Wehay well done whitelighter!!!! seems like we worried for nothing; i passed too!
so so pleased :)

Well done Whitelighter!

What did I tell you?! :ok:

Shocker
 

Mate just found out i've passed too, which considering one of the activities i used the wrong key on the computer therefore got 0 marks I cant believe it!!!

Well done all those who passed the new stage 2, there is some hope for us all !!!
I guess as all of you said it was very hard and thought you failed, the object is to keep going as you never know !!!
Bring on the 1st may !!!

Stage 2 new style...
 

I passed too! YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

yey well done to all of us who went to stage 2 on 15th april and passed, and anyone else who has recently passed too!
Hope to see you all at stage 3!

If anyone happens to know how i can get in contact with Manchester Control i would be really grateful, i spoke to HR today and they were no help at all!

Hi Marco,

Out of interest, when was your Stage 3? I really believe that everyone's Stage 3 is different - in mine we did spend a good bit of time on the HR stuff, but perhaps because of my age and past education/employment experience, we didn't spend that much time discussing my skills.

However, I must have spent at least 30-40 minutes going through technical stuff (beginning with an ATC scenario, and following on to things to do with a tower visit I had made) in great detail which I was pushed hard on and challenged continuously. I don't have a PPL/ATPL or any other type of aviation background (I'm a scientist by trade) but I was still asked loads of technical stuff.

Advice to others: Although there is a list of questions that the interviewers can choose from, especially for the HR stuff, what you say in return will dictate what the interview is like and where it goes from there. Everyone is different, and therefore everyone's interview will be different. Be unprepared for either the HR or the technical stuff, and you may find the interview more difficult than you'd like. If they don't ask you everything you've prepared, consider yourself well prepared for the interview, and that maybe you've saved yourself a bit of learning for when you get to college - it's not a bad thing, and definitely not time wasted!

once again I have to concur with paperclip.

I did my S3 in February, and even before I did it back then, there were people posting on here saying their S3 had all been HR. IMO, the reason mine was more technical was because I already work in an occasionally demanding environment, but also i had read from a lot of sources prior to the interview, and so they wanted to make sure i had actually done my stuff, rather that just saying i had.

it would have been different if for example i had come straight from school, and had no uni or real work experience, then they may have been more concerned that i was not prepared mentally.

in short, revise both bits, you will hate yourself for failing if its because you tried to second guess what will be asked.

shugs

So you're implying that the interview at stage 3 will be a hellofalot harder for anyone who may be on the edge of the min age limit . ie. 18 or anyone in age groups of 18 - 21/22? :cool:

T250, no I wasn't implying that, apologies if it looks that way.

all i meant was it may have been different, ie wholly an HR interview, because if i had come straight from school, depending on grades i suppose, i would already have shown the ability to study etc. age alone doesn't affect the outcome.

I havent asked for feedback but think i 'ticked enough boxes' in relation to ability and mental maturity and so perhaps thats why they then chose to concentrate more on my motivation and knowledge.

sat my stage 2 on the 15th and i'm through!
well done everyone else who did as well!!

And I'll concur with shugs.... I felt I didn't get many questions about the ability to study, work effectively in a team or any of the other 'qualities' they see as important since I've got good exam results from school, several uni degrees and a good set of experience that provides good examples of these sorts of skills as far as team working, practical learning etc goes.

I did get lots of questions about why I was pursuing this career now, why I hadn't done anything about it before (at other times in my adult life when I could have applied), and was asked whether I thought scientists could be any good at being ATCOs! Are we too theoretical and stuck in our ways - do we know how to adapt and change?! It was one of those experiences when I think they wanted to see how I dealt with being pushed over and over again, and if I would break...

And then I was asked loads of technical stuff, I think to gauge my commitment, interest, knowledge, and especially for them to see how I apply knowledge I have, how I 'think' about things and deal with ever changing scenarios (see above). Some simple questions with straightforward knowledge-based answers, but other open-ended questions too which required good problem solving skills.

Who knows if this'll help anyone, but they were my experiences.

From Zooker

Gogz87
Dress code for an initial ATC medical, Jeans T-shirt and trainers? http://static.pprune.org/images/smilies/badteeth.gif
Initial medical, future employer, planning to spend at least £100,000 to train you.
Suggest a lightweight summer suit.
OOOHHH, SUITS YOU SIR!


