It took me 120 applications to get into private aviation.

Ignoring the application instructions

Wrong subject line. Missing CVs — yes, applications arrive with no CV attached more often than you'd think. Or the opposite: on my last recruitment campaign, I received more than 400 applications including 100 with over 10 attachments we never asked for.

And then there are the emails with no hello, no text, nothing, just attachments. What do you expect a recruiter to do with that?

Not speaking business aviation language

Positioning yourself as a "VIP FA" or selling "VIP experience" from a commercial cabin doesn't translate. Operators read hundreds of CVs — they know the difference immediately.

The same goes for calling yourself a freelance corporate flight attendant. We know who the freelancers are, and who they are not. No track record of the companies you freelanced for takes your CV straight to the bin. Never claim something you can't prove, and never embellish your CV.

And a word on ACMI operations: flying a fully configured 737 or A320 for a charter company is real experience — but these companies don't own private jets, and it is not VIP business aviation. Present it for what it is.

One generic application for every operator

A 3-aircraft charter operation in Vienna and a large managed fleet are not looking for the same profile.

If your cover letter could be sent anywhere, it lands nowhere.

Confusing cabin experience with operational readiness

This is the biggest one. Yes, service matters — but the service you deliver in the air is maybe 20% of the job. The other 80% happens before the passenger ever boards:

Being in touch with the sales department to find out the guests' requests. Sourcing and coordinating catering from scratch. Building a menu around one passenger's preferences. Plating, sometimes cooking onboard, managing inventory, cabin presentation, safety, supplier relationships, and everything in between.

In commercial aviation, you execute a service designed by someone else, with a crew around you and a procedure for everything. In business aviation, you are the operation — alone, on a different aircraft, for a different client, every rotation.

So stop overselling your service experience. We know that if you come from EK or QR, you are five-star cabin crew. But five-star cabin crew is not operationally ready to operate a private jet.

Applying out of desperation

Sending your file to every posting, hoping something sticks — recruiters feel it instantly. The wrong operator's name in the title of your motivation letter gives it away in one second.

A desperate application reads differently from a targeted one.