BA Direct Entry Pilot.
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Black Pudding
If I could live with that kind of paranoia, maybe I could work in Doha too. Don't take life so seriously, a couple of people meeting up pre sim to get to know each other and have chat about pitch and power settings is at worst proactive. If I didn't get a job because of that I'd have to start wondering why I applied in the first place.
Good luck with it all.
If I could live with that kind of paranoia, maybe I could work in Doha too. Don't take life so seriously, a couple of people meeting up pre sim to get to know each other and have chat about pitch and power settings is at worst proactive. If I didn't get a job because of that I'd have to start wondering why I applied in the first place.
Good luck with it all.
Join Date: Apr 2011
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Peacekeeper
You said "If I could live with that kind of paranoia, maybe I could work in Doha too"
Are you trying to say I am paranoid ? How would you know, have we met or are you just assuming this based on where my pprune says my location is. And if I do live in Doha, what has living here got to do with being paranoid. You not being able to live in Doha is your problem, not mine.
"Don't take life seriously" Really. People on this thread have applied for a job, is this not a serious thing to some people.
The point I am trying to make is this. Companies do spend time trying to find information about future employees and this will include using the internet, facebook, pprune and linkedin. I have 2 friends who both attended interviews in the last 3 years who were asked if they were such a person on pprune. Both had been rumbled. All it takes is for a company to spend 20 minutes looking at all your post on here and they will make a second guess on the type of person you are. Positive or negative. Posting what dates you have a sim or selection does nothing but risk a company making a judgment on you before they have even met you. It's like putting a photo on a CV. You are giving the selection team nothing but a face and this does nothing but let them make a judgment on you even before they have met you. As for being prepared for a sim. Best thing to do is make sure you yourself are prepared. As for your sim buddy, that's his problem, you just make sure you are prepared. In this world, you will fly with knob heads who have poor CRM or whose ability is poor. Having a poor sim partner may give you the opportunity to be able to show you can cope with either. Again, posting dates you have your sim I think will do more harm than good.
Good luck.
You said "If I could live with that kind of paranoia, maybe I could work in Doha too"
Are you trying to say I am paranoid ? How would you know, have we met or are you just assuming this based on where my pprune says my location is. And if I do live in Doha, what has living here got to do with being paranoid. You not being able to live in Doha is your problem, not mine.
"Don't take life seriously" Really. People on this thread have applied for a job, is this not a serious thing to some people.
The point I am trying to make is this. Companies do spend time trying to find information about future employees and this will include using the internet, facebook, pprune and linkedin. I have 2 friends who both attended interviews in the last 3 years who were asked if they were such a person on pprune. Both had been rumbled. All it takes is for a company to spend 20 minutes looking at all your post on here and they will make a second guess on the type of person you are. Positive or negative. Posting what dates you have a sim or selection does nothing but risk a company making a judgment on you before they have even met you. It's like putting a photo on a CV. You are giving the selection team nothing but a face and this does nothing but let them make a judgment on you even before they have met you. As for being prepared for a sim. Best thing to do is make sure you yourself are prepared. As for your sim buddy, that's his problem, you just make sure you are prepared. In this world, you will fly with knob heads who have poor CRM or whose ability is poor. Having a poor sim partner may give you the opportunity to be able to show you can cope with either. Again, posting dates you have your sim I think will do more harm than good.
Good luck.
Last edited by Black Pudding; 19th Feb 2015 at 13:45.
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Black Pudding,
I think your paranoid purely because you worry about things like that. I agree that one has to be careful about social media, that's a factor in everyday life now. But it's something to be aware of with every posting on the internet, if your comfortable with the image and views you portray openly, then what is there to worry about? Believe me, the group interview and personal interview will expose your personality anyway, good or bad.
Of course a bit of caution is prudent, but so is doing everything you can to prepare and I personally believe that being more relaxed before a high pressure situation gives you spare capacity. I'm more relaxed when I know the people I have to work with and I have a vested interest that they succeed as well.
Regarding Doha, having flown with colleagues who were not allowed to have their passports for the duration of their 3 months notice period despite not having their LPC renewed, the impression they gave was that you had to be very careful about what you think and say. One was disciplined for taking his crew water from one aircraft to another during a swap, effectively saving the company a bottle of water. Thankfully, British Airways is a bit more sensible than that!
