I had a chance to talk to both Jet and Air Deccan recently, both for ground based jobs. Never made it to Jet at the end, but frankly I was impressed. The interview was professional (after a thorough screening test one month prior) and the interviewers went in depth, and systematically on the subject trying to draw out the depth of your knowledge. You walked out feeling good (although a little disappointed naturally that you finally did not make it).
Deccan was a different cup of tea altogether. First they make come all the way to BLR from HYD (at my own expense - after all they are a LCC, arent they?) only to tell me that they dont have vacancies at entry level (now why they couldnt understand this from from my CV before calling me all the way is something I couldnt understand) . While I am on the way back they call me again that another of their honchos now want to talk . So I make my way back a few days later (again at my own expense) goes through an interview basically consisting of nothing but why I want to leave my current job and how much I want for the job with them and then am asked to call after a few days. I call back and the feedback is that beig a LCC they cannot "afford" to employ me!
I did ask how much they could "afford"- The answer was 175 Pounds a month! Not surprisingly I said NO when I would have to spend half of that on housing alone (BLR is one of most expensive cities in India) not to forget the fact that I spend 15 Grand (Pounds) on my qualifications!!!! Ah! Before I forget , there was another valauable feedback from the interview (and I am not joking) - YOUR PARTING HANDSHAKE WAS NOT STRONG ENOUGH (after all your are speaking of colonels and captains here!)
Now that there is feedback in the thread from both the flying and ground based areas, I can only join Phileas Fogg in requesting everyone to please think twice about going ahead in investing time and effort to interview with this set up. I took a big risk taking two days of unauthorised absence from my curent job not to speak of expenses from my own pocket amounting to something like 20 % of my monthly pay check and finally all this came to nothoing.
And if you do decide to go for it, please dont forget to PRACTICE YOUR HANDSHAKES!!!
Good Luck!!!