So can any of you tell me how it goes after replying to the headhunter? Is there a selection phase (if so, how's it structured)? How long will I wait to get an answer from the Company?
The short answer to all these questions is that we don't know
the inner workings of the selection process is something they guard very closely and don't share with any of us, the time frame doesn't seem to follow any pattern either, me for example, I went from filling out the application to being in Tokyo for the interview within the space of one week, others don't hear back from them for months. There have been cases of folks that go through the entire process and pass both the interview and medical, then don't hear from the company for months just to end up getting the "thanks but no thanks" email
Sorry I couldn't be more helpful, but none of us can really give you an answer.
What's the reason for such a long training period?
Well this has been discussed several times on this thread, but part of it is the company culture and their relationship with the JCAB, it is all very, How can I say it? Scripted! You get a lot of time off during training, and the syllabus is given way too much time allotted to each particular subject, you will get a whole day in ground school for a couple of subjects that you end up covering in a couple of hours during computer based self training, it is just by very design meant to drag on. Once in sim training, it is very repetitious and they will give you endless sim sessions to repeat the same maneuver over and over again, the hardest part is to stay motivated. I don't particularly think the training here is difficult, but it is very scripted up to the point of the timing of talking to ATC during a particular maneuver, and calling for the checklist and even the time frame to complete such checklist, once you figure out how they want it scripted, is not really difficult at all, the people that seem to have problems during training are the ones that fight the script and the ones that get frustrated because they are being corrected for things that for most westerners would seem unimportant, but that they put emphasis on. It is a marathon, not a sprint, figure out the way they want it done and please them in the minutia that you might think it is irrelevant and you will be fine. Finally just enjoy your time off in Tokyo, I for one wasn't in too much of a hurry to get in the cockpit
And the last one:I didn't see any post about the radiation problem, Fukushima, the connected risks, how safe is the area of Narita and Tokio in general. I don't know if I missed those posts.
The government and the international agencies that are tracking this, have registered the same levels of background radiation in the metropolitan area from a couple of months after the disaster and until the present day, as they did before the disaster. If radiation is a concern for you, you need to be aware that you are exposed to 25 to 30 times the amount of radiation per hour while flying that you are while standing in your average size metropolitan area.