NATS Second Interview HELP!!!

[steve_atc]

Hi All, Happy new year. this is my first time here, and i have a question about my NATS second interview which is fast approaching next Friday 13th of all dates!

I have downloaded the information NATS give as suggested reading and wanted to know if anyone can tell me how much of it is needed (i.e in what depth) as i understand the interviews are changing by becoming much harder. This booklet has a date of 21/12/2004 so i assume it has been given to ATC's interviewees since that date so if anyone has any helpful information about what they found the most useful sections i.e do i need ALL of it or the most common sense IMPORTANT parts from it?

Any help much appreicated.....thanks

[Lock n' Load]

Back when I applied, there was no Pprune and we read everything that was on the suggested reading list and anything else we could get our hands on that might help. It was called being prepared.
There are quite a few posts from people asking for help with interview subjects, and frankly I think it's grossly unfair for those who don't know about this site. It would better for those looking for a career in ATC if they were willing to visit the local library, spend some money in a book store, maybe read Flight for a few months and visit an ATC unit or two. You won't get a free ride in training, so why expect one in the interview?

[ukatco_535]

Lock'n'Load

with all due respect - what utter tosh!!

If someone has the gumption to put a search in on the internet and finds this forum - good luck to them and well done on the initiative is all I can say.

However, that said, I do agree with a lot of your post.

Steve_ATC

Read what you have been sent, go to the library AND ask questions on here.

Don't get your knickers in a twist just because you heard it was getting harder - I kind of hope it is, but I don't see it that way; the interview route now is based more on what is required at the college/unit i.e. team work and will be better in the long run.

Any prospective students will (hopefully) be better prepared for the training ahead. I would rather chop more applicants, than have them get through the interview, to be chopped later on. If you let a weak applicant through, it causes the trainee stress and it is passing the buck onto the instructors.

If you are good enough, you will do it. If not, you won't. Maybe a bit brutal, but you are hoping to enter a profession where you personally will deal with the lives of hundreds of people daily.

Search this forum, you managed to find it, go one step further. There is not much more can be written on here than already is.

And as Lock'n'Load said - hit the libraries, or buy a couple of books from Amazon. Get some unit visits done.

Good luck!!

[Lock n' Load]

535 old chap, you can't say "utter tosh" and then agree with most of what I say! That's what politicians do ("hmm, their policy's pretty good... let's nick it, change tiny details and then say theirs is crap...")! Anyhoo, maybe I was a tad harsh on the lad but really, there are lots of posts from guys who want to be spoon-fed through the tests and interviews. The only way to know for sure what'll come up is to go through the interview! Prepare as if your life depends on it, because your career certainly does.
If preparing for interview, reading about ATC and aircraft, seems like a hardship, is ATC really the career for you? By all means ask specific questions on pprune, but not as a shortcut to success. Your primary tool still has to be your own enthusiasm for a job in aviation.

[runtobarlu]

Lock N' Load..

Could not agree more, and, may I add, a view shared by many of the old hands but strangely not by the younger ones. I wonder why ?

These days, they want it spoon fed which may work in some outfits but not in this job. No big deal, we'll soon be able to sort the wheat from the chaff when they hit the floor at an ATC establsihment near you.

[ukatco_535]

Lock'nLoad

The utter tosh was regarding asking questions on this site.

As for it saying seems to be the older hands that do not agree with spoonfeeding - I think we are talking at cross purposes here. I am not in favour of spoon feeding - far from it, however I would applaud anyone using any means to find information (including the new fangled inter web). btw I am neither young nor old, but have been in the aviation business all my life on both sides of the mic.

As for sorting the wheat from tha chaff at a unit, why should we as OJTIs have to do HR and or the interviewers job for them??

Toughen up the interviews, toughen up the college courses, let coal face OJTIs train people with a realistic hope of passing.

Regardless of how the information is gained - a properly conducted interview will soon weed out applicants who have been spoon fed information - by checkng depth of knowledge.

[steve_atc]

Thanks for the feedback guys - i have visitied Gatwick, Stansted, Heathrow and Swanwick in preparation for this interview and have bought 3 books about ATC, so i cant really think of much more to do in preparation. I agree - its better to get rid of the bad students 1st than have a 60% fail rate at CATC as someone told me today - waste of money for NATS im sure, my post was merely a question posed to inform me of the most important issues i should revise so i am 110% clued up in preparation for the interview, fingers crossed ill be in the 40% that mate it through.

