LOT Polish Airlines

[Turkish777]

This isn't a pop a Polish people as my neighbours are Polish and I have some friends which are Polish but considering they estimate there could be as many as 1 million polish people working in the UK, and we have Polish supermarkets in our little town dosen't it seem that LOT have some audacity in stating that one of the requirements for their Flight Deck vacancies are that you 'Must be a Polish citizen' seems a bit unfair to me...couldn't they give up a few jobs in return...

[A340rider]

haha cheekie buggars them 'LOT' hahahahahahahahah..blardy funny me

[lc_aerobatics]

I don’t think that MUST BE Polish is still and issue as it was against some EU laws but they’re still going around it having all interviews and training in Polish.

They just lowered their requirement to 200h TT but pay is crap.
Regards.
LC

[Arcus]

Hi,

who pays the T/R ? Company or myself ?

I need infos about the selection !!!

Thx

[lc_aerobatics]

Company does. Do you speak Polish ?

[Arcus]

Yes, I speak polish.

I`m applied, but they must check my licence because I have an "national licence" (german ICAO) !

Have you any infos about selection (tests) ?

Thx

[lc_aerobatics]

I do, PM me.

[Skyglider]

Hello
lc_aerobatics can you PM me about the LOT recruitment ? I do speak Polish, not perfectly, I understand everything but speaking is harder!

Thanx in advance

Sky

[donPablo]

Hi guys I work in Lot, not yet as a pilot but... beeing close :) Recruitment is for person speaking polish fluently, as all the ops materials and lots of other company stuff is in polish(of course except those which are supposed to be in english only). Sorry, but I haven't seen ANY foreingner at moment flying for us, and experience shows that only native have any chances.
I also would like to advise that currently there are plenty of wannabes commin out from the FTOs (maybe me also, soon) with low hours due to the huge boom in air carriage in Poland.
And above all You have to know that this is not like in LAL / Air Balitic (both base countries ca. 2mln citizens) that they are lacking people for flying, here we've got plenty of them the problem is time :E and money for those who can't get a loan/sponsorship.

[szwajcar]

We have to know English quite well to work in UK. Learn Polish and join LOT...
You don't have to be citizen! Anyhow You don't have to work for LOT in Poland - join Wizzair or Centralwings if You wish (with English only). As nobody from Poland is flying for BA...:ugh:

Cheers

szwajcar
F/O ERJ170 - LOT

[donPablo]

I think main reason is not to work in Poland but to work in LOT :E ,don't be dissapointed when you find out that FO nonTR gets about 1,5k GBP/month flying really a lot.
What I mean is that it might be better to look up for some other countries than willing to learn polish only to get a chance of being hired with 300TT, ten język jest naprawdę trudny i nie warte jest to, aż takiego zachodu, if you know what I mean :cool:.

As mentioned above, much... much easier is to get hired by CentralWings owned by LOT or try Wizz also good for low hourers, I've heard also that Norwegian is planning to hire Poland-Based pilots.

And to Szwajcar - there are so many poles nowadays in UK that maybe we will have a first representant in BA, Boruc can why can't we? Not to mention about Rasiak :}

[lc_aerobatics]

join Wizzair or Centralwings if You wish (with English only). As nobody from Poland is flying for BA...:ugh:



I thought that central was slowly going to die and be merged back with LOT.......

[MartinCh]

And I thought Slovak Airlines (or CSA, which is MUCH better) recruitment and Westerners' interest is a joke. Haven't seen this lot, uhm, LOT yet...

I became familiar with the wannabe jet pilots' need for HOURS flown in first job, even more so when skipping instructing 'career' (or deciding to)

Exactly. If they don't bother translating vital documents and make the training up to international standard (not quality, but language)...

I know why. Because Polish tend to be 'patriotic' bit too much. Shouldn't say word nationalistic, right? PC. Oops. Though, I don't see anything wrong with promoting 'home employment'.
It's bloody late now, guys. Few jobs 'back home' flying jets won't save labour market in the UK.

