Hi Chin
Thanks for the interest in this thread and your attempt at trying to put a few minds at rest (including mine!).
I too was unsuccesful with this scheme, so unsuccesful infact that I didn't receive a "Dear John..." letter or a email or phone call etc. My results became apparent from the replies on here. Reading the posts of those succesful who qualified to stage 1 was the indicator that the NO news was in fact bad news as I'd expected.
Still im sure the relative HR dept's had their hands full notifying the succesful candidates.
However, im still a tad concerned to the deciding factors involved in the Go/No Go on the paper stage. If I read your post correct, then doesnt ones suitability fall to how succesful they were with connecting to the people vetting the applications. I fail to see where the current app form gave opportunity to allow candidates enough scope to show wether they would work well with current BAL team or not. How possibly does one judge wether they are more suited to BA than BAL? Surely these sort of politcs can only make a wannabes life harder. Not only do you have to have the right educational background, flying experiance and proven managerial results but you've also gotta show yourself to be a specific company man through liked buzz words and wether the preferred sport you played at school was rugby not football.
I rather feel it harsh to allow at the initial stage room for this sort of discrimination. Surely people should be vetted by format set in the minimum application requirements, tested, if succesful (being honest it is at this stage most people fall down) then interviewed for suitability giving a candidate chance to impress upon the company.
I fully realise the recession the aviation industry is still in, the fact that sponsorships (apart from this one) are fairly non existant and that selection will be brutal and painful for the unlucky majority. I doubt anyone applied for this scheme with the confidence that they had just found there next job! But if that is your screening process then Im sure you will have missed some very good people, maybe better people than the clones you actually end up with. Im sure they will thankyou when they are at BA
Excuse the non intentional gripe but this is where I feel these sponsorship schemes fall down. What hope do we have for the future aviation industry and its demand, where will the future pilots come from? Or will the selection system fall to a sensible level where recognition of drive and determination rewards merit and opportunity for people to succeed and grow.
I wish those succesful so far continued success. And those 1995 unsuccesful to keep going and growing, because one day they will be forced to take us on.
All the best
RB
