All Nippon Airways attracted a crowd of more than 500 women in Taipei yesterday hoping to be recruited as an in-flight interpreter.
The coveted position of in-flight interpreter offers a starting salary of more than NT$50,000. As the economy is weak and the unemployment rate continues to soar, the six available positions attracted hundreds of job applicants, all with their hair slicked back in a neat bun. Since more than 500 people were fighting it out for six openings, only one out of every 100 applicants would get a job.
An in-flight interpreter has to be able to translate between Japanese, English, Mandarin and Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese) onboard All Nippon Airways flights.
The firm had previously said in its announcement about the jobs that in order to qualify, an applicant must be female, aged between 20 and 28 years old, and be at least 1.6m tall. However, SASS Atlantic, the hiring agency for All Nippon, canceled the height requirement after being warned by Taipei City’s labor department that it was violating Article 5 of the Employment Services Act (就業服務法), which states that an employer is prohibited from discriminating against job applicants based on appearance.
As a result, the agency did not measure applicants’ height, a routine procedure when Asian airlines’ hire flight attendants.
At the preliminary round yesterday, applicants were divided up into groups of between 10 and 12 people, and told to have a discussion amongst themselves in English, while the interviewer observed.
“The interviewer asked us: ‘If I were a foreigner visiting Taiwan for one-and-a-half days, where would you suggest I go?’” said Jennifer, a 23-year-old applicant from Taipei, who is currently working at a Japanese company. “I tried my best to be an active participant, but when it ended after five minutes, everyone was surprised it was so short. Some people didn’t even open their mouths at all.”
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