Complete waste of time/effort/money at OAA. A lot of the staff lacking in professionalism and basic manners.
Some of the many failings of the day:
- Interview: Captain from BA completely not aligned with the target audience of the programme. Supposed to be open to "people with little or no flying experience". Soon as he figured I had not taken a flying lesson he wasn't interested and continued to bring this up through the rest of the interview. Both interviewers did not introduce what their roles were so I had to stop and ask before the first question. Arrogant and patronising tone of captain was a reoccurring theme throughout the 45 mins. This guy was clearly lacking in life skills and an appreciation of anyone who has a background in anything other than flying. Why send someone old school like this along if you are looking to change your recruitment policy and bring in people with other life experience?
- OAA Staff: Guy that runs the show comes into room looking for feedback in front of all other applicants in the middle of the process. Yes I'm sure that's the best way to get open and honest feedback. Dear oh dear.....get a grip.
Ladies that were running the day were pleasant enough but the explanations before the tests etc. were amateur hour and no clear guidance on timings. They also spent a lot of time talking about how bad CTC/Jerez are. Funny thing was-right behind her work men were patching up and relaying the hut style/portakabin roof above a class that was going on for future pilots. I wouldn't be too proud of the facility- It's a bit of a dingy place to be honest. A lot of the day was spent hanging around doing nothing. Thank god I didn't waste two days annual leave on it as I understand that was the format last year.
- Testing: Maths/Physics test covering all things learned and fully tested about 10 years ago at high school. Why not just look at exam results? Clearly OAA/BA thinks it knows better than Her Majesty's Inspectors. Numeracy test is fair enough and I understand they need to rank people but is that the best they can do??? Also why do the 225 question personality profile on that day and make it sound like a time constrained challenge? Sounds like they needed to plug some things in to justify taking people out of work for the day and charging £250.
- Competency interview was embarrassing- HR (further reinforcing the stereotype label of Human Remains/Hardly Relevant) person was looking for what appeared to be part-time job type examples (e.g. Customer Service- whilst flipping burgers at Burger King I burned a bun. The customer complained and I arranged a fresh whopper and free side of fries- clap clap well done you can be a pilot now).
. As soon as you mentioned anything remotely business orientated she didn't have a clue and/or wasn't interested. It had to be on her level of understanding/mental capacity it seemed.
Overall I thought the day was a really poor reflection on OAA and BA. Would be hilarious if I got through now.
Best of luck to all.
