Working as a stewardess or steward abroad: what is it, where is the best place to go, and are you insured?

What does working as a steward or stewardess abroad involve?

• A steward can be a staff member on a plane, boat or train responsible for a safe and pleasant journey for the guests
• Duties: the work can vary from serving meals to solving problems and calming guests.
• Salary: can vary from room and board to a salary that allows you to support yourself and all kinds of extra benefits such as discounted or free travel.
• Accommodation: In most cases, you will stay in the accommodation itself or at your organization's location

Why should you work as a steward or stewardess abroad?

• To gain experience: working abroad increases your international work experience, often takes you to many different places around the world, and sometimes allows you to travel or stay somewhere at a very low cost.
• To strengthen your empathy: working in a different culture often strengthens your ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes. The differences in culture, working methods, and communication styles ensure that you accept or take things as they are much more quickly. Your own perspective quickly becomes broader, more open, and, above all, more flexible.
• To increase your stress resistance: you regularly work under reasonable or high pressure; working in a different culture can be a strain on your stress resistance. This is especially true due to the pressure that can arise from having to communicate in a different language, perform new tasks, or receive limited coaching. However, for almost everyone, these experiences contribute to a significant increase in stress resistance.
• To discover and accept your own qualities: further away from your familiar surroundings, you will discover more quickly what you are actually capable of and what you actually want. It is precisely by going to work that you encounter yourself more often, get to know yourself better, and accept who you are and want to be.
• To test your environmental awareness: by living and working in unique places around the world, you experience a foreign culture in a completely different and more authentic way.
• To stimulate your sense of involvement: you often work intensively with an international group of people for a long period of time, sometimes even sharing a room with them and sharing their joys and sorrows. You have to love that, but you also make friends for life

Where is the best place to work abroad as a steward or stewardess?

• Bahrain: home base of Gulf Air
• Dubai: home base of Emirates
• Worldwide: through organizations that mediate work on cruise ships
• Long distance (tourist) trains: Peru, United States, England

What do you need if you want to work as a steward or stewardess abroad?

• Communication skills: knowledge of different languages is a must, and communication skills are very important
• Flexibility: weather conditions, people's behavior, etc. do not always go according to plan, so you will often be called upon to be flexible. You often need to be in good physical condition due to the working hours and sometimes difficult working conditions (jet lag, long days or nights).
• Be aware of your surroundings: wherever you work, you will always have to take your surroundings into account. Every country has its own rules and customs that you will have to adhere to a certain extent.
• Organizational awareness: every organization has its own way of looking at hospitality and welcoming guests. You will also have to take this into account, as well as the limitations/challenges that some schools face due to a lack of money or facilities.
• Professionalism: on some days, and certainly during peak season, you will have to work hard. In addition to the big picture, you will be focused on the correct execution of the details.
• Ability to collaborate: ability to collaborate or learn to collaborate with colleagues and local managers
• Service orientation: one of the important qualities you need in your role as a flight attendant. Your work mainly involves ensuring that guests have a good time. That is why it is important that you are always approachable and interested in your guests' stories. In addition, you will be spending time with many people in a relatively small space, especially the staff in their living quarters, so be flexible and open-minded.
• Some organizations have a minimum age requirement of 18 or sometimes 21. In certain cases, physical characteristics may also play a role, such as a minimum or maximum height, or you may not be allowed to have visible tattoos

To what extent are you insured for the risks of working as a stewardess or steward?

• During work, an internship, or volunteer work abroad where you receive compensation (or, for example, food and housing), your health insurance coverage may lapse. You will then need special insurance to remain insured for illness and accidents.
• Local employers usually offer no or limited supplementary insurance. However, airlines and cruise companies may offer good basic insurance.
• There is a risk of accidents because, for example, you are doing work with which you have little experience.
• A number of specialized insurance policies offer options for doing (temporary) paid work abroad. See the pages on insuring paid work abroad and the pages on your medical expenses abroad.