Parc SSTR assessment & Selection
Hello All,
I sat the assessment tests - paid 800E, did verbal and numerical tests, untimed 183 question psychological questionaire, and psychological interview.
They claim they have a 100% employment record. Given that they have a selection about 5 per year and that they 'accept' 2 or 4 each time makes life nice and easy for PARC as they have only 2 or 4 candidate to find jobs for. And this is the problem.. They are under no obligation what-so-ever to find you work, and although they have contacts within the industry, one they're done with you, you find yourself in a position to find work yourself just as much as PARC finding you work - even with 30,000E spent. I don't want to get into the dabate on sponsoring yourself as that a matter of personal opinion so lets get to the selection process....
It is exactly as the person who started this thread described!
40 minute verbal which is the "Watson and Glazer" test. Inference, interpretation, etc. English is my first language and its not easy. The numerical reasoning is very straight forward - just need to be fast. Its the mathematics one would have done by the age of 13 or 14 in school!!!!!!!!!! 30 minutes test.
You cant pass or fail the psychological interview or personality quesioaire - its just you describing your opinion in the quesionaire and talking about your life and flying in the interview etc.
Simcheck is: Take off and departure brief (BE CONFIDENT AND SURE OF YOURSELF!! No "am" "uh" "eh" - be very sure what your brief is. Liffy2A SID and once you pass the DUB VOR its time for airwork. This could be anything - accellerating level, climbs, climb & turn, descent or descent and turn, steep turns. Asked what your QDM/QDR is? Scan is CRITICAL and THE VSI is my opinion is ULTRA important. Then Radar vectors to a go around or to a landing and then airborne again/doing the G/A to do another vectored ILS.
No hold entry asked, but - the key is - Any Aspect Of Your IR FLYING Can Be Asked!!!
I got feeback 5 days later....PARC use this as one of their selling points of the course/selection procedure but, WHAT A JOKE. THEIR FEEDBACK IS USELESS!!!!!!!!
Like the person who started this thread - this so called "feedback" is no good to anyone. No where in my life have i seen a report on a persons performance which was so false, unsupported, with no backing to support the given feedback. In my education and working life for example, team-work has been the back-bone of success, winning business and making ideas work. I have worked in many pressure multi crew roles - yet this "psychologist" will report back to you in the feedback that you only get pityful results from their "assessment" of your teamwork capabilities. which is one of the "core competencies"...Its bull****.
How can a person deduce, from a maths test, a verbal test and personality questionaire and interview about your family and training say to you that you have mediocre ability to "Plan ahead to avoid problems" its just not cunducive to anthing constructive and there no excuse for the feedback". You get no results from the numerical and verbal tests. The only meaningful result you get is from the sim-check, which is funny because he tells you at the time of the sim-check in his own words.
Its interesting to note that they ask you in the interview if you have applied to the CTC scheme, or any other airlines, and if you have been accepted for another selection by another airline. I indeed have been, and the person who started this thread stated they are working in a TurboProp job. Interestingly neiter of us was accepted.
In a nutshell, if you've been accepted by another airline, have a chance to work for another airline such as upcoming sim-check / interview, they will reject you. It seems that its so hard for "low-time" new pilots to get a start with their first job, PARC is a way in for those who cant get anywhere with their efforts. So whats the answer - dont tell them anything about any other prospect you have. The feedback is no good at all.
If you really want a place on the course:
1.... Dont tell the psychological interviewer that you have any other job opportunity.
2.... Myself and other applicants were advised by employees of PARC that the risk is too high. I could not believe this when i heard this!!!
3.....Ask PARC for e-mail addresses of as many past candidates. Interestingly they will only give you addresses of successful candidates, and none of unsuccessful candidates. Ask for addresses of unsuccessful candidates also and see if they can support any of my comments.
4.... Be very aware of the risk factor with SSTR whatever your opinion of them (Self Sponsored Type Rating Schemes) that have NO JOB GUARANTEE!!!
MAY 2006 BE A FRUITFUL YEAR FOR US ALL!