What's it like working for Qatar Airways?
Join Date: Dec 2004
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The first month or two after arriving will test your patience. You will be starting your training while at the same time dealing with all the administrative things such as getting your residency permit, driving license, company- and government medicals etc, in a never ending string of "character building" tasks.
To make your life simple, and avoid major frustrations, prepare the following before arriving:
Bring an international driving license and go online to book a rental car before you get here. It is absolutely necessary to have your own wheels as QR will only provide transportation for the first week.
If you plan to bring your family, get your marriage certificate, children's birth certificates and children's last two years' school reports certified by the Qatari Embassy in your home country. Contact the embassy directly for guidelines. You will need to have school reports certified by your Ministry of Education, and marriage/birth certificates certified by your Ministry of Foreign Affairs (or equivalent) before presenting them to the Qatari embassy for their chop. This is absolutely necessary in order to get your family's residency permit and school places. These documents then need to be translated into Arabic by a translation agency in Doha. Yep, really.
Get in touch with schools before you arrive and find out exactly what is needed in order to get a place. You will need to present all above mentioned documents to the Supreme Education Council in Doha for their approval for your child to start school.
QR will assist you in opening a bank account and will give you an advance of half a month's salary when you arrive. Until then all ATMs accept foreign bank cards for cash withdrawals.
Joining is a frustrating exercise of bureaucracy and QR can only do so much to assist you but once you are settled and everything is in place QR is a good job and Doha is a decent place to live if you keep your expectations realistic!
To make your life simple, and avoid major frustrations, prepare the following before arriving:
Bring an international driving license and go online to book a rental car before you get here. It is absolutely necessary to have your own wheels as QR will only provide transportation for the first week.
If you plan to bring your family, get your marriage certificate, children's birth certificates and children's last two years' school reports certified by the Qatari Embassy in your home country. Contact the embassy directly for guidelines. You will need to have school reports certified by your Ministry of Education, and marriage/birth certificates certified by your Ministry of Foreign Affairs (or equivalent) before presenting them to the Qatari embassy for their chop. This is absolutely necessary in order to get your family's residency permit and school places. These documents then need to be translated into Arabic by a translation agency in Doha. Yep, really.
Get in touch with schools before you arrive and find out exactly what is needed in order to get a place. You will need to present all above mentioned documents to the Supreme Education Council in Doha for their approval for your child to start school.
QR will assist you in opening a bank account and will give you an advance of half a month's salary when you arrive. Until then all ATMs accept foreign bank cards for cash withdrawals.
Joining is a frustrating exercise of bureaucracy and QR can only do so much to assist you but once you are settled and everything is in place QR is a good job and Doha is a decent place to live if you keep your expectations realistic!
Join Date: Apr 2010
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QR ivew
For those who want to try - I had a peek at QR right from the fence...
I failed the sim.
I was not perfect, but I did enough to pass. IMHO.
The thing that really p----d me off was that I offered to give them feedback about the assessor - they just politely told me to reapply in 6 months.
The assessor made 2 significant mistakes, that upset my exercise.
You can judge for yourself.
1. After the LOFT I was repo for a NPA in OBBI. The sim was not properly synchronized - the a/c symbol was almost on the radial while the display was showing a x-track error of more than 18 miles!!! I was flying it managed lateral but the a/c never intercepted the radial. Just flew through it. I pointed out to the assessor that something was wrong with the sim. His reaction was "It's OK".
2. I was repo for the raw data ILS, A/T on, F2, but during the sim reset the assessor forgot to arm APP PHASE. That's his job, by the way. I failed to notice that and when he released the sim, the a/c rushed to reacquire 250 knots. I said again something's wrong and he had to freeze the sim again as we almost went into flap overspeed.
I believe Airbus pilots will understand very well what happened. There is no benefit from introducing these kind of problems on purpose during an assessment. So I am sure he was just having a bad day at the office. Unfortunately for me!
The guy was quite old. He last flew the A300 for QR, or so he said. His present job is only assessment. So he should have known better. I believe he was Lebanese/Jordanian/Egyptian.
The F/O I was paired with made it and was accepted.
You can draw your own conclusions...
By the way I am not reapplying.
Good luck!
I failed the sim.
I was not perfect, but I did enough to pass. IMHO.
The thing that really p----d me off was that I offered to give them feedback about the assessor - they just politely told me to reapply in 6 months.
The assessor made 2 significant mistakes, that upset my exercise.
You can judge for yourself.
1. After the LOFT I was repo for a NPA in OBBI. The sim was not properly synchronized - the a/c symbol was almost on the radial while the display was showing a x-track error of more than 18 miles!!! I was flying it managed lateral but the a/c never intercepted the radial. Just flew through it. I pointed out to the assessor that something was wrong with the sim. His reaction was "It's OK".
2. I was repo for the raw data ILS, A/T on, F2, but during the sim reset the assessor forgot to arm APP PHASE. That's his job, by the way. I failed to notice that and when he released the sim, the a/c rushed to reacquire 250 knots. I said again something's wrong and he had to freeze the sim again as we almost went into flap overspeed.
