Okay Applicants.
I have had no less than 5 pilots ask me about the selection process and various aspects of it via PM. Most of those pilots are likely asking more chaps than me as their inboxes are now full and so I can't reply to you directly. To this end for all applicants and to be fair to everyone is getting the same answer from me, here goes.
My take on how these things work in life is. You pay whatever is required to give yourself the best shot at passing easy first time.
My take away from being a military pilot back where I started was train hard and fight easy.
First things first. I recommend using the latest pilot jobs website and paying for practice. I didn't use if for FZ (because it didn't exist when I joined, I did use it last year to move to my new airline and it was awesome. I would have paid 3 times the amount it was that helpful!)
How does this apply to you right now. Simples, you don't have to get a joystick if you do not already have one BUT if you do you will be better prepared. Things in FZ selection life work to quotas as well as demand.
Selection via CTC is about a bar
AND a quota. So
in my experience on average 12 candidates turn up for each selection. 6 will fail by lunchtime on day 1, another 2-3 will fail day 1 evening or day 2 morning. 3, on average, will proceed to final interview and 2/3 will end up being offfered jobs 2 will actually start. THESE ARE AVERAGES. There will be selections when no one passes and some where 8 people pass.
Do you or do you not pay for selection? Well you don't have to but you don't get the job unless you do! Your choice but whinging about the fact that they charge or don't charge is just irrelevant. What's on the table is what's on the table! The reality is they don't care if you join now or 3 yrs down the line when they reduce/drop the charge to apply. If they run short of pilots they may even provide incentive to join. You on the other hand either need Dubai or you don't. If you don't need it then why would you come! If you need it then whatever it costs you to get the job is simply an investment. For Mrs VT and I we paid off all our debts and left with our lives turned around.
So as stated on some selections they pass no one at all and wash the whole group out, if they have just done that there may be a little pressure to get a few passes to justify their existence so you may be a weak candidate on a weak candidate selection base and get through. On the other hand you may be a strong candidate on a strong selection who would have been the top candidate 3 weeks ago but on this particular selction week you went up against 3 ex Blue Angels and 3 ex Red Arrows and they have also filled all the sim slots for the next 6 months.
Now here is the real issue in British Airways or Virgin etc they would still see that you are above "the bar" and put you in a hold pool. At FZ they just don't care because there is a constant stream of applicants stupid enough to think that their life is so bad that the pros outweight the cons of going to FZ. In our case it was a close run thing. However we really really needed the money, just to have any form of future in the UK.
If you are a family with school age children and your wife does not work your choice is simple either live below the standard of the UK or expect to make nothing until you ar a skipper. If you are singly then FZ is a cash cow. Please bear in mind this is my personal standard not necessarily yours. ie I do not think living in a 3 bed in The Springs or Motor City is worth being in Dubai for. If I had to move to Mirdiff I would have moved back to UK. Private school is not a luxury it is a necessity, etc, etc so please take this as what we wanted out of Dubai NOT what you want if you are moving to Dubai from Romania whee the cost of living is 1/20 of that of London.
Moving on.....
You as an individual don't matter as it is just a business, you have no tangible value other than filling a seat they don't care if you can offer 20 times more than another pilot you are either competent as an FO or a Capt and nothing else really matters. So get over yourself, what you have to offer is the ability to give crewing another pawn for thier chess set. It is to this end that though they use a reasonably robust selection procedure purely to mitigate thier training losses rather than for any desire to actually have the best pilots which is something they simply do not care about!
So do you buy a joystick for $50 that you should probably already have and use it for not just this selection but every selection ever in history moving forward and for keeping up your skills practising difficult approaches like Kabul, Sanaa, Addis, etc yourself (because there is no real training only checking) when you are going to happen hopefully take a job paying $10,000 tax free per month. Well if you need help to work that out then you are going to the wrong airline!
You have to speculate to accumulate. You are given nothing and expected to pay for everything and drop everything the moment they say. They are not your employers they are your owners you are their slave. That is the relationship, get used to that mentality and just do what you are told when you are told regardless of whether you agree or actually and proveably know better! They simply don't care, the philosophy is shut up and fly the plane how, where and when we tell you. If you want something different join another airline.
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Everything in FDB is preset and preordained. Just pay the cash, practice the tests and you will be fine.
To the Americans please understand the interview style is British and if you are unfamiliar with this basically it is usual for us to have 2/3 days interview process. It is usual for more people to fail than pass and you are expected to know what you are being asked.
I.e Know the aircraft you a)currently fly and b) would fly at FDB. be able to tell the interviewer about the airline, its history and its likely direction. You need to know where you will fly, who you will work with, what the operation is and does.
It doesn't matter how much they tell you they will give you all info and there is no need to prepare and be yourself what they mean is we want you to be vulnerable and see what you really know. Your job is to make them believe what you really know is everything about the plane, operation and environment and that you want everything on offer.
So technical is technical if you pass you pass and thats that. However with the individual and group interview you must take part actively, be involved without dominating, contribute something useful and in the individual interview your answer to everything is yes!!!
Interviews with British style airlines are not the place to ask about terms and conditions. You ask after you have the job for now if you want a job you just say yes. You are happy to live in the Middle East, you are happy to fly to war zones, you are happy to fly into **** weather with limited support and resources, you are happy to work with people who can barely speak English, you are happy to work in extremes of temperature, you are happy to fly punishing rosters and you are happy that your management will manage but never lead and that you are just a driver who will turn up and do what they are told when they are told.
You answering yes to all questions shows them that, if you start pushing back in the interview expect to not get the job!
Last but not least if you are type rated they expect that you know everything about your plane. When it comes to trg there is 4 sim session, 10 sectors of line trg (usually done in 3-4 days) and then you are on your own with a brand new captain to Afghanistan at 03:00hrs in the morning! It is not a hand holding airline, you have an FCOM and and Ops Manual. You are expected to know what is on each and every of the 2000 pages of manual and will not be taught anything. It is checking and testing not training, don't except any training there is none![/QUOTE][/QUOTE]
Please don't PM unless you need to ask something private, the clue is in the p of pm! If its a general question put it out here for all your colleagues to see. This is after a thread for those in and considering or recently of the leaderless ship that is FZ.