Work Experience 2023

For my work experience at the end of last year, I was fortunate enough to be given a placement in Qantas… you know the airline? My week at Qantas consisted of me arriving at their head office at Mascot at 8.30am. I was paired up with someone who had a position in the cabin crew operations team, which is the team that decides where and when cabin crew are required.

Qantas has an open plan office which all centres around a green and there is an open space down the middle more commonly known as The Street. I was quite surprised that no private offices were present, and I was told that Vanessa Hudson (Qantas’ CEO) didn’t have a private office either.

I was given a schedule that mixed in practical experience and office work. The practical work involved trips to the engineering hangars, a walk around the Qantas T3 domestic terminal, which included a visit to the Chairmans lounge, and if you aren’t aware, it’s Qantas’ ultra exclusive lounge reserved for their top members. (I hope one day to go back as a guest, not a tour recipient). The office work comprised of visiting different “behind the scenes” staff and discussing what their department does to efficiently get aircraft off the ground in a cost effective and profit maximising way. I had meetings with Security, IFE (who manages the content onboard), Sustainability, Revenue Management, a pilot and Internal Operations. I also sat in on a course that teaches new cabin crew how to perform as per the standard operating procedures within Qantas’ service guidelines, Loyalty.

One of the main takeaways of the week was that you can have three different careers all in one company, Qantas.

Saxon M
Year 11