Assesment Centre
Hello
I was recently unsuccessful at the easyJet academy assessment centre for an MPL course, but thought I could share my experiences for those that are going through it for non type rated. I’m not sure how similar it is but I would expect some would be the same.
Before the day you are given a login to fill out a personality questionnaire and questionnaire that asks you what you would do in x scenarios. Ie captain drunk, forgot license, travelling as pax with rude flight attendants, etc etc. These are no big bother and you go with your common sense.
On arrival you are sent to a very dull canteen and told to wait for 30 – 40 minutes. You can have a chat with your fellow candidates, there were 15 or so of us for our day.
Then you are sent up to a large room where you are given a presentation on the program. This is where alarm bells started to ring for me, at least for the MPL course you could be sent anywhere in the UK or even Europe(its not determined until the end of training) and if you take the PARC route you are advised to setup a limited company in Ireland for tax avoidance purposes. Then there was one slide by a senior pilot saying what a great company easyjet was to work for, the best place in the industry. One candidate asked him would be guaranteed the 1500 hours to unfreeze the MPL, he said there was no need to leave for BA or Emirates so don’t worry about it (he clearly didn’t listen or understand the question). This was the only easyjet pilot we briefly met throughout the whole day. Someone asked which of the options of contract you would get after a year, ie 75% 100% or fixed roster and he didn’t know. Someone in HR said it depended on base.
Then you go around the room and tell everyone your name and something about you. Then the assessors introduce themselves to you. There was a mixture of backgrounds but there was a significant majority who were former cabin crew. Then they went around the room and we all had to say something about easyjet.
Then we moved onto an ice breaker exercise where we had to build a structure which supports a brick 18 inches off the ground, using paper, string and sellotape. Don’t be fooled into truly thinking this is an ice breaker, it is assessed and I know someone else on the day that didn’t get in because he took on the role of rolling paper and was therefore quite busy with that so didn’t do much talking. Only one of the three teams were successful at building the structure.
The next point is a group discussion, which is based on a low cost short haul (Titan airways?) airline which has some problems with its existing network but is considering doing long haul, you have to discuss and present a reasoned argument to the board including passenger perspectives etc. You are presented with lots of data to read for 15 minute and then 25 minutes to discuss. Someone asked if you could use the board, they said yes but then couldn’t find a pen so that was changed to a no. There were 6 of us in the discussion, but only two assesors. I know its considered best practise to be looking at a maximum of two candidates per assessor so they are stretching it with 3. This is a point where I think the process lets easyjet down, another guy that didn’t get in contributed to the discussion but didn’t dominate it like others although his points were sensible and well made. This was cited as a reason that he didn’t show leadership. My advice in these two exercises is to contribute as much as possible as it seemed quantity rather than quality was key.
You then go back to the dull canteen to wait for 2 hours or so for your interviewer.
The interview was a big disappointment for me. I only had one interviewer and she was essentially following a script, don’t bank on any eye contact or interaction with the interviewer but you will get a good view of the top of her head. There were lots of questions about competency, making decisions that were not yours to take, what qualities are needed for a successful pilot, what mistakes have you made etc. There was a lot of focus on why you wanted to work for easyjet, this is where I think I could have done better. I gave stock answers about its exciting growth, fleet plans etc but in common with most people I saw easyjet as a stepping stone. I didn’t mention it explicitly but I wasn’t exactly frothing at the mouth at the thought of being posted to Berlin or wherever easyjet opened a new base and I think it showed. By the end of hour she had written over 2 pages of notes and asked if I had any questions.
We waited a few days and then were told the outcome. The few people I stayed in contact with, the ones that were successful were the ones that were the loudest in the group exercise and if I’m honest the ones that wanted it more than the others. Usefully they gave some feedback which confirmed how I thought it went.
So to summarise, if you really really want to work for easyJet or are prepared to pretend you do then will do well particularly if you put yourself forward in the group exercises. I would give the whole process 4/10, they would get a much better idea of the strengths of the candidates if they did 2:1 interviews where you could establish rapport with the interviewers and put more assessors in the group exercises to pick up on the subtleness of the interactions.
Good luck.. a fleet of orange airbus aircraft awaits you..
The competancies being evaluated were:
• motivation for the role
• ability to communicate
• constructive decision making
• professional rigour
• customer orientation
• ability to maintain high standards whilst working under pressure