On top of that, they don't want to speak English unless they have to/are forced to. Sure, some ICAO standard English is necessary for job, not comparing it to some Chinese (see thread about Chinese pilots and some rude US ATC men). Comparison to French would do.

What's worse, if I speak to some Polish, they think they have full right to speak Polish to me just because I (mostly) understand/get them.
It ain't always that 'we're brothers, let's speak OUR language' thing.
It's often exactly like French famously 'forgetting' their English skills to tourists in France and expecting them to get it.

What's the moral of my rant? Brits and Irish, look elsewhere. They're not going to change. Recruitment might be against EU laws de iure, but that's the way it is. Forget about it unless your Polish immigrant offspring.

couldn't they give up a few jobs in return...
I'm afraid it's only taking.

'Must be a Polish citizen'
Met Argentine guy in Dublin some time ago. Bet he won't get jet job with his shiny new Polish passport just because he's citizen

[ocd1978]

Hello everybody!
I just applied to LOT for a first officer position. Could any of you give me some information regarding the selection/interview process at LOT. I don’t write polish, is this going to be a problem of getting a job there. Latest information I received from the recruitment office was that they slowed down a little bit and that the recruitment process will probably start again in April. Does anybody have any information about this? Thanks for any info! Regards Oskar.

[donPablo]

To MartinCh - it's always about stereotyping... Poles are incomparable to french with their "forgetting" English skills, most of guys you could speak to simply know "very little" English so if someone sees that You get what he's saying won't trouble any more... that's normal I think, but not rude in any way.

Nationalism isn't also a factor, more a stereotype, we have the same numer of nationalists as in every other european country... but by far they don't work in company like LOT.

And at the end look at the Lufthansa or KLM they also want people with perfect German/Dutch, also I haven't seen anything saying about "Polish citizenship" at the LOT web page - at least after 2004... You are EU, you can be a Polish citizen.

To ocd1978 - I wouldn't expect much, as polish language is a "must" - but I might be wrong.

[szwajcar]

Bull****.... Our SOP's and all work in flt deck is in English only as well in Polish FIR everyone use English - just compare to Spanish or French FIR's!
LOT is a national carrier and it's company law to prefer people speaking Polish.
Try to get the job in LH or SAS without knowledge their languages.
Anyway...

[MartinCh]

it's always about stereotyping... Poles are incomparable to french with their "forgetting" English skills, most of guys you could speak to simply know "very little" English so if someone sees that You get what he's saying won't trouble any more... that's normal I think, but not rude in any way.

Stereotyping regarding French and France is famous. Whether positive or negative. Stereotyping French became stereotype :-P Might not be the best example but easy to use shunning all the rest.

How many times one has to experience something specific or similar, his/her friends, people met ditto? Stereotyping is about one phenomena one too many times, it's NOT RULE. Stereotyping is very common logical thinking in (also in) child's development protecting it from harm. I won't go into details as this is not about behavioural studies and other boring stuff.
It's the handiest thing, dismissing something as stereotype, racist, not PC, whatever. And if someones continues or gives some evidence, that's the reason for labelling them 'accordingly'.

I do agree that Polish, as other Slavic speakers are naturally better at learning languages if 'they trouble to'. Talking about that, it's not just my observation of little effort 'to integrate' to British society by at least trying to improve their English skills. As soon as they 'settle down' ie piece together their own Poland within UK, that's it. That's not the case I meant.
You won't be Polish if you said something else, that's normal.

What I was aiming at, is refusing to speak English even when it's more than appropriate and following negative stance to polite request to speak English. It gets worse when such individuals are drunk.
That 'not troubling' is rude in every case.:ugh::yuk:
I didn't expect everyone I had to deal with in one way or other, to speak fluent English.

There's never a week when bar bouncers in company (12-14 outlets) where I work, don't have problems with violent and/or drunk Polish. No other minority is troublesome. These cases easily exceed troubles with locals. Minority becoming majority. Hmm. Attitude quite in line with what I was saying.

Speaking German as second language isn't so unusual in Europe as Polish.
First some of you mentioned 'all training and work stuff in Polish'.
Then szwajcar mentions this isn't the case.
If companies/country needs expats, they'd allow it. If they had enough, they make obstructions/rules to favour locals. Aviation is very international it it's core, but. See recent news from India and (not) getting FO job there these days. However it works out.