I believe Airbus pilots will understand very well what happened. There is no benefit from introducing these kind of problems on purpose during an assessment. So I am sure he was just having a bad day at the office. Unfortunately for me!
The guy was quite old. He last flew the A300 for QR, or so he said. His present job is only assessment. So he should have known better. I believe he was Lebanese/Jordanian/Egyptian.
The F/O I was paired with made it and was accepted.
You can draw your own conclusions...
By the way I am not reapplying.
Good luck!
Last edited by LZ-DOC; 2nd Mar 2016 at 20:01. Reason: styling
Join Date: Aug 2002
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Sorry to hear about your experience. I have to say mine was completely different. Very nice Mexican chap running the sim, very relaxed. In fact my training as a whole was excellent on the 777, although I did have one line instructor who could have looked up the word trainer in the dictionary!
I am surprised to hear you had managed Lateral Nav engaged or A/T for that matter, when I went through my assessment everything was off!
Regards
I am surprised to hear you had managed Lateral Nav engaged or A/T for that matter, when I went through my assessment everything was off!
Regards
Join Date: Aug 2015
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I have a question for any current Qatar pilot. I heard that no employee family member under 12 years of age is allowed to sit in business class on your annual vacation ticket, is this true? If so what about on an ID90 or ID50 ticket?
Thanks,
Rocky
Thanks,
Rocky
Join Date: Jun 2009
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J4,
At 22, you shouldn't be thinking even twice before joining QR. if you get it, just go for it. It's a good company for career progression and Doha is a decent place as all the veterans here have commented. But make sure you
and speak up only when needed.
As a second officer at QR, I must say your joining as one of the worlds best airline at right time. Qatar is progressing and will open up plenty of opportunities for fleet transfers and upgrades. But don't expect to be treated well. As always, high expectations leads to disappointment.
Good luck
At 22, you shouldn't be thinking even twice before joining QR. if you get it, just go for it. It's a good company for career progression and Doha is a decent place as all the veterans here have commented. But make sure you
and speak up only when needed. As a second officer at QR, I must say your joining as one of the worlds best airline at right time. Qatar is progressing and will open up plenty of opportunities for fleet transfers and upgrades. But don't expect to be treated well. As always, high expectations leads to disappointment.
Good luck
Join Date: Feb 2006
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I worked for them a while ago. I can jsut say, all horror stories are true, some even worse when they happen to you.
While I was there a couple of guys(i knew some of them) got either denoted or even fired for stupid reasons(one for instance made a "firm" - not a hard, landing and got fired, he was a FO). Then some local from the famous flying college which all went straight up as FO on 330 with 150 hours under their bellies and did a couple of real hard landings there(cost them a fortune plus a grounded 330) and NOTHING happened to them. That's QR company culture.
I personally I had a few encounters with great QR company culture, for instance continuous roster changes, got OFF days on outstations while on layover and so on. Crewing was never reachable, door always locked(old crewbuilding), did not lift the phone, never replied to emails. Frustrating.
I do not believe all this BS that they became better, not as long good old Al Baker boy is running the show.
Doha itself was a dump, now, years later I bet it is still the same but with more high office towers. And for sure still the same "flash mob style traffic jams", sometimes even at 2300....
Still shivering when I think back to my time with QR
. Glad I left them on my own terms for good.
@freddi
My knowledge about the 320 guys is a bit rusty as well, but back then they used to fly every night, sometime 6 in a row. You realized that this is a 320 guy when you thought - hey, he looks like a zombie. And this means something because even on the widebody we did tons of nightflying(which just kills you, even more if you get older). I often landed in the morning in Doha just to do another flight out on the same day(evening). If you want narrow body get some low cost in europe instead of killing yourself down there. My 10 cents. Take it or leave it.
While I was there a couple of guys(i knew some of them) got either denoted or even fired for stupid reasons(one for instance made a "firm" - not a hard, landing and got fired, he was a FO). Then some local from the famous flying college which all went straight up as FO on 330 with 150 hours under their bellies and did a couple of real hard landings there(cost them a fortune plus a grounded 330) and NOTHING happened to them. That's QR company culture.
I personally I had a few encounters with great QR company culture, for instance continuous roster changes, got OFF days on outstations while on layover and so on. Crewing was never reachable, door always locked(old crewbuilding), did not lift the phone, never replied to emails. Frustrating.
I do not believe all this BS that they became better, not as long good old Al Baker boy is running the show.
Doha itself was a dump, now, years later I bet it is still the same but with more high office towers. And for sure still the same "flash mob style traffic jams", sometimes even at 2300....
Still shivering when I think back to my time with QR
. Glad I left them on my own terms for good.@freddi
My knowledge about the 320 guys is a bit rusty as well, but back then they used to fly every night, sometime 6 in a row. You realized that this is a 320 guy when you thought - hey, he looks like a zombie. And this means something because even on the widebody we did tons of nightflying(which just kills you, even more if you get older). I often landed in the morning in Doha just to do another flight out on the same day(evening). If you want narrow body get some low cost in europe instead of killing yourself down there. My 10 cents. Take it or leave it.
