>> Jill: Hi, my name is Jill and I was a flight
attendant for ten years right out of college.
It has been a long time since I've flown,
but it was really an interesting job
and I'd like to tell you more about it.
>> Can you tell us a little
bit about your story?
How did you get into flight attending?
>> Jill: Well, I majored in education --
secondary education with
the plan to teach English.
I graduated from college and that last
year I decided I really wanted to travel.
So I applied the summer after graduation
to several airlines and I just hoped
that I would have the opportunity to travel
both domestically and internationally
and I [clears throat] was
hired by Eastern Airlines.
And I also wanted to live in
Boston and they had a base there.
So as it turns out I was based in New York and
then did go on to be based in both Atlanta,
Miami and Washington, which gave me an
opportunity to get to know those cities as well.
>> Can you tell us a little bit about
your daily routine as a flight attendant?
>> Jill: Yes.
That was one thing that made the job interesting
in that you flew different routes all
the time and you had different schedules.
Sometimes you'd fly three day trips.
Sometimes you'd fly just an overnight
trip and back or just a day trip --
a shuttle trip from Washington
to New York and back.
You often had different crews that you flew
with and that was always interesting too.
The thing that could make the job a bit
monotonous was that you were, you know,
welcoming people, storing luggage,
[clears throat] telling them
about safety and then serving meals.
And that in itself could be pretty
boring, but the fact that you got to go
to so many interesting cities and have
a little time there on your own was fun.
>> What did you love about it?
>> Jill: I think that the
opportunity to see the country and then
on my time off we had great
travel benefits and as a result
if you took advantage you could really see
-- go anywhere in the world very reasonably.
And [clears throat] in my ten years I had the
opportunity to travel to Hong Kong, Africa,
South America, and Europe several times.
And so that in itself was a huge benefit.
>> What were some of the challenges?
>> Jill: I think you were often gone periods
of time away from home and [clears throat]
because you weren't in an office
setting you didn't have the same people
that you saw every day so you didn't
have the same kind of comradery
that you would have in an office setting.
And I often felt that I didn't have the time
to really settle into a community where I lived
that would be one of the challenging things,
but on the other hand, it was always different
and always interesting [clears throat] .
>> What does it take to be successful?
>> Jill: I think you need to be
adventurous, outgoing, friendly,
those are probably flexible and, you
know, willing to be rather independent.
>> Anything someone could do to prepare
themselves to be a flight attendant?
>> Jill: I think a college education
is the best thing because, you know,
you have that under your belt and then can go on
and certainly be trained
to be a flight attendant.
They send you to a school.
The company that you work for sends you
for the particular training you need.
>> What was your hours like or your
schedule like for a given week?
>> Jill: It would really change every month.
You would get a monthly schedule where you
would fly the same trips pretty much throughout
that month, but [clears throat]
like I said you could be gone
from home, you know, two or three nights.
A lot of times you would be working late
nights, sometimes really early in the morning
and you just had to be willing to do that.
>> Any final advice for some who's
interested in entering this career field?
>> Jill: I think, you know, if you would like
to see more of the world it's a great career
for a young person in particular
before you're settled down.