From dream to reality - My journey to Emirates (airline)

Leticia’s journey isa story of how a clear dream, when combined with structured effort, can transform a life. As a child, she watched a movie about a flight attendant and focused not on the romance, but on the possibility of changing her reality, which planted the seed of her dream. Years later, she enrolled in a flight attendant course in Brazil, learned grooming and professional behavior, and had her first emotional contact with Emirates when she watched the A380 land in São Paulo, deciding that this would be “her” company.

Her path, however, was marked by rejection and frustration, particularly when she failed a selection process at Azul and several times at Emirates due to insufficient English. Instead of letting these “no’s” define her, she interpreted them as specific feedback on a skill she could improve, and then spent years trying different methods to learn English, until she found a teacher who truly helped her progress. She went further by forming a study group with other candidates, simulating interviews daily, giving each other feedback, and turning preparation into a rigorous routine.

Over three separate attempts at the Emirates recruitment process, Leticia failed English tests and group dynamics, but each time she returned better prepared and more focused, even convincing a recruiter to give her another chance earlier than expected because she felt truly ready. On the successful attempt, what changed most was her attitude: she was calmer, enjoyed the day, helped other candidates, and managed to communicate a powerful story about acting under pressure, even with imperfect English. When the “golden call” finally came, joy mixed with fear about leaving her family, husband, and country, showing that achieving a dream also brings difficult choices and emotional cost.

After several years at Emirates, she highlights both sides of the lifestyle: a salary and quality of life that are “not comparable” to what she had in Brazil, more days off, and the chance to build a happier life with her husband in Dubai, balanced against the pain of seeing her newborn niece only once and the physical exhaustion of night flights and long-haul rosters. She explains that working flights are not the same as holidays and that, over time, destinations become routine, leading her to save special places like Japan or Korea to visit on vacation with her husband instead of on duty. Her perspective on travel also evolved from going out with crews she barely remembers to intentionally exploring alone and building personal memories that truly matter.

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Looking ahead, Leticia dreams of creating a podcast and YouTube channel focused on “crew off duty,” exploring who flight attendants are beyond the uniform, how they rest, recover from exhausting flights, and live their personal lives in Dubai and after leaving the company. She wants to share diverse stories: people who passed on the first try, others who tried more than ten times, and former crew who loved or hated the job, showing that the same career can mean very different things depending on expectations and values. Her central message is that a job title does not define a person; she is not “just” an Emirates flight attendant but Leticia, a woman with many facets, who used persistence, community, and emotional resilience to turn a childhood dream into reality, while remaining aware of its sacrifices.