Last edited by tomuchwork; 4th Mar 2016 at 21:16.
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Join Date: Oct 2012
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I worked for them a while ago. I can jsut say, all horror stories are true, some even worse when they happen to you.
While I was there a couple of guys(i knew some of them) got either denoted or even fired for stupid reasons(one for instance made a "firm" - not a hard, landing and got fired, he was a FO). Then some local from the famous flying college which all went straight up as FO on 330 with 150 hours under their bellies and did a couple of real hard landings there(cost them a fortune plus a grounded 330) and NOTHING happened to them. That's QR company culture.
I personally I had a few encounters with great QR company culture, for instance continuous roster changes, got OFF days on outstations while on layover and so on. Crewing was never reachable, door always locked(old crewbuilding), did not lift the phone, never replied to emails. Frustrating.
I do not believe all this BS that they became better, not as long good old Al Baker boy is running the show.
Doha itself was a dump, now, years later I bet it is still the same but with more high office towers. And for sure still the same "flash mob style traffic jams", sometimes even at 2300....
Still shivering when I think back to my time with QR . Glad I left them on my own terms for good.
@freddi
My knowledge about the 320 guys is a bit rusty as well, but back then they used to fly every night, sometime 6 in a row. You realized that this is a 320 guy when you thought - hey, he looks like a zombie. And this means something because even on the widebody we did tons of nightflying(which just kills you, even more if you get older). I often landed in the morning in Doha just to do another flight out on the same day(evening). If you want narrow body get some low cost in europe instead of killing yourself down there. My 10 cents. Take it or leave it.
While I was there a couple of guys(i knew some of them) got either denoted or even fired for stupid reasons(one for instance made a "firm" - not a hard, landing and got fired, he was a FO). Then some local from the famous flying college which all went straight up as FO on 330 with 150 hours under their bellies and did a couple of real hard landings there(cost them a fortune plus a grounded 330) and NOTHING happened to them. That's QR company culture.
I personally I had a few encounters with great QR company culture, for instance continuous roster changes, got OFF days on outstations while on layover and so on. Crewing was never reachable, door always locked(old crewbuilding), did not lift the phone, never replied to emails. Frustrating.
I do not believe all this BS that they became better, not as long good old Al Baker boy is running the show.
Doha itself was a dump, now, years later I bet it is still the same but with more high office towers. And for sure still the same "flash mob style traffic jams", sometimes even at 2300....
Still shivering when I think back to my time with QR
. Glad I left them on my own terms for good.@freddi
My knowledge about the 320 guys is a bit rusty as well, but back then they used to fly every night, sometime 6 in a row. You realized that this is a 320 guy when you thought - hey, he looks like a zombie. And this means something because even on the widebody we did tons of nightflying(which just kills you, even more if you get older). I often landed in the morning in Doha just to do another flight out on the same day(evening). If you want narrow body get some low cost in europe instead of killing yourself down there. My 10 cents. Take it or leave it.
Join Date: Feb 2006
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@j4mi3
I did nearly 3 years with them.
Nice things? Maybe some of the collegues, I remember the cadets I used to fly with, nice fellas, mainly brits if I recall right. Was nice actually to have someone to have a chat with without always being scared to say something wrong. Had as well some southamerican FOs on the fleet, a pleasure to fly with as well.
On the other hand then some locals reading in the coran for the entire flight(no BS) and doing other weird things.
So, coming up with stuff I liked, even after a lot of years(and normally you see things more relaxed after a couple of years) is very hard for me.
Another thing that comes to my mind what I really always hated - the yearly lies when Mr.B promised us payrises and retirement(lol).
If you look nowadays in the EK thread then it seems as well this once nice company went south, don't want to start about the "unspeakable" other carrier in the UAE.
Seems the ME will be having troubles filling their pilot ranks over the next couple of years because a lot of experienced pilots returning back home to greener lands or going even further away into the chinese market(brrr).
Depends really on your personal preferences in life - money or having a life. Hard to accomplish both.
I did nearly 3 years with them.
Nice things? Maybe some of the collegues, I remember the cadets I used to fly with, nice fellas, mainly brits if I recall right. Was nice actually to have someone to have a chat with without always being scared to say something wrong. Had as well some southamerican FOs on the fleet, a pleasure to fly with as well.
On the other hand then some locals reading in the coran for the entire flight(no BS) and doing other weird things.
So, coming up with stuff I liked, even after a lot of years(and normally you see things more relaxed after a couple of years) is very hard for me.
Another thing that comes to my mind what I really always hated - the yearly lies when Mr.B promised us payrises and retirement(lol).
If you look nowadays in the EK thread then it seems as well this once nice company went south, don't want to start about the "unspeakable" other carrier in the UAE.
Seems the ME will be having troubles filling their pilot ranks over the next couple of years because a lot of experienced pilots returning back home to greener
lands or going even further away into the chinese market(brrr). Depends really on your personal preferences in life - money or having a life. Hard to accomplish both.
