I recently flew with a few "new guys" that joined CV in 2017. My advice after these conversations is, read the f****** CWA all the way to the end, before you sign the contract (and especially before you cancel your previous employment, if any).
Those I'm talking about, apparently didn't do so, and were quite surprised afterwards, how unpleasant the day-to-day operation turned out.
With the so-called "spool-up" conditions, where you don't get a Rest-before-Off day (RBO) at first, plus a week less vacation or so, the overall flying is quite a bit more intense than for us senior guys (which is though already). You are just too long available to Crew planning in a block, so they will push you around with changes upon changes, until finally your next block of fixed Off days comes along. It's a bit like flying long-haul-ad-hoc-executive. To a degree of 50-90% the trips initially assigned are wildcards, mere placeholders to be replaced with anything, usually one day before departure (Crew Damage Control can't plan any further ahead at present).
Still the job can be interesting for many of those, who are currently slave-serving for some early-captitlism outfit with truck-driver pay-scales and no social security, like I hear about EW Austria i.e.
But, unless you are desperate to find any job asap, I would suggest the following:
Go for the test, and if you pass, get access to a copy of the current CWA and study it thoroughly before the interview. Then take a good second (and third) thought, if the conditions for new hires after 2016 will really be sustainable to you (given the extreme instability of the rosters, which they may not tell you about in the interview).
If you have any doubts afterwards, state politely at the interview, that you will be more than happy to work for Cargolux under conditions like the senior guys do, but feel unable to burn yourself out on what is presently on the table for new hires.
Last edited by TheRednosedReindeer; 17th Jan 2018 at 10:56.