Please read my comment of 'Don't take life too seriously' and amend to, 'Relax, no-one is trying to catch you out, be yourself, peace and love'
I think your paranoid purely because you worry about things like that. I agree that one has to be careful about social media, that's a factor in everyday life now. But it's something to be aware of with every posting on the internet, if your comfortable with the image and views you portray openly, then what is there to worry about? Believe me, the group interview and personal interview will expose your personality anyway, good or bad.
Of course a bit of caution is prudent, but so is doing everything you can to prepare and I personally believe that being more relaxed before a high pressure situation gives you spare capacity. I'm more relaxed when I know the people I have to work with and I have a vested interest that they succeed as well.
Regarding Doha, having flown with colleagues who were not allowed to have their passports for the duration of their 3 months notice period despite not having their LPC renewed, the impression they gave was that you had to be very careful about what you think and say. One was disciplined for taking his crew water from one aircraft to another during a swap, effectively saving the company a bottle of water. Thankfully, British Airways is a bit more sensible than that!
Please read my comment of 'Don't take life too seriously' and amend to, 'Relax, no-one is trying to catch you out, be yourself, peace and love'
I think this needs to be kept in proportion.
We know that the BA "manager, recruiting", posted here within the last year.
We know (well some of us do) that the the company and/or some at BALPA were unhappy with the level of detail being posted here with respect to recruiting requirements/fleet plans quite recently but that didn't result in a "witch hunt" and a search for names, just a "please don't do it" passed on via the BALPA forum.
Given the above it would be sensible to assume when posting that "someone" in the office might cast an occasional eye over this thread.
If you post your sim time and date somebody in BA recruitment might notice but on the other hand I doubt very very much anyone at BA is going to be asking pprune for details of PMs ...just be sensible.
We know that the BA "manager, recruiting", posted here within the last year.
We know (well some of us do) that the the company and/or some at BALPA were unhappy with the level of detail being posted here with respect to recruiting requirements/fleet plans quite recently but that didn't result in a "witch hunt" and a search for names, just a "please don't do it" passed on via the BALPA forum.
Given the above it would be sensible to assume when posting that "someone" in the office might cast an occasional eye over this thread.
If you post your sim time and date somebody in BA recruitment might notice but on the other hand I doubt very very much anyone at BA is going to be asking pprune for details of PMs ...just be sensible.
Last edited by wiggy; 20th Feb 2015 at 07:22. Reason: format.
Join Date: Apr 2004
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PSOP is dead. It was supposed to be a share scheme but BA forgot to ask IAG if it would be okay to have such a scheme, IAG did not allow it so PSOP became a monetary reward paid at the same value as the shares. It is not an ongoing thing and is extremely unlikely to be repeated. If you are not already a BA pilot PSOP is irrelevant.
Juan
I was going to make similar comment about that scheme but thought better of it...I'm not sure I could have been as polite and diplomatic as you were.
Well done..
I was going to make similar comment about that scheme but thought better of it...I'm not sure I could have been as polite and diplomatic as you were.
Well done..
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I think the previously agreed final year of the PSOP was 2014 so theoretically, we should get another 'virtual' share option following the results on Friday. Does anyone know what the virtual share price was last year?
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Thats interesting, my phone offer contained something along the line of entry into 'pilot only share scheme'.
Is the pension based on 95% of long haul salary on PP24?
I've seen a couple of rosters of very junior guys on the 320, some of the (usually domestic) duties seem pretty repetitive and tiresome. Can anyone nearer the top share their roster for any given month? Where are the best night stops on the 320 etc.
Finally, in terms of swapping. If you had 4 single day trips, followed by a few days off, is it easy to swap out the day trips for a four or five day trip etc to aid commuting?
Similarly, if you have banked hours, can you just ping a duty from your roster into the ether? IE you have 10 hours banked, and want to get rid of an AMS for example. can you just.... get rid of it?
Is the pension based on 95% of long haul salary on PP24?
I've seen a couple of rosters of very junior guys on the 320, some of the (usually domestic) duties seem pretty repetitive and tiresome. Can anyone nearer the top share their roster for any given month? Where are the best night stops on the 320 etc.
Finally, in terms of swapping. If you had 4 single day trips, followed by a few days off, is it easy to swap out the day trips for a four or five day trip etc to aid commuting?
