fixfly
28th Dec 2018, 05:52
Hey all,
Long time user but first time post, sorry it's long. I thought I would give insight to those hoping to apply for a direct entry SO position. Cathay flew me out from one of their ports in economy for free. They only pay for 2 nights hotel stay at Cathay City, so you'd have to find your own accommodations if you want to extend your stay. The first day, we did group exercises where they want to see you work as a team to solve a task with limited time. They just want to see how you work under pressure with no solution possible. After that we did a sim eval with two retirees in the 777-300 which included a takeoff, circuit and vectors for an ILS and a missed as well as being repositioned for a second approach and landing. They send you the script prior to coming to HK and I found memorizing the power and pitch settings helps quite a bit. After that they set us up to do a 40 question computer technical exam which requires a 70 percent grade to pass. Alot of questions included piston engine theory which surprised me. One of the other candidates, being a captain on a turboprop for a decade hadn't studied that material since 2001, and we were both expecting questions to be more relevant towards airline flying. There were a couple questions regarding the flight time in hours between hong kong and other Cx destinations. If you pass the first day they will send you an email at the end of the day to invite you to come in for the second day.
On the second day, we were invited to talk with a Cx representative about the great salary, benefits and affordable places to live and raise your family in Hong Kong. While breaking down the salary, HR explained that it was based on base pay plus productivity pay. When myself and the other candidates asked about productivity pay, they told us it was basically overtime. I found that pretty deceiving that their advertised salary that they had sent me prior to coming to HK, was assuming you'd work a sh*tload of overtime. Also when I asked how many days we were expected to work for any fleet, HR could not give a definite answer, it just depends on your aircraft type they would say. When I kept pressing for which type and how many days, they would just say it depends on the month. They couldn't give us any straight answers and seemed to be trying way too hard to sell us on the benefits and salary...
Anyways after that session, we were to do a ICAO english test. Oh I forgot to mention YOU HAVE TO PAY $1900 HKD TO DO THE TEST. No Cx does not cover this fee and only mentioned it at the end of the first day which I regretfully paid since I wanted to see what the second day would be like and I still had hopes and dreams of working for Cx. After the ICAO test, we did an HR interview which included basic questions like why do you want to work for Cx? How many aircraft does Cx have and break it down by fleet number and orders with airbus and boeing. They asked about all the destinations flown to in Europe, NA or Australia. They told us upgrades from SO to FO are around 4.8 years and another 4 or 5 years to Captain. (Keep in mind that's 4.8 years without a type rating and SO time which doesn't count for anything). They also promised us North American ports which we could transfer to after several years of living in HK but I've been told by a couple Cx pilots that probably won't happen anytime soon and the captain upgrades are a little far fetched. HR made it seem so, but they said they would prefer you to live in Hong Kong.
The pilot in the technical interview would ask questions regarding the aircraft you fly, windshear in HK, stall characteristics of swept wing aircraft, C of G on fuel economy, etc. Anyways after about an hour of doing the HR interview and technical interview, you do a medical which includes blood work, urine testing, they cut your hair for drug testing, an ECG test as well as a full medical checkup including getting your balls fondled by one of their doctors.
Anyways overall, I enjoyed exploring Cathay City and really liked doing the sim eval. Also talking to some of the Cx pilots was enjoyable but unfortunately I was quite turned off by the deceitfulness of HR as well as the rest of the hiring staff. During the time I did my interview, I reached out to 5 other expat pilots currently working for Cx of which all 5 told me not to join and to stay at my current regional in NA. One of the Cx pilots was a FO on the 747 for 8 years just getting his upgrade to Captain before leaving to join a regional here in the states as a FO on a turboprop because the red eyes and no social life for years were killing him. Another captain who has worked for Cathay for 24 years on the verge of retiring told me to really be careful to make sure it's what I would want. Cathays morale and salary/benefits has been in steady decline for his entire career there and is definitely the lowest he's ever seen; but he's not too worried as he'll retire in a couples years. Also during the interview in waiting room I talked to several cadet interviewees and when they asked if I was interviewing for the cadet program as well, I said I was interviewing for the Advanced entry SO position. They were all baffled and asked why I would want to leave an airline based in North America to come to Hong Kong. One of the guys wanted to join Cx in hopes of getting training and experience so he could leave to get an airline job in North America or Europe. That was another major red flag.
Cx seems like it used to be a great place to finish a career but it no longer appears so. I admit I read a lot of the comments and topics on this forum prior to going to Hong Kong. I still had high hopes going into the Cx interview but after leaving Hong Kong I questioned if that was where I still wanted to go. They recently offered me the job with a groundschool date in March but I think I'll have to turn them down. I thought about taking the offer for a 6 week vacation in Adelaide then doing a couple months in HK before coming back to North America just for the experience but I figured keeping my seniority number here would be more important. Anyways I hope this experience helps those going into the interview soon and I highly suggest reaching out to any Cathay Pilots currently flying there to get an idea of the conditions. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.
