Moving up to the big time – Sydney, long haul and the A380

In January of 2013 I answered an ad for Arabic speakers at Qantas. I am of course not an Arabic speaker, but I thought I would apply anyway, in the hope that maybe they would call me after they had found all their Arabic speakers. I really didn’t think they would.

VH-OQA 'Nancy'

But then in February I got an email inviting me to a recruitment day in Sydney. Just like on that first day on the Dash 8, I just about filled my pants. I couldn’t believe it – the ultimate of dream jobs, suddenly within my reach. I don’t know how I pulled it off, but I swapped a few shifts with other crew, and just a few days later I was on a plane to Sydney, nervous as hell.

I won’t bore you with the details, but the entire day was great. I had done so many recruitment days like this by now, but this one was just off the charts. I had such a good feeling. I knew how they worked and what they were looking for and what would impress them, and I know I aced it. I even surprised myself with getting up and speaking in front of the whole room when normally I hate public speaking. But I got up and the words flowed out so easily and I wondered for a second if I had finally reached the point where I no longer got embarrassed and red in the face at standing up in front of a crowd and talking. It was a pivotal moment for me.

We had a lunch break and eagerly waited to see who had been cut from the group and who was going to be asked to stay on into the afternoon for one on one interviews. I sat with a few people I actually already knew – the aviation industry in Australia is so, so small, that you always bump into someone you know. Everyone used to fly with someone you know or someone went through ground school with someone else. It’s such a small world, so when I fronted up for this recruitment day in Sydney it did not surprise me in the least that I would straight away see two people I used to fly with there too!

I made the cut, and went back after lunch and had an interview with two lovely cabin crew managers. One of them had previously flown on the 717 with Jetstar so we straight away got on like a house on fire and discussed this shared trait a lot during my interview. It was great to find some common ground and I took it as a good sign!

By early April I’d finally found out I had the job, and I bid a sad farewell to the 717 and the Qantaslink team – the Linkette’s as we called ourselves – and packed up the only life I’d ever known in Perth and moved to Sydney. I had a month between finding out I had the job to starting training. It was ridonkulous!

I went over to Sydney one weekend before my start date and went flat hunting. I did not know what I was doing in the slightest with this, as I had never rented before, so thank god I had a good friend from Newcastle come to Sydney for a few days to come and see some flats with me. She was much more knowledgeable than me, and when we went to the last place on my list on the very last day, me getting more desperate by the minute to find somewhere to live, I finally felt like I’d struck gold and filled out an application on the spot. I knew no better, but as we drove away my friend was indignant. “That place is SO yours.” And she was right.

It’s weird living by yourself after moving out of the family home. I’d never lived alone before. Though nothing bothers me about being alone. I knew sharing would be a good way to live a bit more cheaply, but I knew nobody in Sydney, so it would’ve meant living with strangers, which I wasn’t 100% keen on. So I ended up in a little one bedroom flat near the beach south of Sydney.

My new home in Sydney

It was cool to have my own little place though. It wasn’t much, and certainly wasn’t in a nice suburb, or have any fancy extras like a balcony, or a parking space or air con, but it was all I could afford, and I liked it. In between training at Qantas I decked it out with furniture and photos from my travels and really made it my own. I also found that I actually enjoyed doing my own laundry and shopping and making my own meals. I’d done a fair bit of that when living with my family too of course, but this was different. I revelled in being so responsible for myself. I felt like I could do anything.
 

Which was lucky, because I needed that kind of self belief to get through A380 training. All seven weeks of it…

Hear all about it next entry!

Finally in my treasured boomerang dress

Jorgs