In the new Chinese society, being a stewardess is one of the most sought after positions available, and competition is intense. Over the last two days, Lucky Air (吉祥航空) and Sichuan Airlines (川航空) have held a job fair in Nanjing, and the turn out was amazing. Recent high school graduates, university students (including one who studied abroad in California), and former white collar workers all attended. Though having no related experience, but most said the same thing: jobs are increasingly hard to find, and they are just going to give this a try.
Zhang Ting, a 20 year old girl from Shanghai, was lucky enough to have her entire family come to support her. With her father dragging a suitcase, her mother holding a make-up kit, and her grandfather leisurely sipping tea, Ms. Zhang was ready for anything. Her father, though, was less confident. “We are here because this place is hard to find, and we would not be comfortable with letting her come alone. So we all got in the car and came. But can people who have been pampered since childhood provide good customer service?”
Ms. Zhang’s father may have a point, hence a rigorous selection process. But what do these try outs actually involve? Aside from judging physical aspects of applicants (with height being most important), women had to line up in groups of ten to answer several questions. One woman was asked, “if you have a boyfriend, but find a better man on board the airplane, would you dump your present boyfriend and get with your new love?” She responded, “Umm…well, I don’t have a boyfriend.”
Not all answers fell in this range. When asked how to respond if a customer accused her of being un-filial to her parents, one applicant said she goes home every night to cook hot, steaming food for her mother. The judge pressed the point, insisting that this applicant did not respect her parents. “Okay then” she responded. Judges commented that this is the sort of answer they like most, as being non-confrontational but quick witted with customers is one of their most sought after virtues.
Of the women who attended, many were anxious to show off their foriegn language credentials. A number of applicants claimed they could speak English, Japanese, Korean and even French. However, when asked to simply introduce themselves, many fell short. Excuses ranged from not practicing introductions to only knowing a few words of a foreign language, certainly not enough to string a sentence together.
From this event, Lucky Air and Sichuan Airlines were able to pick out the best applicants. But why is being a stewardess so appealing? Whatever the draw, it is not related to a high salary. Though stewardess salaries were as high as 10,000 RMB a month in 1997, changes to labor laws have caused that number to drop sharply. As pay is calculated by hours flown and stewardesses can only legally be in the air for 120 hours a month, the average salary is now around 5,000 RMB.
Maybe the spirit of adventure is what draws these women to this job, or the romantic nature of traveling the world. Whatever it is, it continues to draw large numbers of women to try out.
Nanjing News Sources
The content and picture for this article was sourced from www.njnews.cn, and the originals can be found here.
