Filippo / Entropia. I am sorry to hear it didn't go well. However you make a very interesting point. I, too, come from Italy and spent 23 years in the beautiful country before moving to the UK. There is huge differences between the 2 countries and it does reflects in the job market and recruitment / selecion criteria.
I went to the stage 3 interviews with lots of work experience from my own background, business meetings all over Europe, project reviews, high pressure and tight deadlines to meet in my previous job in the car industry. I thought it would be a good example of how I acted successfully in team work environments. Didn't seem to impress them and I was told I should have maybe joined a sports team or something like that to improve my team skills. Now, I have been playing team sports since I was 12 and have often been the skipper of my teams. In my culture and upbringing though, work experiences are more important that your high school sports club.
I have also joined a ground handling company at a major UK airport and work as a dispatcher as a second job at the weekend to finance my flight training and CTC reckoned it's a good move to learn how to work in a team. Now, although correct in theory, this job is the most shambolic and disorganised environment I've ever witnessed. It's far from being a learning experience, although it's good fun and interesting to work at the airport. CTC reckon it's a good opportunity for me to learn team work, after I spent years around Europe dealing with the most demanding customers in the car industry.
So you see, there's always 2 (if not 3) sides to every story. CTC, like every other corporate recruiter, follow an interview checklist and it's a case of tick box and pass or not in the end. It surely works but doesn't necessarily mean that whoever doesn't make it is not right for the job.
Sometimes is more of a case of giving the right answer to the interviewer than actually being the right person. Like everything, passing interviews is a skill too, and my school system and upbringing didn't train me to that.
It can be harder to face this kind of interview if it's not in your native language. Things you'd like to say get lost in translation or maybe you don't get the exact meaning of what you are asked. Still worth a try and a great learning experience anyway.
I went to stage 3 with zero hours and now only few months later I'm near to the completion of my PPL so I guess it was a good outcome for a bad result ! And I have met a few guys knocked back at stage 3 like me, same answer, invited NOT to reapply, and a couple of them are near to finishing their ATPL.. so there's life after CTC interviews !
best of luck to everybody
Originally Posted by Entropia
I will try to explain: apart from arline sponsored programmes (BA, Swiss, Lufthansa, CTC), I never tried to invest personal and economic resources in flying to obtain PPL and CPL privately. I never tried since it costs a hell lot of money, which my family didn't have. I could have worked and paid it little by little, but I didn't do it since there was (and at present is) quite no hope to become a professional pilot in Italy, and I thought it could have been a waste of money and of time. I other words, I never "risked" anything, to become a pilot. This was what the assessors have tried to point out in my interview, from the 3rd question on.
From the selection, from what all the guys in my group said, I understood quite a lot about me and my passion for flying. Which is a pure passion, becoming a civil pilot has only been my greatest dream, but not my "one and only" commitment in life...and maybe not the kind of job I'm "naturally made" for. So I think the assessors sought my person quite in depth, more than examining me they made me discover what has ever been my interest for flying. I'm now disappointed, but I would try to put it as the result was the best for me, for planning my life.
So now I'm landing...
Take care, I wish you all the best!
Filippo