Anyone on the november course?

Canadiangal75, ****e I'm so sorry!

I thought you meant in regard to the exercises... wow that could have gone so, so bad!! Good thing you didn't listen to me :sad:

The other stuff? Yes... heaps and heaps of it.

tmc44 - we were only talking about flight experience being unhelpful for the selection process - not the job itself. Don't sweat it :)

Those talking about PPL and doing it when you've got more money after becoming an ATC, don't forget it's all a tax deduction up until you get your PPL if you're an ATC, it's "research" for work :P

Up until you get your CPL not PPL

haha.. don't sweat it Kiwichick.. If I didn't get the email tonight, I was planning on phoning them tomorrow before packing my suitcase ;)

slscrockatt,

I am on the November 7th tower course. Are you tower or enroute?

stevep64 - I'm good at studying when it's something I want to do. I changed careers and graduated from university when I was 30 and did pretty well. And now I'm loving taking it all in for my PPL.
Guess I'm ages away from crossing that bridge with regards to ATC training though.
Good luck with your studies, I'm sure you'll kick arse.

I notice some of you are talking about going to the assessment centre - what stage of the selection/training is this?

Did the assessment on July 30 in Melbourne. Still waiting for a result.

Just watching the control tower scenes in United 93. I'm guessing they went to a lot of trouble to make it realistic. Looks like organised chaos.

Bonniciwah, it goes a little something like this:

1. Online application
2. Online testing
3. Phone interview
4. Assessment Day
5. A millions weeks of waiting
6. Offer or Rejection

You should totally do it :ok:

The Testing process is heaps of fun, I found i had a max of 3 weeks in all aspect to wait to get a response. I really enjoyed the testing and recommend people just go in with an open mind.

As I understand it the process is:

1 - Initial application and vetting of qualifications
2 - Online psychometric testing
3 - Telephone behavioural interview
4 - Full day testing & document check
5 - Reference check
6 - Casa class 3 medical
7 - Management sign off
8 - 10 to 13 months academy training
9 - 6 to 9 months on the job training
10 - Casa licensing

I've heard that the chance of getting through all stages is around 1 in 100 applicants. On the bright side the odds improve the further you get.

Good luck!

The figures I've heard for last financial year were around 4500 applicants and 75 to 80 successfully rated. They've made the selection harder in the hope they have a better quality of trainee. I'm not so sure that's working, since they let me in :O

Training is about 12 months for enroute and 10 months for tower.

Unofficially, success rate for enroute is about 60% and 75% for tower.

There seems to be a shortage of people opting for tower because they're worried they're going to get posted to Alice Springs, Broome, or Karratha. Alice is unlikely for ab initios because it's too quiet to get rated, and the other two have rental subsidies which are worth more than your annual pay, and you'd only spend two years there anyway.

Most of us on course are worried we're going to be posted to Bankstown or Sydney, because no-one in their right mind wants to live there :\ but we've been told at least one person from each course will end up there because they're so short of controllers.

You can also pretty much rule out Hamilton Island, Gold Coast, Coffs, both of the Tassie towers, Avalon and probably Maroochydore as initial postings. They're either too quiet for you to get rated, or the older controllers coming up for retirement want to finish their careers there and they have priority (or long knives that would end up in the back of any ab-initio that got a plumb posting :})

For what it's worth, from my enroute course seven rated successfully out of twelve initial starters. Of the five who didn't make it, one dropped out about six months into the course, three didn't pass the final sim exam in the college and one missed out during final field training. The last two from my course rated a month or so ago.
Three of the four tower blokes who started at the same time as us finished at the college, they had one pull out voluntarily four or five months into the course. The last of the remaining three rated in January this year, a full six months before the last of the enrouters who started training on the same day. In fact we were just finishing up at the college at the time.

How about towers like Cairns, Mackay or Rockhampton? Do they give you any opportunity at all to choose your location or, do you just get told where you will end up at some point?

Ab initios have gone to Cairns and Mackay recently, they'd be near the top of my list if I had a choice :ok:

If the instructors have a say, you'll go to a tower where you're most suited out of the choices presented to them. So if you're suited to metro D, they'll try to send you to one of those, Radar, they'll try to send you to one of those. The instructors do at least consider your preferences.

Unfortunately, it seems that just lately the only people with any say in postings are the pen pushers in Canberra. Your name just gets pulled out of a hat :uhoh:

In_Transit: not according to my accountant-recently turned ATC friend? Is there anywhere where it is written from the tax department?

Thanks for the info everyone - is the assessment centre testing practical type work or more about assessing mental/personal suitability?

It's a mixture of everything! It's a fun day, I really enjoyed it.

I also came away feel like I'd run a marathon :E

It's probably best not to say too much in case some people try and prepare for it, which I think would be more disadvantageous than anything - if that makes sense? ;) I'll PM you some more details if you like though?

But it's a mixture of personality, intelligence, confidence and team work testing :ok:

Just had my phone interview, which was my first real interview of any level.

Was pretty nervous, but i think it all went ok. HR questions can be tricky to answer!

Had a quick chat about assessment day at end so i take that as a good sign.