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scotty.d
12th Oct 1999, 16:39
As we have all heard the final board for BA has changed recently. I was down at it 2 weeks ago and hears what I had to do:


There are 3 parts: Written excercise, interview, group excercise.

You arrive in the morning with cabin crew and flight crew all mixed
together and you'll get maybe half an hour sitting about chatting before everything starts.

Then your group of six will get split into three's and one set will
start on the written excercise and one on the interviews. Then you'll swap.

Then you'll break for lunch at which point you will get a chance
to chat to 2 of the senior pilots and ask them questions about the job. (Who actually later help judge in the group excercise.)

Then the 2 groups rejoin and it is straight into the group excercise and you'll more than
likely find you'll be finished by 3:30 pm at the latest.

Ok, lets talk about the individual tasks; first the written excercise.

Basically you are given (can't remember exact time) about 50 minutes
to prepare a presentation (talk) for secondary school kids on the life
of a pilot with British Airways.The thing to concentrate on here
is not too much on the content but more one the layout and your method
in organising on paper; they are looking at your management and
organistational qualities more than anything else here as far as
I can see. So be very methodical and very organised in your scribbles.

Ok, onto the interview; it focuses mainly on you and your experiences more than BA.
On the BA side of things they are likely to ask you about how you
feel the company is doing and maybe current share price. In that
you would want to include the current falling share prices but comment
on how this is probably due to the recent restructuring of the airline
and that in the long term you hope to see an overall rise in share prices.

On the personal side you never know what they will hit you with.
They will turn your application form inside out and probe deep into
your feelings and how you have dealt with certain situations. Be
preapared with lots of answers and reasons about all the questions
on your application form and try to have a couple of additional
examples of the stuff on your application form.

Ok; now the group excercise. Basically you are going to be given
a map and each given different bits of information ; by adding all
of this information together you will be able to build onto the
map to give you all the info needed to be able to decide on a route for your stricken aircraft to make it from position A to the airport round all the obstacles.
Nominate a time keeper straight away as this is the mistake we made.
Then Get right in there; don't be to bossy and take it very seriously;
try and get involved but really get on with everyone well. You basically
have 30 minutes which will whizz by and from what I have heard this is what most poeple fail on.
Just talk lots but only constructively and go for it.

I hope this helps you all out.

Cheers for now
Scotty D


------------------
Money don't mean a thing if your not happy; so fly cause you want; not cause you need.

Jimmy Saville
12th Oct 1999, 17:59
Nice post Scotty.

Sorry to hear you didn't quite make it, but at 19, to get to final board, is an achievement. Just keep at it.

Just a question: Were you allowed to use a calculator at your stage 2 aptitude tests ? If so could you give some info as I believe the format has been changed.

Many thanks and chin up ! :)

SpiralDive
12th Oct 1999, 20:29
Hi Scotty,
Sorry to hear things didn't work out for you this year, but it really sounds like you have a great chance of making it in the years to come. It may not sound so great now, but if you build on your experiences in the next while you'll probably be an excellent candidate. To get that far on your first try is great, and can only help you in future attempts. Remember that many of the CEPs were a little older and had been tried a few times before succeeding.

Did you call and find out specifically what area they weren't happy with, or are you only speculating it was the group exercises? You should find this out, and work on it over the next year if Aer Lingus doesn't happen. You already know how to pass all of the other parts.

Good Luck!

Weasel
13th Oct 1999, 02:51
Well done for getting that far Scotty...have no doubt in your mind that you'll get it next time.

Does this group exercise mean that they have abandoned the playing with building blocks bit? I was looking forward to that!!

Is there anywhere cheep near Cranebank to kip the night before?

Wake Turbulence
13th Oct 1999, 08:51
Thanks heaps for the info Scotty!!
Unfortunately I failed at the initial testing in Nov '98, and tried to re-apply for the sponsorship last week after viewing the BA web page.
I wasn't able to get an apllication form because i was told to wait for a whole year, but do you (or anyone else) know if that is a year from your last application, or a year from your test???

Wake Turbulence
13th Oct 1999, 09:19
Does anyone know how long it is from your initial BA aptitude test, to the group exercise and interview day????

scotty.d
13th Oct 1999, 17:19
Spiral Dive:
Yeah I will stick in and this may sound big headed but I am quite confident of getting there in the next couple of years.
I will be calling for a critique hopefully tomorrow but haven't had time yet. I think it probably was the group as I thought I had blown them away in the interview.

Jimmy Saville:
On stage 2 nobody mentioned calculators to be honest. I couldn't answer that; just concentrate real hard and give it 110% and you'll be cool.

Weasel:
Yup; building blocks is out; I was looking forward to that aswell. As for kipping near Cranebank I couldn't tell you. The Jarvis International Hotel isn't far away; look it up and give it a call and see what they say.

Wake Turbulence:
It is a year from when your application form is received to BA according to them that you can apply again.
With regards to the timing of the selection procedure it depends on how busy they are etc but for example mine was about 2 to three months.

Hope this helps you all out. Thanks for all of the encouragement guys ; you lot are inspirational.