Hi everyone, does anyone have any information about pilot testing with the European offshore big ones? All I have heard is that psychometric testing is involved. I believe that you cannot really prepare for these tests but it would be nice to get an idea about what to expect . Cheers WSPS
A pile of questions you don't have a hope of finishing in the time allotted, so you don't think about the answers - they are looking for a gut response. They're nothing to worry about - I know I'm a psycho now 'cos I passed my last one!
In fact, we used them to find my replacement, and I was astounded at how cr*p and middle of the road the evaluations actually were, so I guess they're there to weed out the extremes. Of course, they may be using different ones.
In the UK, as far as I'm aware, only CHC use psychometric testing. Bristow and Bond use other methods.
For CHC, there were (if I remember correctly) about 8 tests each aimed at different things e.g. coordination, spacial awareness, reasoning, learning ability etc. In addition there was an interview with a psychologist and a further test during that part too. (After all that was the Simulator Test btw)
Companies using psychometric testing have a particular set of results they are looking for - if you don't meet the criteria, that doesn't necessarily mean you are not a good pilot, just that you don't fit what the company is looking for. Another company might well be looking for someone just like you...
I've heard various statistics and rumours about these tests - they are (in no particular order!)
1) I've heard numbers along the line of "out of 17 applicants only 3 passed the tests". At the test I attended the pass rate was much better (80% pass rate)....
2) That they have a failure rate (and thus a rejection rate) of greater than 50% with these tests.
3) Experienced people (e.g. ex military pilots with '000s of hours) fail and are thus not hired. That is to say, the tests are a gate which have to be cleared - experience doesn't circumvent the process (in the majority of cases).
4) The tests are believed to be accurate. Those who pass the tests are generally able to complete the training and fly the line, those who fail (but are hired anyway), more often than not are found to be lacking at some subsequent stage...
As a final note, before I did the tests I didn't know a great deal about them. I found some books on psychometric testing and used them to try and "warm up". In the end though, I don't think it was worth it, since I never found any tests in the books that were similar to the ones I actually did.
So, if you get to do them, good luck! and if you are one of the people who don't fit the criteria, I wouldn't panic about it (easy for me to say I know) since there are many other companies (Onshore as well as off) who don't use those kind of tests and are looking for different skill sets.
Thank you Phil & BaronG. At least I do know a little bit more now. As you pointed out it is very unlikely to pass if you pretend to be someone else... I have got a few weeks to go until the test and will try to get some more general info anyway. WSPS
Despite the lame and frivolous last sentence in my previous post I am genuinely interested as to what the interview with a psychologist consists of. Is it an informal chat type thing or something more structured than that? Or what?
The psychologist are going to ask you all kinda stuff. Most of it is not related to aviation at all. There is no way you can prepare for this, and you should´nt. Just be honest, keep an open mind and don´t try to bluff your way out of things. You don´t have to be a supernatural to get through this. They want to see if you fit in with the pilots allready hired.
You are right - "be yourself" is the only way to deal with it for very valid reasons. I'd just be interested, more than anything, to hear the sorts of things that they ask or want to hear about/how it works that's all, not to prepare (I'm a way off to be honest) but just to get an insight into it all...
Cheers rotordude You are right - "be yourself" is the only way to deal with it for very valid reasons. I'd just be interested, more than anything, to hear the sorts of things that they ask or want to hear about/how it works that's all, not to prepare (I'm a way off to be honest) but just to get an insight into it all... Thanks.
Of the people I know who've done that interview, the questions were different for each person... I don't think the psychologist has a set list - he/she listens to what you have to say and asks questions against the "desired profile" from there.
Last year there was an article published in the norwegian magazine "Flynytt" about the test used by CHC Helikopter Service and Norsk. The article was written by Mr. Vingestad, the psychologist that conducts the testing at the interviews for the two companies. He described the whole process in good detail, maybe someone has the article and would take the trouble translating it into english?
I hope this will not be considered as a PR stunt, so bare with me, moderators. I, and several avid readers of PPRuNe, have established a nordic forum (none profit site, no banners etc) for helicopterpilots (in our respective languages) for the past 4 years. We have the article mentioned on our forum, permission given from Flynytt and the writer of the article. We are in no capacity a threat to PPRuNe, we ourselfes are fans, and greatly inspired by Danny. It is a closed forum, and only in Nordic languages. You have to sign up for membership (free)to retreive the article, and it may only be used for personal consumption. It would be considered illegal to translate the article without the writers and the magazines approval. You may find the webpage by googling helicopterpilot in your choice of a Scandinavia language. It would be a waste of time for people who are lacking skills in these languages.
Several ppruners have emailed me. Here is the problem. No, I will not send copyrighted material on email. Hence the copyright. It's free to follow up on the information given to locate the article, but again, respecting this forum and the powers to be, I will not direct link this site. The hints are powerfull enough. It's a membership only forum, but free. This is done to protect the copyright of some of the articles and pictures posted. It's NOT in english. Our preferred site for that is PPRuNe. The article is NOT the test itself, merely a description and reasoning behind the tests from a psycologist viewpoint. No, I will not translate it for you. Yes, I did mean it when I said you would be wasting your time if you can't read in a Scandinavian language. Yes I regret posting about the article in the first place.
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