Cabin crew CV with no aviation experience, what actually gets you through screening?
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#1 I'm 22, three years as a barista and one year on a hotel front desk. Every airline says "customer service experience" but my CV looks nothing like the ones I see on Instagram.
What do recruiters actually want to see on page one? Do I lead with the hotel job or the café? And is a photo on the CV itself a good or bad idea for European airlines?
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#2 I've sat on the other side of the table. Honestly: one page, reverse chronological, customer-facing job at the top, and numbers. "Served 300+ customers per shift" beats "responsible for customer service" every time.
Hotel front desk first, it maps directly to what we do (complaints, check-in flow, calm under pressure). The café goes second with a line about speed and teamwork.
Photo: for UK/Irish carriers, no photo on the CV. For Emirates, Qatar and Etihad, photos are a separate upload with their own spec, not on the CV.
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#3 Adding to that, put your languages with honest levels (B2, C1). Ryanair screening software looks for them and for right-to-work. And name the file properly, Firstname-Lastname-CV.pdf. You'd be amazed how many "finalCV_v3_REAL.docx" we get.
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#4 Thanks both, rewrote it last night. Hotel job now has "handled 40+ check-ins per shift and resolved complaints without escalation", feels much stronger. Photo removed for the UK applications.