Hi all,
Had my stage 1 yesterday afternoon. Not sure how many groups there were, but mine was headed by the older lady. She did mention that over 100 places were confirmned, but many hadn't turned up. Our group (all guys, 17-20 in total) was, for me anyway, quite surprisingly boring, like hardly anyone spoke to anyone, and when we left, everyone just shot out!
We had the motivational paper, followed by the checking paper. I forgot how long we had for each but its if I remember correctly it was 5 mins for each. In both tests we were told not to use the scrap paper, but it was left on the table
so I guess you could use if you wanted albeit in a secretive way. Some questions related to distances between cities, both within the UK and International. Also had 2 questions regarding what a 737 and a 777 would be used for, i.e domestic short haul, intercontinental etc.
You're given 2 pencils and an eraser. Make sure you completely fill the circles of the answer paper, however I found it wasted my time checking to see if I'd filled them in heavily enough. Then had the ATCO come along and give us a short description of his role and his experiences. Nice chap, not a seasoned speaker but gave all the info that was asked of him, and when he began to struggle, the older lady intervened and asked him other questions related to life as an ATCO. He did mention that he's on the Area Control career path, and that this path is more intense as it involves more studying and the course for him is longer. He also mentioned that in his 3rd stage he was honest in admitting that he didn't know much about aviation in general but he had started to develop an appreciation for ATC. He entered NATS in 2007.
Then followed a 15 minute break, again everyone seemed very relectant to say anything and it felt errily quite whislt enjoying those yummy bics! Only guys I spoke to was from Southhampton and east London.
Back into the room, time for the dreaded CUBES
Blimmey gave me teeth itch, didn't even finsh the questions. Completed the tests with the diagramic reasoning, and yet again found that time had beat me. We had no video and no personality questionaire. Although the email suggested we would leave by 17:30, we actually finshed by 16:30.
Also someone mentioned in previous posts about attire - in my opinion it seemed there was a split between smartly dressed candidates and those in jeans, so its your choice really.
Lastly we were asked to sign a letter stating that if are employed with NATS, we would expect employment at Swanwick or in Southern England, and that employment up north is very limited.
All the best for those who took came along yesterday
