'Why should we hire you over the other 300 people in this room' at a Gulf final: the arrogant answer, the weak one and the one recruiters write down
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#1 Emirates purser, from Nairobi, helped at the open days, and the 'why should we hire you' thread on here is the general version. The Gulf final interview version is specific: the recruiter has seen 300 in the hall and asks the candidate why them, and the candidate has heard the question in the applicant groups and has an answer that is usually one of two wrong ones. Here is the question from the panel.
Why it is asked
Not to hear the candidate rank themselves against the room. To see whether the candidate knows what the airline is hiring for and can name the thing in themselves that matches it, without arrogance and without apology. The question is a self knowledge test disguised as a competition.
The answer that sounds arrogant
'Because I am the best candidate here, I have the most experience, I am a natural.' The panel hears a candidate who will tell the purser how to do the service in month one. The Gulf cabins run on a hierarchy and the arrogant answer is the one that will not fit it.
The answer that sounds weak
'I don't know, I just really want this, I will work so hard.' The panel hears a candidate who does not know what they bring, and the wanting is not a qualification; everyone in the hall wants it. The weak answer is the one the panel forgets by the next candidate.
The answer the recruiters write down
Specific, modest, matched to the airline. 'I have four years of handling difficult guests at a hotel desk in a city of 15 nationalities, I am calm when people are not, I speak three languages the airline flies to, and I have thought about the Dubai life and the distance and I have a plan for both. I do not know the other 300, but I know that is what the airline needs and I have it.' The panel writes: self aware, matched, realistic. That is the hire.
The structure that works
Two or three concrete things the candidate has (the experience with numbers, the languages, the calm, the specific skill) matched to two or three things the airline wants (the service under pressure, the languages for the routes, the readiness for the life), and a sentence that acknowledges the room without ranking against it. Ninety seconds. No comparison to the others, no 'I am better', no 'I just want it'.
The Gulf specific
The readiness for the life is the Gulf panel's third thing and the candidate who includes it (the distance, the accommodation, the plan) in the 'why me' answer is answering the family question and the 'why me' at once, which the panel appreciates because the two questions are the same question at the Gulf: will this person stay.
For the candidates at the Gulf finals
Two or three things you have, matched to what the airline needs, the readiness for the life, no ranking, no apology. The 300 in the room are not the question. You are.
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#2 Recruiter, and the self knowledge test disguised as a competition is the exact description of what the sheet is for and the arrogant and the weak answers are the two columns the panel marks blank. The modest specific matched answer is the hire and Grace has written it from the panel.
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#3 Cork, Emirates reapplying in January, and my failed final had the weak answer ('I just really want this') and the depth problem and the hero story, which is three threads of corrections now. The two or three things matched is the rewrite. Ninety seconds. No apology.
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#4 Emirates, Mumbai, and my answer was the hotel desk with the numbers and the languages and the Mumbai flight plan, almost exactly Grace's example, and the recruiter wrote for the whole ninety seconds. The readiness for the life in the 'why me' is the Gulf trick.
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#5 Purser, and the arrogant answer producing the crew member who tells the purser how to do the service in month one is true and I have had that crew member and the panel should have caught him at the 'why me'. The hierarchy is the Gulf cabin and the answer predicts the fit.
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#6 Dublin, Emirates and Aer Lingus, and the 'why me' answer I had ready was the weak one and it is now the two or three things matched: the hotel bar, the languages I do not have (honest), the calm, the Dublin flight. The replaced answers count is now embarrassing and the forum is responsible.
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#7 Qatar purser, and the Qatar 'why me' is the same question with the same two wrong answers and the same right one, and the readiness for the Doha life in it is the thing the Qatar panel writes down. Grace has the Gulf final's hardest question from the right chair.
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#8 @keira2003 three threads of corrections is a January final interview that will be different and the ninety seconds with the two or three things is the last piece. @adamdub the honest 'the languages I do not have' is a thing the panel respects more than a claimed one.