Titan,
I have flown with a number of cadets recently and without exception they are all doing it very tough. What has alarmed me even more though is the number that aren’t even budgeting for their tax bill because “Quote” they can’t afford to. If this trend isn’t looked at by the company we will see a number of iCadets in the next 12 months in a serious financial mess.
I appreciate all the posts in this forum, so I mean no disrespect at all but I just want to point out that I have been living in HK for almost 10 years with a salary package more or less the same as the one offered to the newly hired "iCadets", just some extra bonuses from time to time. I know a number of other expats with very respectable jobs here living on less than what I make and being comfortable with that. I assure you I am in no financial mess and I do not live in a cage. In fact I live quite comfortably, I just dont live on or anywhere near the Peak. The mean salary in the company I work for (about 100 local people, roughly half skilled workers and half office clerks/managers) is HKD 16-17k a month for 13 months. They all seem to do fine although most expats including me would find the houses they live in way too inadequate in terms of space. By that I do not mean CX pilots should make HKD 17k a month, but i just wish to put things a bit in perspective.
BTW, like Wannaberightseat I would appreciate any input about stage 2 interview esp math test and technical interview (i know some posts here have covered this issue but an unpdate on what has been asked in recent interviews and if the math test has remained the same would be great). Also, there seems to be no aptitude test (joystick PC games) anymore, am i correct?