Similarly, if you have banked hours, can you just ping a duty from your roster into the ether? IE you have 10 hours banked, and want to get rid of an AMS for example. can you just.... get rid of it?
Last edited by Lead; 25th Feb 2015 at 07:57. Reason: Spelling!
I'm no expert on shorthaul but I'll give it a go:
A shorthauler should be able to tell you for certain - Sounds to me like dropping a load of day trips to pick up a unallocated single trip from the company pot ( using the computer system, eMaestro) might be a challenge..I guess you might perhaps get more luck swopping directly with an individual....
That's a very definite "that depends" 
. You're trying to drop work back into the pot and not picking anything else up in return. The company really isn't keen on having "uncovered" work. If there's already "x" amount of unallocated trips in the pot on the days involved (where "x" is a monthly changing variable defined by BA, often 1), and/or the days involved are one's where pilots might not be keen to pick up the work you want to drop (e.g. bank holidays, some 
... weekends) then you might not be able to drop the work, regardless of your banked hours....the computer or someone in the office will simply say "no".
I suspect that's as clear as mud and in any event the rules on this are changing from month to month at the moment, dependent on pilot numbers and the whim of certain managers, but HT is of some H.
If you had 4 single day trips, followed by a few days off, is it easy to swap out the day trips for a four or five day trip etc to aid commuting?
Similarly, if you have banked hours, can you just ping a duty from your roster into the either? IE you have 10 hours banked, and want to get rid of an AMS for example. can you just.... get rid of it?
. You're trying to drop work back into the pot and not picking anything else up in return. The company really isn't keen on having "uncovered" work. If there's already "x" amount of unallocated trips in the pot on the days involved (where "x" is a monthly changing variable defined by BA, often 1), and/or the days involved are one's where pilots might not be keen to pick up the work you want to drop (e.g. bank holidays, some ... weekends) then you might not be able to drop the work, regardless of your banked hours....the computer or someone in the office will simply say "no".I suspect that's as clear as mud and in any event the rules on this are changing from month to month at the moment, dependent on pilot numbers and the whim of certain managers, but HT is of some H.
Last edited by wiggy; 25th Feb 2015 at 09:06.
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Wiggy has it about right,
Swapping back into emaestro with that amount of work would be an impressive feat. Most guys use iBid or similar to contact each other and do peer to peer swaps so to speak. Having said that the FTL's still govern what can go on.
With bank, certain days will be embargoed if there is already work in the pot so its not as easy as it seems.
Fundamentally, the more senior you are the better chance you have of making your life fit. Simples.
Swapping back into emaestro with that amount of work would be an impressive feat. Most guys use iBid or similar to contact each other and do peer to peer swaps so to speak. Having said that the FTL's still govern what can go on.
With bank, certain days will be embargoed if there is already work in the pot so its not as easy as it seems.
Fundamentally, the more senior you are the better chance you have of making your life fit. Simples.
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Short haul FO, not at the bottom but no way near the top either.
Re dropping trips: if there is more than one trip uncovered you cannot bank withdrawl or swap. If you have a trip covering 19/20 and you want to drop it you can't if there is any more than one uncovered trip reporting or operating on or over the 19/20th. Same applies for trip trades. If you are on a blind line you can trade but it must be for a higher credit trip (more work). I have had hours in the bank for nearly a year and have not found anything that is worth using them for. Recently I tried to drop a Sunday day trip but was not allowed. There was no uncovered work but ops declared it a closed day.
Best night stops: Budapest (not min rest one) Vienna (same applies) Glasgow
Edinburgh, Newcastle during freshers week . Lay overs in Istanbul, Lisbon etc. Any mid haul routes are quite senior as are high credit day trips and Irish stuff. The less popular stuff is things like Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Nice (but only in the winter) Scandinavian stuff but again in the winter. Usually you get a mix even at the bottom but some trips get hoovered up by senior bidders. I have never had an Istanbul or a Cairo. Rarely get any mid haul trips, unless a Turkish airlines crew gets kidnapped then I get loads of Beiruts all of a sudden.
If you happy with your current deal then why move? It will be frustrating and hard here to begin with but it does get better in time.
