Originally Posted by
BARRY_SCOTT
mich_65, what was the assessment like and were you successful?
Im guessing you mean the ANS one?
It was great but tense.
I expected it to be a smaller amount of people invited than it was (expected 30-50 and it was over 100) which put more pressure on us. The other candidates and everyone from ANS was very nice and made us feel welcome. After a quick introduction we had the first tests which was ten smaller tests with I think one break in between.
They weren’t hard but what made it hard was the amount of tasks in the small amount of time given. Most important thing is to stay focussed I guess and to move on if you can’t solve something instantly.
We had to come back in the afternoon and they read out the applicants numbers that had passed (if anyone wonders we were 23 in total that passed, nevertheless they had 32 slots for the next stage but not enough people passed). We then had another introduction to the second stage and had time to study the materials for the simulator. It is not allowed to take the material home you have to learn it by heart (rules, headings, flight levels etc) - which I don’t think was too hard because it wasn’t a big amount of information.
I was allocated the simulator and interview two days after instead of the next day so I had another day to relax.
I had the interview first and then the simulator. The interview was not a standard interview and fairly relaxed (compared to other interviews I had myself including for an ATCO trainee position) they just want to get to know you and understand why you want to become a controller.
The simulator consists of four different tests, which all are similar but different to the eurocontrol ones.
I had a bad feeling after because I thought I wasn’t very good and although they were going to tell us the next day it felt like an eternity.
Apparently got the wrong impression of myself as I got good news the day after :-)
Before I applied to AustroControl and Nats - passed the eurocontrol tests but not the interview in Austria and Nats wasn’t happy with my English results.
Comparing the 3 companies and interview and assessment processes I was the most impressed with ANS as they’re very helpful beforehand if you need any information and try to make everything as smooth as possible. Also preferred that all the assessment stages were completed within a week and feedback was given right after rather then with the other two where I had one assessment every month.
Nevertheless the NATS assessment process was very professional as well and everyone was very welcoming too.
Hope this helps..