Hey guys, did the Turkish NTR DEC interview 2014.
Agency was horrible prepared, same was Turkish. I had a first interview date, 1(!!) day before leaving they decided to cancel and to shift me back by one week because they had to many candidates they told me.
Ok, off for a good start with this clowns.
1 week later , flight down to IST. Pay taxi by yourself to the hotel(hotel was nice and paid by THY).
Next day to one of their crappy training centers(most likely for turkish standards they are average or even good) doing this group CRM exercises. Nothing special really, just participate but do not try to take over the group. Pretty basic actually, I was surprised how many pilots still don't know how you have to play this BS.
Later that day they do a very rough documents check(I brought all my 12 logbooks, they never touched them). More or less having a look at you license, medical, maybe some reference letter if you have them(I did).
I guess around 50% of us made it on day 1. You get notified by email if you move on.
Day 2, Sim. Was prepared to go on a FFS like all the rated guys did, but then surprisingly they took our NTR bunch to the side and brought us to a conference room.
3 THY guys started to brief us, 3 Minutes later(!!!) we were done and got moved on a FBS(fixed base) which had serious issue. You can say it was a flight training device because it was impossible to trim that thing so it would fly stable for more then 1 second. Of course no autopilot.
So, I was curving my way out of IST(I think, can be as well Ankara, not sure anymore), swimming
direction some VOR to enter a raw data holding.
Fine so far, but this 3 guys (1 was assisting) talking all the time in Turkish, if you asked for some help or if he should do something he missed it most of the time because he was busy chatting to his mates. Well, at the end I did everything by myself(this guys must be CRM instructors
), still passed this hell ride with this clowns.
Made my way out of the even scrappier THY Sim center (maybe I am spoiled from European Standards, my bad), grapped a taxi to the hotel and waited for that expected negative email. No, I made it, day 3 is coming (yay).
Last day, chat with the board(3 guys/girls), doing again the ususal board interview why you would join, why leaving your old company(I did ask myself the same question at this stage, honestly
) and so on.
You pass that then you get offered the THY contract, they ask as well how fast you are able to leave your current employer.
I told them I had to check back with my employer and come back to them.
All in all I can agree with some of the comments above, this airline makes a not very good impression, especially CRM wise and I was actually worried to have some of this "instructors" from my sim ride later on during my linetraining.
Apart from that you have to deal with Istanbul itself and if you bring your family there. I guess some of the Longrange guys got some quiet good offer with better commuting options, but the short range just sucks(A320/B737).
You guessed right, I never joined them and stayed with my current employer. I do not think it is a wise choice to leave a European company to join THY.
Of course if you are unemployed, trying to move up from the ME and being a long range skipper with plenty of experience doing a good deal with them, then THY is an option.
Turkish mentality is very different, even compared to most ME airlines. In the ME you are needed for life(if you can stand it), Turkish is more a Korean type of "gig". They do not really want you there but are depending at the moment on expats. But you see that they always prefer their own people and will most likely try to make it more difficult for you.
A bit behind culture with a airline dominated by former military pilots - the mix makes a nice combination.
To be CLEAR - I did a lot of flights with former european military pilots(French,UK,German,Austrian), most of them nice chaps and a pleasure to fly with. I do not talk about military pilots in general, it just turkish military guys which make(made) me worry and reconsider.
Good luck to anybody who is up for this challenge - I do not envy you.