Hey Kiwichick, nope it is not I, my assessment day was on the 23rd? of May in Melbourne.

Medicals are the worst. So far mine has been lost thrice. Once in the post between the DAME and CASA, the other two by CASA themselves. Although I have to say the staff i talk to are pretty helpful, its been rushed through a few stages. Just spoke to them now and the assessor was looking at it as I was on the phone. So I should know by tomorrow.

Have just moved to Melbourne, frantically trying to find a car and somewhere to live. Must say that the 7 days accommodation ASA provides is very nice; 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, stylish apartment.

Anyone else on here besides us starting on the 17th kiwichick?

Re Courses in Brisbane
 

There are currently 2 Enroute courses of 8 training in Brisbane, and 2 additional courses are planned for next year when the current courses graduate.

Hey there Ilves76 !

My apologies, I didn't see your post when I replied with my last :)

I was waiting for a Brisbane course as well, but I've been unemployed since moving over here in March (was expecting to start early May as indicated by Airservices!) and I am going totally INSANE, haha!! So, I jumped at the first available course, which happened to be Melb.

I'm moving up to Brisbane on completion (I'll be positive and say WHEN I finish, not IF I finish!).

Do you guys starting soon know about the chat room on the Air Services training website? It looks like previous courses have met up on the Friday beforehand for quiet beverage to meet and greet.

Might be the last chance for a relaxing night out for a very long time, haha! :E

brit12,

check your private messages

cheers

Has anyone from the assessment days in early July heard anything yet?

I see Air Services is advertising for trainee controllers again. I'm currently learning to fly, would I be better off applying for an ATC traineeship after I gain my PPL?

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I have been checking my application (application still under review). That's why I was wondering if anyone from the assessments held in Brisbane over July 9, 10, 11 had heard anything, yay or nay.

As has been posted, we were told 3 to 4 weeks and as we are approaching 2 months I thought there might have been some movement for somebody.

Funnily enough I spoke to someone recently in HR to confirm some details, and they gave me no indication as to my success/failure. I guess the wait continues.

Cheers.

Bonniciwah, while a PPL might provide a useful background the relevant knowledge isn't stuff you couldn't pick up by reading and a bit of study. It's not going to help you get through the selection process.

So im going to this assessment day next week in Bris, have read this thread and have found good advice for the day if I did it 4 years ago....I was just wondering if any of the test have changed much or its still brush up on DST maths and dont get hammered the night b4.

Cheers

That's interesting (and disappointing). I've got my PPL test in the next week - a large part of my life that I undertook with the express intention of strengthening my application for ATC. I guess it looks like it may have been in vain... :( Not to mention the thousands of dollars...

Thanks le Pingouin .
Yeah, it was selection process I was thinking of, rather than the relevant knowledge.

Bonniciwah, to confirm what le Pingouin said, I have a commericial licence and a few hours under my belt, and it mattered - nor helped - not one little bit in the selection process.

Save your money unless the PPL is something that you really want to do. And it it is, wait until you're a well-paid ATC :E

Brisbane Assessment
 

Hey Samborambo,

I too will be attending the assessment centre in Brisbane next week. have you received your more detailed email yet? Hmmm.. I'm still waiting for that. I need to know what to take with me as I fly out Saturday morning. Which day are you on? I'm on Monday.

Canadiangal75, you don't need to take a single thing with you.

There are about six different assessment areas and everything you need is provided.

Including lunch... :ok:

My only advice for anyone attending: just remember, you're not competing with the other candidates for jobs.

Canadiangal75

You will need to take originals of residency/citizenship, photo id, and proof of education. Possibly flight logs, too, if you have them, as I think they can count as an education prerequisite. You'll also need a passport-size photo.

HR will sight and copy them, and give them back to you at the end of the day.

Thanks Kiwi Chick - I'm doing my PPL purely for the love of it without it being a means to an aviation career.
However, I've always been interested becoming an ATC and when I read through the job application I noticed on the application it was asking for any flight crew licensing details and was wondering if that did provide a leg up.
So I guess I should apply now regardless of where I'm at with my PPL.
At 45 I'm heartened by the exchange yourself and stevep64's experiences.

Bonniciwah,

What are your study habits like?
I just finished a science degree before I started, so I was in the study frame of mind anyway, but there have been a few people in our age group that hadn't studied for a long time and found it very hard. Myself, even though I've passed all my theory exams with an average just under 90% I'm the bottom of my course.
Then you get to the sims and all that stuff you've been cramming into your head for the past three months needs to be recalled under pressure. Again, the younger guys handle that much better.
I'm not saying I can't do it, but I'm having to work really hard just to keep up with the younger guys. I've never studied so hard in my life and it won't let up till the Christmas break.
That said, apart from a couple of really bad sim runs yesterday that really shot my confidence to pieces, I'm loving it.
So go for it :ok:

Bonniciwah, Steve's experience is very typical - the older you are the harder it gets, so no point in delaying.

Having bad days however, isn't age dependent. All you can do is get back on the bike and learn from your mistakes as there's little room for time out to lick your wounds while on course. Easier said than done because ATC is very much a confidence game. Obviously you need to the skills as well, but skills without confidence doesn't work.

tmc44, 'fraid so. I think flying experience makes for a better controller, in that you gain some understanding of what's happening on the other side of the microphone but that's more a nicety than an essential.

documents and photo etc
 

Thanks irish... I just got the email this evening. Luckily I got the email before my flight and didn't listen to kiwichick.... Must go get passport photos done tomorrow and find all my paperwork and pack it all... Looking forward to the assessment day. Should be a challenging day..

Steve64, hang in there buddy.. you made it this far, keep your chin up and don't let a bad day ruin your confidence. When I was training for flight services, we had people come out of the sim in tears... But, we had a really good support system within our group and helped each other out. Some people are not cut out for it, but keep up the hard work and it will pay off.

All good, made a few shockers today, but it was generally a confidence restorer. I totally agree with what Le Pingouin said about confidence.

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.