An excerpt from our pilot newsletter 31/07/06 may clarify things.
Recruitment - Summer 2007
As you know we have decided to recruit “on line” this year using our website -
www.firstchoice4jobs.co.uk. Recruitment for our Summer 2007 vacancies went live on 5 July and, by the end of the first week, we were overwhelmed with applications. As we topped 500, we temporarily suspended recruitment on 21 July, to enable us to start to process them.
It has been extremely encouraging to see not only that many Boeing and Airbus type rated pilots are interested in working for us, but also a significant number of pilots are recommended by you. There is a very good mix of experience levels and we certainly expect this year’s standard of recruits to be at least as high as the "class of 2006".
Interview dates have now been set throughout August and September. Pilot Managers from both the management and technical teams will interview 72 or so short-listed pilots who will fill the 20 - 30 vacancies we expect to have by the start of next summer.
Could I please ask those who have recommended a pilot (this has been entered by the applicant on their on line application form) to email me your reasons for the recommendation, if you haven't already done so. We have just invited a number of type-rated pilots to interview (thanks to the new system they can even select their own interview date and time!) and are in the process of collating all the “recommended by” applications.
We expect to draw up a shortlist from this group, as the total of pilots recommended by you has now reached in excess of 80. That will still leave in excess of 200 applications that have passed the initial screening criteria, but will sit in a holding pool. Interviews will be dependent on the interview success of our other candidates.
We are very pleased with the way the new automated recruitment system has worked so far. Without doubt, it has saved us a considerable amount of time and money and, above all, made life much easier for our candidates.
Whether we open up recruitment again this year will be dependent upon the interview slots filling up - we don’t expect this to be a problem. As for the assertions in this week’s Flight International about a pilot shortage - based on our experiences so far, this certainly doesn’t appear to affect us. That said, a number of the smaller regional carriers will, I am sure, feel the effects of our recruitment campaign this year. Over the next few months we look forward to welcoming a successful “class of 2007”.
Philip Smallwood, Head of Pilot Management.
Unfortunately I reckon the standard email from Kerry Fox regarding the holding pool is a polite "thanks but no thanks". If it's any consolation I've heard a similar number will be recruited next year barring any unforseen circumstances which might affect the airline.
Good luck anyway.