Hey,
I’m Carrie-Ellise.
A belly dancer who couldn’t shimmy, a flight attendant who struggled with eye contact, and a bodybuilder more terrified of my reflection than stepping on stage — nothing about my life is ordinary.
Community moderator of a global cabin crew forum with over 450,000 members.
Yes there are two Amazon and two Goodreads logos because I’ve changed my name 12 times.
I am Carrie-Ellise, an author and instructional designer for 20 years. My first client was myself: after nineteen unsuccessful airline cabin crew interviews (yes, nineteen). I cracked open corporate reports and regulatory manuals, then reverse-engineered the recruitment process. 20th interview, I succeeded and earned a place aboard Emirates’ cabin crew training programme in Dubai.
That “homework” turned into The Cabin Crew Interview Made Easy — a book that created a market where none existed.
Seven editions later, it’s still going strong, and gave rise to Crew Crosscheck: a full-scale, LMS-powered cabin crew interview ground school that distils three decades of research, coaching, and lived experience into training that actually sticks. Blending multimedia, behavioural training, and regulatory knowledge to prepare candidates not just to pass interviews, but to thrive in long-term aviation careers.
My projects are born FROM experience and built FOR experience. Whether developing Crew Crosscheck or designing Small Talkward, a VR social simulation training to help people navigate social anxiety, I focus on learning that doesn’t just inform, but transforms.
I’ve learnt that the best instruction doesn’t just tell you something — it lets you live it.
About Me
I never set out to become an author. It was the one thing I didn’t strategise — although, unsurprisingly, it did originate from my over-planning.
I dreamt of becoming a flight attendant, a trolley dolly, to fly on the queen of the skies to the city of dreams. But, at thirteen, a personality test declared me unsuitable for the glamorous, fast-talking, Pan-Am smiling world of aviation. Still, I desperately wanted that uniform. So, for my two-year Youth Award Scheme, I set myself an unusual project: reverse-engineer my personality until it matched the flight-attendant ideal.
From that project emerged a wrist-thick compendium that not only decoded nineteen airline rejections (yes 19, don’t look at me like that), but also mapped the seven-step, ultra-competitive recruitment process and carried me all the way to Emirates Aviation College in Dubai.
That blueprint formed the foundation of my flagship book, The Cabin Crew Interview Made Easy — a behavioural guide to getting hired that went viral in an eBay auction and earned a hand-bound debut on the shelves of Blackwell’s. (Best not tell them it was hand-bound.)
From the comma to the cover, and long before print-on-demand was a thing, I ran a one-woman book production and distribution centre from my bedroom in Bristol — printing, glueing, ironing, guillotining, and pressing spines in a vice as demand spread by word of mouth.
Three decades later, I’m still refining that high school project. Only now it has evolved from a homemade manual into the seventh edition and Crew Crosscheck, a full-scale LMS-driven interview ground school for aspiring cabin crew.
Longest high school project in history.
I suppose you could say I’m still selling my homework.
Fingers in pages,
Deceiving only myself,
Pretending to think.
Carrie-Ellise
Professional Author Bio
Carrie-Ellise Poirier is an indie author, instructional designer, and CEO originally from Bristol, England, now residing in Seattle, Washington. Over twenty years, she has authored five books, including The Cabin Crew Interview Made Easy (pen name: Caitlyn Rogers | 7th ed), Become Emirates Cabin Crew, and DreamCurves.
Whilst her past reads like a mismatched CV — a belly dancer who couldn’t quite shimmy, a flight attendant who struggled with eye contact, and a bodybuilder more terrified of her reflection than stepping on stage — across five books, she has continually taken life’s struggles and fashioned them into something others’ can use to empower themselves.
After competing in the 2015 Miami Pro fitness competition, Carrie was interviewed and appeared on Bristol West News, and was featured in The Daily Mirror and Muscle & Fitness Hers. More recently, she appeared on the Rejected Central podcast and contributed essays to The BDD Foundation.
Beyond writing, Carrie is committed to mental health advocacy. She serves as a research volunteer for University College London, a media volunteer for the BDD Foundation, and a grassroots advocate for the BDD Special Interest Group with the International OCD Foundation.