Re dropping trips: if there is more than one trip uncovered you cannot bank withdrawl or swap. If you have a trip covering 19/20 and you want to drop it you can't if there is any more than one uncovered trip reporting or operating on or over the 19/20th. Same applies for trip trades. If you are on a blind line you can trade but it must be for a higher credit trip (more work). I have had hours in the bank for nearly a year and have not found anything that is worth using them for. Recently I tried to drop a Sunday day trip but was not allowed. There was no uncovered work but ops declared it a closed day.
Best night stops: Budapest (not min rest one) Vienna (same applies) Glasgow
Edinburgh, Newcastle during freshers week . Lay overs in Istanbul, Lisbon etc. Any mid haul routes are quite senior as are high credit day trips and Irish stuff. The less popular stuff is things like Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Nice (but only in the winter) Scandinavian stuff but again in the winter. Usually you get a mix even at the bottom but some trips get hoovered up by senior bidders. I have never had an Istanbul or a Cairo. Rarely get any mid haul trips, unless a Turkish airlines crew gets kidnapped then I get loads of Beiruts all of a sudden.If you happy with your current deal then why move? It will be frustrating and hard here to begin with but it does get better in time.
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Interview
Just a check on the status of the interview lately - I know in the past it's all been competency based.
Anyone that's attended recently confirm the format is the same? Is it still all "tell us about a time" or are there any technical questions thrown in these days?
Anyone that's attended recently confirm the format is the same? Is it still all "tell us about a time" or are there any technical questions thrown in these days?
Join Date: Mar 2015
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Sim result
Did the sim early part of this week. The wait is killing me.
Just wondering if anyone has been successful if there were cracks in the CRM? I had quite a vocal sim partner who tried to take control of a lot of the exercise, even when I was PF. He was quite hard to contain and did quite a lot of point scoring (calling 'altitude' when I was 20ft high etc). I did my best to stay composed and manage the operation, but at times it was quite hard. He would interrupt my briefings etc. Managed to get most of my NOTECHS in (wish I'd known that BA like TDODAR though!). Gave consideration to crew, passengers, ops and commercial considerations etc. but we just didn't gel too well as a team, it often felt like I was single pilot and I found my partner quite overbearing (although I don't think I let on).
Really worrying that it will be the undoing of me. Flew ok, although I had to go around due to a slightly rushed approach that I didn't feel comfortable with. I think I supported him well when he was PF, offered help when needed etc. I just came away feeling quite disappointed that we hadn't worked better together as a team.
Currently flying up norf' and would love to return South.
Just wondering if anyone has been successful if there were cracks in the CRM? I had quite a vocal sim partner who tried to take control of a lot of the exercise, even when I was PF. He was quite hard to contain and did quite a lot of point scoring (calling 'altitude' when I was 20ft high etc). I did my best to stay composed and manage the operation, but at times it was quite hard. He would interrupt my briefings etc. Managed to get most of my NOTECHS in (wish I'd known that BA like TDODAR though!). Gave consideration to crew, passengers, ops and commercial considerations etc. but we just didn't gel too well as a team, it often felt like I was single pilot and I found my partner quite overbearing (although I don't think I let on).
Really worrying that it will be the undoing of me. Flew ok, although I had to go around due to a slightly rushed approach that I didn't feel comfortable with. I think I supported him well when he was PF, offered help when needed etc. I just came away feeling quite disappointed that we hadn't worked better together as a team.
Currently flying up norf' and would love to return South.
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"I had to go around due to a slightly rushed approach that I didn't feel comfortable with."
Possibly the thing that might get you the job - a big thing at the moment rigidly following Stable Approach Criteria, sounds like the right call in that case. Good luck.
Possibly the thing that might get you the job - a big thing at the moment rigidly following Stable Approach Criteria, sounds like the right call in that case. Good luck.
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The decision to go-around rather than continue with a rushed approach will do you no harm at all, the opposite in fact. Don't worry about the point scoring oppo, the assessors know the type well and don't like it. The last thing you want on the flight deck is a competition. How you coped with it will be key. Good luck!
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Question about requirements?
I have an application in for the DEP scheme but have recently had 12 months away from flying due to having a baby so am wondering what impact that might have on my application or if there are any particular recency requirements?
Grateful for any insights.
Grateful for any insights.
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4 years ago, I went around on my sim detail too, just coming up to my 4 year interview at BA for SFO now! At the end of my detail, the trainer, said it was a good decision to go around. Point scoring is not on the list of NOTECHs which BA looks for! From the sound of it, you might be ok.....