Stage 2 & 3 Questions
eleong,
here are some of the questions asked during Stage 2 and 3 for me, can't remember all of them but most of them are here. Feel free to add onto what I have. Stage 2 and 3 interviews were the same as Stage 1, where there were 2 interviewers, one asking the HR questions, while the other was into the technical portions.
Stage 2
1) Tell us about yourself and how you got involved with aviation.
2) Was it difficult to get into that program?
3) Do you see yourself as a competitive person?
4) With your experience, tell us about a time when you had to deal with a situation that you remember, how did you handle it?
5) Tell us about your education background, and about your up bringing.
6) Where is most of your family? Where is home for you?
7) Can you tell us about the history of Cathay?
8) Where do we fly to in North America?
9) Do you have a partner?
10) Have you considered joining the military? (I told them I tried out for the military, but was rejected)
11) Do you have regrets about not making it into the military?
Then I was passed off to another interviewer for the technical portion
1) if you had a choice at CX, which aircraft would you like to fly?
2) Why do you want to fly the 777?
3) Can you identify which aircraft these are? (presents me with two models)
4) How do you tell them apart?
5) Asides from visual differences, what else is difference about them?
6) What kind of engines do this 777 have? and this A330?
7) How long do you think a flight from NY to HK is?
8) What is the gross weight of the 777?
9) How much fuel do you think we'll need, show me. (Hands me a marker to write down the numbers through my calculations).
10) On top of that burn fuel, what other fuel will we need? (alternate, IFR reserves, contingency +taxi/startup).
11) What countries will we fly through on the way?
12) On a day like today what will we use as an alternate? (Macau)
13) Knowing which alternate, how much fuel will we need for this flight?
14) Tell me about the engines on the 777
15) Can you show me the stages of a typical jet engine, (handed me a marker and asked me to draw it on the white board)
16) Explain to me how each stage works
17) How many compression stages are there? and how much compression will this engine produce?
In addition, the technical interviewer also asked about a few things with regards to what my career intentions were, since I already had a CPL and some experience flying they wanted to know why I don't want to stay in North America. but since I'm from HK with most of my family there, so it was an easy one to answer.
Stage 3
The HR portion was mostly the same as the other stages, but asked a few more questions with regards to my background.
1) Tell us about your current job.
2) How do you like it?
3) If you had a choice would you go for the short course, or long course?
Those were the only two questions that were distinctly different from others
Then again I was passed over to the technical interviewer.
1) How is your meteorology? (Was really a serious question, just an ice breaker for a few laughs)
2) Explain to me what a cold front would look like.
3) What types of weather can we expect? (Cloud formation, icing, etc..)
4) What would a warm front look like then?
5) Explain to me how an aircraft produces lift, what happens when I lower the flaps?
6) Lets take this airplane for example (presents me with a piper seneca model), What is adverse yaw and what causes this?
7) What airplane do I have here? (Points to the 777 model)
8) What is the difference between the -300/-300ER models? (raked wingtips)
9) How do they work?
10) What would you do if you took off in your airplane and had an engine failure?
Then he proceeded to ask about a few other emergencies dealing specifically with that aircraft.
11) What sort of engines does the airplane you have flown have?
12) Tell me about them, explain how they work.
13) How fast is the aircraft you fly?
14) How long would it take to travel 18 miles?
15) If you were flying at 480 knots, how long does it take to travel 18 miles? (use the one in sixty rule)
16) Start from 100 and count down wards, subtracting 7 each time.
And that was it, it ended with them asking whether I had any questions for them. I'm sure it is very tailored differently for each person to take into account the different levels of flying experience. However, I did run into a few questions that I flat out said "I'm not sure/don't know, but what this is what I think might be...".
If you have flight experience, it would help to know the aircraft you have flown, but if not then I think they are looking for how much enthusiasm and preparation you have, either way, a positive, cool and collected attitude will really shine, even if you don't know the answer.
Like many others have said in this thread, know yourself, know them, and be yourself. I had butterflies in my stomach before going into the interviews, and during the interviews they really did a great job breaking the ice so I could relax a bit.
Good luck, and enjoy HK, especially the canteen they have, it is not expensive, very diverse, and super tasty! especially the See Yau Gai Fan (酱油鸡饭）... sooo good!