'people speaking Polish' MEANS Polish in 99% of cases if not more.
No point pretending not favouring domestic workforce by disadvantaging non-Polish speakers. That's like putting unstated criterion of speaking Irish Gaelic for Aer Lingus. Ha ha.
It does happen in many countries as we see. Tough luck for foreigners then..
We see favouring domestic labour in many EU countries as well due to various 'barriers'. C'est la vie.

RE: Nationalism - I don't mean any right wing crap. You're not reading me.

[MartinCh]

szwajcar,

We have to know English quite well to work in UK.

You :mad::mad::mad: joking me. There's huge percentage of Polish working in the UK with the barest or non-existent English.
Those Uni students coming over for summer or longer, their English is quite OK.
Lots of others getting jobs thanks to their friends helping them to set up, everything they need in Polish language etc.

Friend working in dirt cheap hostel as receptionist speaks basic Polish so as to avoid staring at each other pointing fingers on daily basis.
(yeah, some blokes learn dozen chat up phrases to impress sexy Polish chicks)

Notices in BIG BOLD Polish and maybe couple main European langs as well.
Not always adverts for Polish stuff, btw.

Libraries having signs of 'Internet bookings not available for today' IN POLISH ONLY so they get a bloody break of tons of people asking all over.

England with it's temporary road signs in Polish in tricky areas with lots of accidents.

Recruitment agencies having dedicated Polish (not only, other langs as well, much less if at all) employees to facilitate things for temp manual and skilled factory, construction and warehouse labour.

One construction company owner telling me about starting learning Polish to make things easier for him.

The only thing visible from distance is large notice in Polish 'we're sending money to Poland' in Bayswater Moneygram branch or whichever exactly.

Polish is slowly becoming UK's second unofficial language even outside traditional minority areas such as some cities of England.

[szwajcar]

Joke... isn't it?? It is aviation forum and LOT is not a stupid PUB in South London! I don't speak about loosers working as a dischwashers or building Your houses...:ugh: If You don't like people from Poland its Your right... But the fact is that we have HQ aviation personel.
If I have to explain - You won't understand....

[skyprinces]

Looking at the recruitment requirements in all the major national companies in europe almost all want you to speek the national language.

Alitalia - Italian
Lufthansa - German
KLM - Dutch
Air France - French
SAS - Danish, Swedish, Norvegian
Swiss - German and/or French
Austrian - German

So just leave it. If you want to work for LOT just learn it. If you don't want to then look elswere. And stop whining about Poles speaking Polish outside their country. It's exactly the same with other nationalities.

PS. I haven't come accros many English speaking other languages than English.

[skyprinces]

Good for you!!! But that was not the point.

[szwajcar]

Seems to be end of topic....
Thanks skypirnces!
Nice to hear resonable voice - especially when belong to woman:)

[donPablo]

There's never a week when bar bouncers in company (12-14 outlets) where I work, don't have problems with violent and/or drunk Polish. No other minority is troublesome. These cases easily exceed troubles with locals. Minority becoming majority. Hmm. Attitude quite in line with what I was saying.It's totally the same with Your STAG guys in Cracow, even though they don't stay for so long but come every weekend... and to be honest they're worse, Polish are not so "invasive"... ie. walkig naked around the old town, beeing totally drunk, that they can't say where they stay, have ID etc. + many other rude stuff that most of the poles woudn't even think about to do in public (and I'm not talking about pissing).

I won't comment rest of Your post beacause I think it all comes from this, that you have to much to do with guys who were to lazy to find something in their country and hit the road for a new life without any knowledge of what's behind their barn.

I think also that we're A BIT OT... and this thread has gone so far that LOT doesn't even fly there

cheers

[MartinCh]

as for OT:
Yeah. What else can anyone add to first couple matter-of-fact posts?
Or do you expect second person not reading it and posting off the top of head question that's been aswered?
Well, hijacking the thread to delve in issues touched by previous posts for not so important whining and rant? Yes it is. Yes it's not uncommon on PPRUNE. if Senior Pilot feels like deleting my posts for being OT, alas..

