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Old 12th Oct 2006, 13:11
  #1437 (permalink)  
scroggs
 
Join Date: Dec 1997
Location: Suffolk UK
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Too much detail is a waste of time. I have been involved in recruiting in many ways, including interviewing wannabe pilots, for many years. I could tell you every question I have ever asked (if i could remember them), every test I've employed, and every indirect selection procedure I've sneakily adopted, and the same people would fail as would if that information was never available.

There are no 'right' answers to interview questions other than name, age and address. All else is negotiable, and it will be your attitude and the thought that goes into your replies that will determine whether the interviewer thinks you are worth investing in or not.

Aptitude tests evolve and develop, but it's fairly easy to spot those who've had some practice. Many aptitude tests are intended to measure (or at least indicate) your ability to learn and improve. Not much scope for that if you've spent several days and nights practising the tests!

Group exercises and discussions are constructed to watch you as part of, or leading, a team. We look at your overall character, your response to provocation and pressure, a sense of responsibility, evidence of some thought going into your actions, and an awareness of the consequences on others of the course you choose to take.

Inevitably, the vast majority of wannabes are young. You are inexperienced at life, and your responses to inputs are rarely polished or complete. That is taken into account; if FTOs were looking for fully-rounded, mature individuals, no-one under 35 would get a look in - and with the new legislation in place, that's a possibility!

You cannot learn to pass these selection procedures. If a little bit of information helps offset the unfamiliarity of the situation and gives you a little bit of an extra confidence boost, that's fine. But you will be seen through if you are a bulls*tter, cocky, arrogant, know-it-all, or in any other way demonstrably unsuitable for our field. That doesn't mean the selection procedure can't make mistakes; it can - and you will meet the results of those mistakes throughout your careers. But it's still a very good filter (in most companies and FTOs), and it will see through those who've inappropriately over-prepared.

Scroggs
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