How to Answer: What would you do if you felt there was a safety threat?
Advice and answer examples written specifically for an United Airlines job interview.
16. What would you do if you felt there was a safety threat?
What You Need to Know
You can find some of United Airlines' safety protocols and what they expect of their in-flight crew in an emergency. Spend time familiarizing yourself with what you can find about their protocol online while revisiting your past positions or applicable experience when answering this question. For example, in one of their job postings, United Airlines states they expect their employees to be able to do the following in the event of an emergency: "Reads, interprets, demonstrates and provides safety briefings to passengers. Communicates and ensures compliance with company and government safety and security rules and procedures. Required to manage crew and passengers in any potential onboard event, including medical emergencies, assessment of security threats, and a variety of difficult situations. Oversees cabin to ensure cockpit access is prevented by unauthorized personnel. Provides leadership, direction, and assistance to passengers and other crew members in stressful, emergency or evacuation situations."
Written by Kevin Downey on August 27th, 2023
Answer Example
"I am well trained to react in urgent, distressed, and mayday situations. In any emergency, my first course of action is to ensure the passengers are prepared. My reaction to a safety threat would rely on my on-the-job training. I would want to follow company protocol and safety regulations. If faced with a safety threat, I would do everything to ensure passengers remained calm."
Written by Kevin Downey on August 27th, 2023
Experienced Example
"I would communicate in a commanding voice, being clear and concise during any appropriate safety briefing to our passengers. I'd remind them of our safety and security rules and procedures. Depending on the event, I'd coordinate with our crew and any essential passengers and provide leadership, direction, and assistance to everyone throughout stressful situations, whatever it was."
Written by Kevin Downey on August 27th, 2023
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About the Author
For most of my management career, I worked for a chain of neighborhood grocery stores. Their brand was partly defined by the generic goods they carried, packaged under their company name, many of which, through their distribution contracts, were available nowhere else. Their number one core value was to deliver a wow customer experience. They considered the experience at the register as the grand finale, which would serve as the most memorable experience for each customer and a make-it-or-break-it moment.
One of the most desirable traits I looked for when I recruited new members to our team was whether they were a foodie. Were they passionate about our brand, the casual dress code, and the fun hipster vibe of our stores? Would they have fun on the job, never get bored, and be adaptable and willing to help anywhere? Everyone’s duties rotated hour by hour because no one had one job. Each day’s schedule was written based on the needs of the store, and everyone did everything. We were a team. Most of us had leadership potential, and every one of us embodied the brand. No one got bored, and most days everyone was having fun. We all became friends and spent time together on and off the job. Happy employees make for a wow customer experience.
As a manager, I worked on a register for a few hours every day. Honestly, it was fun. I got to ring up groceries, show off my bagging skills, and ask people what they were cooking for dinner. Often, we exchanged recipes, and for five minutes, we were friends. I provided sincere and genuine interactions, connecting with my customers whenever I could.
If a customer came in a little hangry or unhappy about something that had nothing to do with me, I’d try to turn their experience around, but I would never internalize their emotions and confuse them with my own. All I had control over was my attitude, and it typically centered around my gratitude to be working somewhere I enjoyed being. I am a foodie and a crazy good cook, and my time working there was rewarding, which led to great things in my life, the benefits of which I am still reaping today. In many ways, working for United is likely a very similar experience.
Most lifestyle industries can be categorized as a service industry. Whether it is health, fitness, food, travel, or entertainment, most of them, in one way or another, embody some kind of experience. Travel is a lifestyle industry, and those working in that industry should have a passion for travel and adventure. United expects its employees to embody their brand. Their ideal recruits are those who’ll be happy to be there, grateful for the opportunity, and can take the good with the bad while focusing on the good. Being in a rewarding industry that aligns with one’s priorities offers the opportunity for tremendous growth, personally and professionally. The benefits are obvious, and you have an opportunity to share that passion with the people who will share that journey with you, whether to a single destination or well into the future.
So, it is important, going into your interview, to align your goals with the interviewer’s. They aren’t looking for any semi-skilled professional to fit a position just because it needs to be filled. They’re looking for someone who is happy to be there and fits their mold. You are looking for a job that feels like the right fit for you because being happy at work is a quality-of-life issue. So, the surest way to position yourself as their ideal candidate and to get you to stand apart from the rest of their “talent community” is to inform them that you already embody their brand, just as their brand represents you.
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