Hi, I know this thread is dedicated to the NATS ATC training. Still, I'd like to ask if there is anybody here on the panel for ATC training starting with AirNav Ireland this November or next year?

Hiii, me too! they said up to 2 weeks we will find out:)

Seems to be quite varied. I heard back in 3 days, but I know other who were successful that waited multiple weeks…

Though they do seem to be a little faster generally this time round compared to last year:)

Best of luck!

How did you find out you were successful, did they email you or let you know by phone call?

Thank you!! I'm so eager to find out if I passed or not lol

If you're looking to make contact with fellow newbies who are starting in November/March, reach out to EPNI in Ballycasey and there may be a WhatsApp group that you can join, there certainly was one 3 years ago

Got the call today, I passed stage 3!!

Congrats!

congratulations

I was unsuccessful unfortunately I'm so disappointed. when I asked what the reason was for being unsuccessful they told me it was because I didn’t have a wide range of examples for my interview. This seems a bit odd to me as a recent graduate I only have examples from either education or work experience and I have a lot of experience in the hospitality/retail sector which I drew from as well as my educational background. It seems a shame but all I can do is try better and maybe get in some relevant voluntary experience

What units?

I’m really sorry to hear. From what the interviewer told me when I asked some questions, getting through is really about having examples for those questions and knowing what the interviewers want to hear, I approached all of mine with the STAR method. Hoping you’ll be able to progress next time, and I’m sorry again!

Has anyone heard about any new upcoming stage 3 dates? The message changed from "no longer available for registration" to "no slots available at this time". This makes me think that either some dates became available or maybe I'm just going insane:ugh:

As a fellow unsuccessful applicant, this was my key takeaway.

The interview is led by HR and is very formulaic. The aim doesn't seem to be to get to know the candidate's strengths and weaknesses, motivations, assess how they would fit it etc. - it's more like a checklist of competencies you must meet. Either you demonstrate all of the competencies they are looking for, or you don't.

The result of the above is that interview technique is very important - I.e. you have to be able to "talk the talk". It's a bit frustrating - IMO the process shouldn't require candidates to be good at HR interviews, but that's the system we have to live with.

I feel I'm going to be in the same boat as you. It's hard to use the STAR method for every question when you have such a limited experience to draw on, especially when you don't want to use the same example every single time. I can't imagine the answer to that is to lie and make up examples. All I can think to do is to think of lesser examples, from other experiences, maybe playing sports or something like that to use. Though those examples may be worse than the ones you have from university.

Hi,

When was your stage 3? I still haven't heard back but I know others from my date have.

I hope you go for it again next year though! Wish you the best of luck.

Of course it has its flaws but a competency based interview is actually designed to mitigate the very problem you are talking about…

A more open ended and subjective interview where they might ask something like “why should we hire you?” Favours candidates who are traditionally “good at interviews” or “smooth talkers” but maybe are not as well qualified.

The recruitment team let you know well in advance that the interview will be competency based so in theory all candidates have an equal chance to prepare some STAR based answers. Of course it’s a disadvantage to candidates with less ‘life experience’ but can you blame them for preferring people who’ve already demonstrated relevant skills for the role…

Historically trainees who have less life experience struggle more at the college. It’s as much an attitude thing as anything else.

Hence why there is an emphasis on past experiences. It’s not so much “does this person have the skills” as the tests will show that. It’s “will this person have the right approach and attitude to this job”.

Ultimately it's up to NATS but IMO you have to have a balance. Clearly it can't be too subjective when they are interviewing so many people but recruitment is not an exact science either and the process could allow for some more general questions about motivation etc.

To get to the end of the process without being asked why you applied is kind of crazy.
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On day one of my basic course we were asked what motivated us to apply. In a course of 15+ only one person actually wanted to be a controller while the rest applied because of the salary.

NATS know that as an interview question in this career it’s absolutely pointless to ask as the answer won’t give them any insight whatsoever into the individual.

Hi does anyone know what number I should expect a call from? I got a missed call today and I’m wondering if it’s them but when I tried calling back it didn’t go through