Over the past week after the announcement of Cathay Pacific’s restructuring plans, we were frequently asked the question, "What jobs could flight attendants do, if even the aviation giant of Hong Kong is laying people off?"
What was phenomenal was that, almost immediately after Cathay announced its restructuring plans, recruiters, and I mean lots of recruiters, immediately jumped into actions. These recruiters represented a broad range of industries.
How is a flight attendant's experience relevant to other industries?
Let's first look at what an FA is required to do. While their jobs are incredibly intensive and busy and there are different versions across organizations, Cathay Pacific summarized their job responsibilities into 3 simple points which pretty much covered the gist.
Demonstrate interpersonal effectiveness
Actively look for ways to exceed passengers' expectation
Carry out inflight safety and security procedures
Each of these points hold deep implications into capabilities that could be transferred to other industries. Let's take a closer look.
Interpersonal effectiveness
A major part of FA’s job involves interaction with all walks of life. The interactions could involve a provision of service, information relay, complaint management or even crisis management. All these interactions happen within the cabin, inflight, which means the FA needs to come up with a solution with limited time and resources. This is an invaluable skill set.
Moreover, the professional etiquette of FAs have long been exemplary. Many industries look at aviation for inspiration in providing the best and most professional service to customers. What’s more important behind it is the deep-rooted service mindset, which takes enormous time to cultivate.
These are the major reasons why many industries jump at the news of Cathay’s redundancy. The skill set of interpersonal effectiveness and exemplary professional etiquette would be highly transferable in companies where there is a strong need to build client relationship, provide exceptional professional service, and maintain a premium corporate brand. Companies such as financial institutions, private banking, or job functions that involve premium client services and key account management could be relevant options to explore.
Exceeding passengers’ expectation
It is not an easy task to exceed a passenger’s expectation. The process involves an intuitive and accurate assessment of the passenger’s needs, analysis of where the pain points are and what the company could do, and service delivery at a level high enough to impress a passenger. It takes rich experience and smooth operation support to deliver.
This is the skill set essential in any sales or business development occasion. While industry- or company-specific knowledge could not be transferred, the ability to accurateLy assess customers’ needs and come up with viable solution to exceed their expectation is the essential technique behind these functions, which are virtually needed in all industries.
Compliance with safety protocols and regulations
Flight safety protocols and regulations are some of the, if not the most, complicated protocols, due to the risk factors behind them. The quality of service and procedures is high in the perspectives of safety, security, food safety and customer service. To be able to comply with them requires intensive training, thorough understanding of the rationale behind, and constant risk assessments throughout the process.
The ability to do so would be valuable in the fields of quality control, training and risk management in customer service and F&B sectors. The conversion to such sectors would require hard work since they involve a lot of industry-specific knowledge, yet the soft skills and mindset which are most difficult to train, are there.
Cultural versatility
Apart from what was specifically written, flight attendants are constantly required to interact with customers from across the globe, delivering the best possible service in their eyes. This exemplified their ability to be sensitive to cultural diversity. Such an exposure is not common in workplace in Hong Kong, and could contribute to promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace, which is a common theme especially amongst MNCs.
What is right for you?
Career transition is not an easy process, yet through this article we hope that you are able to draw certain linkages that might be relevant to facilitate the move. The possibilities are out there.
With so many possibilities, how could you maneuver a transition that works for you? We would recommend you to take a look at our previous article “3 questions to ask before job hunting” which would give you some insights on preparing for your next move.
Project Timeout offers personalised coaching service to help our clients focus on the right thing in their career. Facilitated by valid personality assessment tools, we help you take a pause from your daily routines to re-focus. A Pause That Matters.
We are currently offering complimentary 1-hour coaching sessions to former CX / KA staff affected by the recent redundancy.
Contact us to talk about your career.
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