personal experiences of training at QANTAS

[TightSlot]

Personal experiences of training at QANTAS

[ozskipper]

Following on from Eddy's post and given that there a few QF ground schools in full swing I thought it would worthwhile posting what to expect.

Pre First Day - At some stage before you start you need to go in for a uniform fitting. Take someone with you! You have to measure your jackets and pants and its a bugger to do it yourself. You also need to have another medical and criminal history check (CHC). The biggest priority is the CHC - it takes a few weeks so get it back to QF pronto.

Visa - Try and get your US visa organised as quickly as possible. There's quite a delay in getting these so make your appointment quickly and make sure you don't miss your appointment.

First day - apart from being nerve wrecking - is fairly straight forward. Documentation Day! Bring your official documents (passport, birth certificates etc), fill out forms and meet your trainers and fellow class mates. The trainers are lovely, made you feel very welcome, talked about the company and expectations during training etc. This is probably the easiest day in the entire course!!

EP's - At some stage you have to do EP's. You either do these first or after your service training. It depends on how your particular course is structured. EP's are full on, but not unachievable. Forget about partying and eating out every night - if you want to pass you need to study! The theory is quite difficult for some whereas the practical is more difficult for others. But work hard and be good to your mother and you should pass without any problems at all. All airlines want you to pass, so if you put in the effort most employers will go out of their way to help you through this stage - Qantas is no exception. The EP instructors were absolutely fantastic (and patient!).

Service Training - If you can pass EP's (and you can!) then you can pass Service Training. Its fun, you get to try out different meals (strangely after hours in a sim trainer you don't mind eating aircraft food)), you get to serve each other and your instructor. You learn about health, safety, customer service, procedures etc. Lots of fun. I really enjoyed this part. You'll also have a supernumery flight to check your progress and it gives you a chance to observe, participate and learn online.

Exams - Study, study, study - especially for EP's. They're not difficult, you just need to study.

Uniforms - When they arrive, check everything and watch everyone get all silly and excited. Lots of fun!

Have fun- QF and the trainers make it reasonably fun (well about as much fun as you can have while your learning a new job!). You get to experience a lot in a short period of time so try to enjoy it. So what if you muck a few things up! Everyone is very understanding so don't stress. So far it seems like an ace company and a good job so don't let the stress of the training put you off. If you feel like your struggling, talk to your trainer - they do everything they can to help you out and you won't be punished or ostracised.

Don't be put off - By negative or nasty comments. Unfortunately, like any employment situation your going to get people who are temporarily or permanently p!ssed off. Thats totally cool, but don't let it ruin your experience - take their comments, assess their validity and do what you will with them. Everyone is entitled to their opinion so don't get all glum about the fact that its not all rosy all the time. I'm loving it so far and there's no reason why you shouldn't either.

Say allo - If you see me out online! :)

[fourplay]

Oz,

That is one of the best posts I have ever read on here.
And will alay many fears for the newies.

You obviously deserved that job,
I am really pleased for you.

Hope to see you online should I get through.

:} :} :}

[OZcabincrew]

i agree with OZskipper, although i found our training to be quite disorganised. The instructors were really good, one took us a while to work out, but in the end they were fine. We were the first class to go through the training in the new format. We found that there should've been more time spent on aircraft types, you tried to learn about one aircraft type in one day with the exam the following morning, then straight after that exam you're straight on to the next aircraft and then you've completely forgotten the aircraft you've just studied. So be aware there is a need for a lot of revising over manuals/notes etc and days/nights when you really want to go out, unfortunately you may not be able to because you have to study for the exam the next morning. But you get out what you put in! We were lucky while in training that we even got our uniforms done at all! Neither department, EP's or cabin services or something would let uniforms bite into their time, so all we got was 15 mins and pointed towards a room where there was a pile of uniforms on the floor and a few in the wardrobe and told do all of your uniform fittings here but you have to hurry cos the taxi is waiting for you!!!!!! It was quite rediculous, we're all lucky that most of our uniforms even fit us after measuring it all ourselves! Although there was quite a wait on some things, so we didn't get parts of our uniforms until after we were online! Our service training to me was a bit of a waste of time cos we didn't really do anything. They tried to teach us the Perth Cityflyer service in one day while mixing it in with a few other things, but it just went straight over everyone's heads, i think that part you'll learn once you're out online etc, but it's good to study your service guide and get an idea of the sequence of it all.

Overall training was good, great memories and photos! Good luck to everyone, just keep your heads down and study, but also come up for air every now and then and have a bit of a break!!!!

HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!!!

Oz

[qfmike737]

EPs....what can I say about this glamourous time?

It was great bumping into you down at EPs Ozskipper!!! I enjoyed hearing everyone yelling out the evacuation commands lol It's just a place of true tranquility while i'm yelling out my 767 land evacs I could hear you yelling out the 747 upper deck evac and it was like a Sicilian screaming competition LOL

Oskipper I couldn't thank you more for the advice on where to be positioned when doing the raft exercises. The spa was so invigorating it reminded me of Salus Per Aquum at Palazzo Versace LOL

The meeting area was a warm and friendly place. It was there I discovered what "A dingo ate my baby" meant for me.

***GOING TO BE UPDATED WHEN I GET BACK FROM TOWN****

[ozskipper]

LOL - you think I screamed loudly during EP's? You should hear me during the sales. Be warned, never make an advance on a sale item I've got my eye on.... I can make your ears bleed at 50 paces .... ;)

[ozskipper]

As I've been asked a few times I thought I would add:

EP's are not as awful as you've probably been told / heard.

They require a lot of hard work and effort, but honestly if you do the work there is no way you'll fail.

I'm not sure why EP's have gotten such a bad rap - I presume because its the most difficult component of the entire training program, but that doesn't mean you should be bricking it!

Besides, if you think about why you learn them and why they are important you suddenly take a very keen interest!

If you're a bit of a glutton for punishment (like me) you might even enjoy them.... :}

[despatch]

Hi everyone
Is there some of you who have gone to the interview after the welcome aboard stage
any feedback will be apreciated
thanks