Make sure all your documentation is in order. That means translations into English or Arabic and high-quality scans of your various documents, and referees who know that you have given out their contact information and are willing to keep a watchful eye for Etihad e-mails. Check your e-mails daily. You never know when they might need clarification on something. If you're worried and looking for answers, don't e-mail ccrecruitment@etihad.ae, This is the generic e-mail address, and it will take a long time for you to receive a response. Try and get the chief recruitment officer's e-mail on your evaluation day, and  remember that in Abu Dhabi the weekend is Friday-Saturday. Keep in touch with your fellow holding pool hopefuls! Exchange e-mails, keep an eye on cabincrew.com and check Facebook to see if there is a recruitment group. If you have any questions or worries, stick a comment below.