Joke... isn't it?? It is aviation forum and LOT is not a stupid PUB in South London! I don't speak about loosers working as a dischwashers or building Your houses... If You don't like people from Poland its Your right... But the fact is that we have HQ aviation personel.
If I have to explain - You won't understand....

Nice one, szwajcar.
Just lil comment. I too did work in some crappy jobs. It wouldn't be so for many if most of central European degrees together with good English meant something..
Those Polish working here contribute to lower unemployment in Poland, send most of their slaved away dosh 'back home' or take it all with them on the way back. So that's HUGE net influx of currency plus less benefits handed to folks in Poland. Plus UK child benefits system exploiting (being stopped now).
Good that you're not one of those wanting to burn me at stake for anything not exactly pleasing.

donPablo,

Btw, did you hear me or someone else complainabout/doubt the professionalism of Polish air crew? I even stated in first post about the SOP from what people posted, but saying not about quality. OK? :-)
One thing is whining about something and another putting your words in my mouth.

I don't agree with saying that so many people around are small minority being antisocial and therefore not representing (at least to a degree) population of Poland.
RE: Stag nights - That's exactly case of tiny part of population NOT representing country as it's all about boozing and making ass of oneself.
Make booze and 'girls' expensive and it won't happen.
That's just like saying that all the Finnish, Irish or Brits flying to cheap boozing destinations only to booze are the true image of country. Anyone?
'Rowdies' are good example for my words.
There's also lots of sensible and mature people coming for sightseeing.
PS: I'm not Brit or Irish, so could as well be labelled as whatever in the UK.

Dispatches: Inconvenient Truth about Immigration
Monday, 7th of April, Channel 4, 8pm.
I'm sure it'll touch some general issues regarding and impacts on employment, housing, etc.
Politicians can't say anything straight-to-the-point for obvious reasons.
Dispatches documentaries have been my favourites, whatever sensitive issue around the world or in the UK. They don't play PC game like govts..

[dominik86st]

Guys,

I'm a Polish citizen in May 08 going to Jerez for the integrated course with JOC (1,5 year). How's my chances of getting a job in LOT after that? It would be great to live and work in Poland. How does it look in LOT in general?
Cheers

[galernikus]

Hello!
I am a Polish citizen but I have been living in the United States for over 10 years now. I am currently in the process of converting my license from FAA ATP to JA ATP. It is a　long and expensive journey but always wanted to live in Europe. My English and Polish are fluent. have over 2500 hours of which 1500 hours are on a ERJ 145 as an FO. I have SIC privileges on that aircraft as well. I am thinking of applying to LOT, but to be quite honest, I do not know anything about the pay or the quality of life. Can some please enlighten me on what an FO can expect in the first years of work? What is the typical upgrade time? Also, I am concerned about the terminology in polish since I trained in the English language. CHEERS! (I trying some REAL English)

[gaugan]

Rumour says that all new pilots for LOT will be taken from EUROLOT. It means that You'll have to start on ATR's, work there few years and then You can try to apply for ERJ. Not confirmed info but truth is that there's no new recruitment on the horizon...




greets
marcin

[OsPi]

Can't be true Marcin as I know a guy who just recently joined LOT to fly their Embraers. No previous experience on type and about 500 h total.

[gaugan]

OsPi,

For sure I know Your guy.
What we were said, it was probably last direct LOT recruitment.

But no worries, real kaleidoscope. Hope that nothing will change in the matter.

cheers
marcin

[Bug Squasher]

Well i thought i might spark up this thread again.

I'm a pilot in Australia with both parents being Polish. I can speak fluent but reading is poor.

what are the average requirements to even start considering applying for LOT?

i am on minimal hours at the moment but considering the move after a couple more years here.

[Skyglider]

LOT is recruiting again.
I have applied some weeks ago, but not heard anything yet.
Anybody knows when the interviews will be held & how many are they looking for, or any other useful info?

Thanx