Long time user but first time post, sorry it's long. I thought I would give insight to those hoping to apply for a direct entry SO position. Cathay flew me out from one of their ports in economy for free. They only pay for 2 nights hotel stay at Cathay City, so you'd have to find your own accommodations if you want to extend your stay. The first day, we did group exercises where they want to see you work as a team to solve a task with limited time. They just want to see how you work under pressure with no solution possible. After that we did a sim eval with two retirees in the 777-300 which included a takeoff, circuit and vectors for an ILS and a missed as well as being repositioned for a second approach and landing. They send you the script prior to coming to HK and I found memorizing the power and pitch settings helps quite a bit. After that they set us up to do a 40 question computer technical exam which requires a 70 percent grade to pass. Alot of questions included piston engine theory which surprised me. One of the other candidates, being a captain on a turboprop for a decade hadn't studied that material since 2001, and we were both expecting questions to be more relevant towards airline flying. There were a couple questions regarding the flight time in hours between hong kong and other Cx destinations. If you pass the first day they will send you an email at the end of the day to invite you to come in for the second day.
On the second day, we were invited to talk with a Cx representative about the great salary, benefits and affordable places to live and raise your family in Hong Kong. While breaking down the salary, HR explained that it was based on base pay plus productivity pay. When myself and the other candidates asked about productivity pay, they told us it was basically overtime. I found that pretty deceiving that their advertised salary that they had sent me prior to coming to HK, was assuming you'd work a sh*tload of overtime. Also when I asked how many days we were expected to work for any fleet, HR could not give a definite answer, it just depends on your aircraft type they would say. When I kept pressing for which type and how many days, they would just say it depends on the month. They couldn't give us any straight answers and seemed to be trying way too hard to sell us on the benefits and salary...
Anyways after that session, we were to do a ICAO english test. Oh I forgot to mention YOU HAVE TO PAY $1900 HKD TO DO THE TEST. No Cx does not cover this fee and only mentioned it at the end of the first day which I regretfully paid since I wanted to see what the second day would be like and I still had hopes and dreams of working for Cx. After the ICAO test, we did an HR interview which included basic questions like why do you want to work for Cx? How many aircraft does Cx have and break it down by fleet number and orders with airbus and boeing. They asked about all the destinations flown to in Europe, NA or Australia. They told us upgrades from SO to FO are around 4.8 years and another 4 or 5 years to Captain. (Keep in mind that's 4.8 years without a type rating and SO time which doesn't count for anything). They also promised us North American ports which we could transfer to after several years of living in HK but I've been told by a couple Cx pilots that probably won't happen anytime soon and the captain upgrades are a little far fetched. HR made it seem so, but they said they would prefer you to live in Hong Kong.
The pilot in the technical interview would ask questions regarding the aircraft you fly, windshear in HK, stall characteristics of swept wing aircraft, C of G on fuel economy, etc. Anyways after about an hour of doing the HR interview and technical interview, you do a medical which includes blood work, urine testing, they cut your hair for drug testing, an ECG test as well as a full medical checkup including getting your balls fondled by one of their doctors.
Anyways overall, I enjoyed exploring Cathay City and really liked doing the sim eval. Also talking to some of the Cx pilots was enjoyable but unfortunately I was quite turned off by the deceitfulness of HR as well as the rest of the hiring staff. During the time I did my interview, I reached out to 5 other expat pilots currently working for Cx of which all 5 told me not to join and to stay at my current regional in NA. One of the Cx pilots was a FO on the 747 for 8 years just getting his upgrade to Captain before leaving to join a regional here in the states as a FO on a turboprop because the red eyes and no social life for years were killing him. Another captain who has worked for Cathay for 24 years on the verge of retiring told me to really be careful to make sure it's what I would want. Cathays morale and salary/benefits has been in steady decline for his entire career there and is definitely the lowest he's ever seen; but he's not too worried as he'll retire in a couples years. Also during the interview in waiting room I talked to several cadet interviewees and when they asked if I was interviewing for the cadet program as well, I said I was interviewing for the Advanced entry SO position. They were all baffled and asked why I would want to leave an airline based in North America to come to Hong Kong. One of the guys wanted to join Cx in hopes of getting training and experience so he could leave to get an airline job in North America or Europe. That was another major red flag.
Cx seems like it used to be a great place to finish a career but it no longer appears so. I admit I read a lot of the comments and topics on this forum prior to going to Hong Kong. I still had high hopes going into the Cx interview but after leaving Hong Kong I questioned if that was where I still wanted to go. They recently offered me the job with a groundschool date in March but I think I'll have to turn them down. I thought about taking the offer for a 6 week vacation in Adelaide then doing a couple months in HK before coming back to North America just for the experience but I figured keeping my seniority number here would be more important. Anyways I hope this experience helps those going into the interview soon and I highly suggest reaching out to any Cathay Pilots currently flying there to get an idea of the conditions. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.