Ryanair assessment
Wassup y’all
Here’s my feedback
First of all we did the briefing with the HR guy which was really helpful and answered all the questions we had for him. He told us what to expect if we get hired and what we need to do. That lasted for about 30 minutes.
After that one of the assessor captains did the briefing, focusing more on the 737 cockpit layout and the profiles. He helped a lot especially those who had no kind of experience on the 737(APS MCC or Assessment prep). He then explained to us that they’re not going to judge mistakes on the flight that much if we show a tendency of correcting them. Then paired us into crews taking into account the experience everyone had on the 737.
The HR questions were:
1. Tell us about yourself.
2. What did you do before applying or while waiting for the call.
3. Where do you see yourself in five years.
4. If it’s worth for Ryanair buying the 737 Max 200.
5. What traits should a good leader have.
6. If you see your captain not being in the mood to fly or he’s tired or he’s miss behaving, what do you do.
7. Hobbies/interests.
8. They saw my degree in economics so they asked me what is going to happen on the fares after Ryanair gets their 737 Max.
9. When can you start.
10. If you are the manager of a basketball team and you are playing for the cup final and your best player is injured and is not allowed by the doctors to play but he tells you that he wants to play, what do you do? Do you take the risk or do you lose the final? How are you going to motivate your team?
11. Do you prefer being a leader or a follower on a project? Tell us an example.
12. How do you feel about the 30k type rating cost.
13. Did you do an assessment preparation and where?
14. Where did you do the MCC and why that aircraft?(for me it was the 737)
The technical interview consisted of the following questions:
1. 737NG and 737MAX differences.
2. Differences between their engines. (Bypass,EPR,Efficiency,size)
3. If you’re at 260ft at a QNH of 1005, what is the pressure altitude.
4. DA42 electrical system, Vne, Max demonstrated crosswind.
5. What is metar? If you see FZRA what do you do?
6. What is freezing rain?
7. Differences between freezing rain and sleet.
8. Clear ice - what is it? Is it dangerous.
9. Why do you prefer the Boeing over the airbus and why didn’t you apply for Aegean Airlines?(greek airliner operating the A320 fleet)
10. If you are on a 270° heading and the wind is coming from 300°/20knots, what is the crosswind and how do you calculate it?
The entire HR/Technical interview was done in a really informal and friendly way with none of them asking tricky questions or difficult ones. They were both pretty helpful and didn’t try to stress anyone of the candidates.
The sim assessment:
It was East Midlands for the entire group.
SID: Rwy 27 TNT 2N
ILS 27 with radar vectors.
I was the PF first because I had some experience on the 737 so the assessor put me first.
He allowed time for me to setup, brief my PM and he even helped us on the setup part, explaining to my PM where to find all the switches and the navaid selections for when his turn comes, due to his lack of experience in the 737 sim.
He didn’t want me to brief the emergency, they really want to see you fly so keep the briefing short and precise with only open ended questions to avoid confirmation bias.
We flew the SID with F/D on up to the point that we intercepted the inbound radial to TNT. He then told me to do some turns with 30° and 45° angle, first with the F/D ON so we can take a look at the attitude indicator (Don’t take that for granted, not everyone tried turns with the F/D on).The F/D was then switched OFF for the remainder of the assessment. After that we did some air work including 30°,45° turns, climbs and descends, climbs with constant speed and constant V/S, descends with constant speed and V/S, leading to a combination of all these together.
Then he asked me to tell him our whereabouts (Radial and distance) from the EME NDB and what HOLDING ENTRY is required in case I need to go back to the station. He also asked me if we need to intercept a QDM/QDR, what heading should we follow. They only want you to answer, not to actually do it. He also asked me and my PM to point where we think we are on the APPROACH PLATE.
Then came the emergency situation, for me a passenger collapsed on the way to the toilet and the passengers were panicking. I handed over controls to my PM telling him to continue flying this heading, speed and altitude before answering to the Cabin crew call. I told him to stand by and I will get back to him after I discuss the situation with my copilot. I did a TDODAR, again asking open ended questions, I informed the ATC and I called the cabin crew to do a NITS briefing, clearly stating that he should keep me informed about any change, I did a PA where the assessor stopped me telling me that the PA was completed (they really appreciated the PA because it showed good CRM skills to them). I then setup the aircraft for the ILS 27 East Midlands and I briefed my PM asking him to call altitudes and distances for the flap and gear configuration.
He gave us Radar Vectors for the approach and allowed many miles to intercept the LOCALIZER (around 14 in my case / around 15 to my PM when his turn came up). He helped my PM when it was his turn telling him what N1% he should fly during the approach and what to setup. My ILS was spot on so he gave us no reason to go around maybe because the whole session as PF was perfect. My PM on the other hand had to go around because the unstable approach criteria were out of limits. It would be best to do a quick DODAR or PIOSEE after the go around before letting the assessor reposition you back to 10 miles final.
The sim assessment then came to an end and he told us that we will receive the answer within a weeks time.
On a personal note I would like to give some advice to the next candidates:
Firstly and most importantly, always be yourself and don’t try to show off your technical knowledge on the 737 - it doesn’t work and it will leave the assessor with a bad opinion of you especially if you mess up.
If you don’t know the answer on a question be honest and simply tell them that you don’t know the answer!
Always try to help the other candidates, wether that is on the sim or before their technical interview. (Especially in the sim the assessor will form a great opinion of you if you show that you care about others and not only for yourself).
Try rehearsing the answers that might come up during the HR interview at home before going for the assessment. It really helps being fluent and having a well structured answer.
And finally, it would really benefit you giving some money for a simulator assessment preparation. It’s an opportunity that doesn’t come everyday in your life so don’t feel bad for spending a small amount of money to feel more ready and relaxed during the “big day”.
Hope my experience helps others!