[Lock n' Load]

Okay Stevieboy, since you've done some reading (or did you just buy the books for a table with a dodgy leg? ;) )...
Back when I was interviewed, the technical questions revolved around vortex wake, or wake turbulence as we call it in the new world, and speeds on final approach. We were given photos of 4 aircraft and asked to indentify them and suggest an order in which they might be vectored to final most efficiently. There was also a little picture of a fictitious airway intersection with a few blips, with questions as to where the conflicts were and how you might deal with them.
Things I might mention if asked about issues affecting ATC would be closer European integration, the rise of regional jets in hub-and-spoke versus point-to-point route networks, and maybe Mode S/ADS and a possible end to voice comms in the longer term.
See? I can be helpful after all! Still, now you have some topics it's up to you find out about them...

[ukatco_535]

Steve

Follow up on Lock'n'Loads post, it is a very good starting point. Do not be afraid in the interview to make a decision - however, be ready to back it up with your reasoning. If you are wrong, do not worry, interviewers are looking for people with the ability to make a reasoned decision - you are not yet an ATCO so they do not expect a textbook answer.

Be open to suggestions, but do not change answers at the drop of a hat.

DO NOT start waffling on about things you do not understand - an interviewer is within his or her rights to ask you questions about a subject if you bring it up when answering another question.... i.e. do not dig yourself holes!!

Good Luck

[steve_atc]

Thanks guys, youve been a great help. Ill keep you posted as to how i get on.

[everton]

Lock N' Load..
Could not agree more, and, may I add, a view shared by many of the old hands but strangely not by the younger ones. I wonder why ?
These days, they want it spoon fed which may work in some outfits but not in this job. No big deal, we'll soon be able to sort the wheat from the chaff when they hit the floor at an ATC establsihment near you.

Runtobarlu I have read many of your comments, and some seem very negative towards the younger ones. We dont all want to be spoon fed, but you have to realize that things are much different nowadays than when you must have got your cadetship. Airspace is alot more complex, MATS part 2 alot thicker, training reduced, a hell of a lot more traffic. You have had the chance to see all these changes and how they have come about, we have to learn them and wonder why its like that.
I think it is attitudes like yours that make it difficult for us to approach the older type person (not all). We all want to succeed and be the best ATC we can be, so why moan that we are not of the standard you believed you were when you was in our positions, and mock us when we ask for guidance and advice ( if internet was available when you were applying, you would have been mad to avoid asking experianced ppruners for advice, because you felt it was the easy way out).
I think you forget what it was like when you were in our position, and how green you must have been.

[Dances with Boffins]

I like Everton. Sounds like a well-reasoned point to me....

..sound of Dances retreating into bunker...

[Lock n' Load]

I have found that the oldies, as OJTIs, tend to be more flexible than their younger colleagues, so I don't agree entirely with Everton. What the oldies do like to see though is effort, and that is the point of parts of this thread.

[Barnaby the Bear]

Good luck with your interview.
You sound like you have done alot of preparation already. Don't panic too much, as has been said, you are not trained yet so they won't expect you to know it all.
Remember not to bring your JCB into the interview. Answer the questions asked. If you really don't know the answer don't make it up.
I was shown a mock airport with model planes. I was asked what I would do if aircraft A crashed on the runway.
What would I do first?
Could I depart or land other traffic?
The scenarios have probably changed alot. But it was my reasoning, observations and flexibility that were assessed. Whether or not the answers i gave were as per the MATS pt1 were irrelevant as I hadn't even seen that yet.

Again good luck and try to enjoy it. Sounds daft, but you are going to be showing off your enthusiasm for the career you clearly want. So it can't be that bad....

[everton]

Lock dont get me wrong, Every OJTI I have met, has been a great help, and will go out of there way to help us validate. I agree totally, that we need to show interest, and study hard. What gets my goat though is that us "newbies" nowadays get a bad reputation, before we have even stepped through the door. I will not make excuses and blame the sytem , I just want to become a great ATC, and I think we should be given time to prove ourselves, instead of being judged before we have even begun.