Finnair’s Cabin Crew Selection Process

Created in 1923, Finnair is one of the oldest airline in the world and the national Finnish air company.

Based at Helsinki Airport in Vantaa, Finland, I had to move from France.

The airline is growing so much these days, especially in Asia. Considering that there are only 5,5 million inhabitants in such a vast country, last year, they decided to open the Cabin Crew recruitment to applicants that do not necessarily speak Finnish.

I was among the lucky first recruited. The recruitment process was long but compared to what I was used to, it was well organised and prepared. This is what I admire so much about the Nordic culture.

As an example, this is from en e-mail that I received before heading to the Assessment Day :

The courses organised in autumn start as follows: 4.9., 18.9., 2.10, and each course lasts 8 weeks. The course for candidates who have experience in cabin crew work will start on 24.10.2018 and it is shorter than 8 weeks. During this selection round we will select cabin crew members for permanent work, both for full-time and part-time contract. The estimated start date for the work is 1.12.2018

Look at how how everything is already planned !

The airline’s website is pretty transparent about the process : https://company.finnair.com/en/careers/cabin-crew

I sent my application on April 16th, 2018. I was incredibly selected on April 30th, 2018. Then, I had to answer to the different Cabin Crew pre-assignments with 3 online tasks that were :

• Work related behavior (shapes, basic) -> questions about your behaviour in general
• Verbal reasoning (scales verbal, consumer) -> questions about how you would act with a customer
• Inductive-logical thinking (scales ix) -> questions about some texts and figures that are given

There also was a very short video interview with 3 questions. I unfortunately can’t recall what those were about.

After that second selection, I had to go to Helsinki twice :

The first time for the personal and group interview on June 21st, 2018. You are offered different days and times through a very practical booking system with a maximum of 9 participants per session. It lasts 3 hours at longest (1 in the morning, and 1 in the afternoon). It is basically the same process like with every airline : personal interview, group tasks and role play.

A week later, on June 28th, 2018, I received the golden e-mail telling me that I had been selected for the training. It would start on October 24th, 2018 and last until December 13th, 2018. You can’t imagine how excited I was, but it also meant that I REALLY had to move to Finland.

The second time, I had to fly to Helsinki once again on September 26th, 2018 for the Medical Check and the uniform fittings. If you manage well, you may be able to have everything in the same day (always through that very practical booking system). Indeed, you are allowed to start the training ONLY if the Medical Check doesn’t reveal anything that is not proper for the job. At that time, I wasn’t really stressed about it since I had been flying before without any issues.

I really moved to Helsinki about a week before the training to organise paper work, open a bank account… But actually, it was useless.
You have to know that you will sign a permanent contract as Cabin Crew ONLY if you manage to pass all the tests during the training.
And basically, without any contract, almost nothing can be done.
However, as en EU citizen, you can stay in the country during 3 months without any justification. It was such a hassle, but I guess that was because we were the first foreigners coming to work as Cabin Crew based in Helsinki.
From what I’ve heard, Finnair is much more well prepared to welcome you nowadays.

I was very proud to work for Finnair at that time and can only recommend you to try and work there if you are willing to live

The Nordic Way.