This is a pile of arse - firstly, whatever you wear you are out of very quickly and into your undies! Wear whatever is comfortable, I wore jeans and t-shirt.

Secondly, having spoken to one of the training\HR head honchos, it takes approx £800,000 to fully train an ATCO (including continuos training)

Always take what people say on forums with a pinch of salt, 99% of people are genuinely helpful, 1% are quite the opposite!

Good luck to all currently applying. :ok:

Contact numbers for Swanick and Heathrow Tower?
 

Now I have passed Stage 2, I really want (need?) to visit at least Swanick and preferably Heathrow Tower as well. I have spoken to HR who were a bit funny and said they couldnt arrange it, but would pass on my request to the centres and someone would call me. Apparently this should be done directly but they seemed unable to give me a contact number.

Can anyone tell me if they have had similar difficulties arranging visits, and if anyone has any numbers for Swanick/Heathrow that would be great.

S2
 

Submitted OPQ and received this email.

"Once we have received you completed application form we will invite you to the 2nd stage of the process - the computer tests and structured interview. "

Are they ever going to update their automated email system?! We concluded that the interview at S2 has been removed, right? And just a lengthy day full of computer based tests.

Now to fill in this app form. By what you're all suggesting, its probably going to take me a couple of days to decide to write! lol

DJ Nick,

In short, probably not unless someone alerts them to the fact that their emails are wrong.

When I was applying, everything about the expense system was incorrect and inconsistent, but HR didn't realise until I spoke to someone about it. Probably worth sending them a polite email - for those not on PPRuNe, it could be very confusing to get that email!

Medical???!!
 

Hi

I completed my pre 2nd stage application form a few days ago and I've received a reply today saying my details have been forwarded to the medical department for assesment :confused::confused::confused:

Is this normal? I've never saw this on the forum before!!

My eyes are both -1.75 but this is well within the limits.

Thanks

I wouldn't worry too much - the chances are you won't have an ATCO interviewing you anymore so you can just wing it ;)

Congrats to those who passed the new Stage 2 assessment.

I've also joined the 'party'; booked my Stage 3 for mid May as I want to get through these assessments ASAP. Dunno how I passed, given my computer decided to have a mind of its own during the flight progress strips test and myself crashing planes on the collision test.

The S3 HR interview is going to be hardest since I won't have much to offer on the table for the typical HR Qs.

Have asked HR to send me details of Heathrow tower and Swanwick but want Swanwick to be optional as its costs >£30 for me to travel there and broke at the moment! Right choice?

Dim Sum - imho Swanwick should be done, as well as a tower visit.

You may well expect/hope/wish to get onto the aerodrome course, but given that, very roughly, 60-70% of people on each intake get posted onto the Area course, (of the current course just started/starting the % is even higher), it'd be worth seeing where you may spend the next 20-odd years working.

The outlay now will more than be recouped(!) if you manage to get through the maze of writtens, oral boards, summatives, heat, validation courses etc etc that are to come.

It was suggested by HR in my Stage 2 that there wouldn't be technical questions. I think they said that it didn't actually help them that much in gauging who would be good or not. That was the impression I got anyway, but it was a long day so there might've been another reason. I'm still gonna prepare for some though.

Having similar problems trying to organise a trip to Heathrow (or another London terminal for that matter). HR took my details because recruitment was out and I was told I would be rung back concerning it; I wasn't, so I'll try again on Monday morning. Again, if anyone can help us it will be much appreciated, especially if there's any of the current crop who've managed it in the last few days. Sorry if it seems like there's a tonne of us asking this, I guess it's just that we're all in the same boat and having the same problems.

Medical
 

A couple of people have asked on the previous few pages about dress code for the medical.

Well I had my medical yesterday and I can confirm that jeans / trainers are absolutely fine. Indeed the lady who did the first half of my tests was wearing jeans and trainers herself. Also just about the first thing they tell you to do is to take off your clothes anyway, and you spend 95% of your time there in a bathrobe. Or less.

So yeah, don't bother dressing up. There's no point and it's not expected of you in the slightest. Wear nice underwear though.

And can I just say that the hearing test is EVIL. The beeping noises that you're supposed to listen to are so quiet that you can barely hear them. I kept wondering if the test had actually started or if the beeps I was responding to were a figment of my imagination. I'll put it this way: I was in a soundproof room with headphone cans on and I could still hear the lady outside turning over a sheet of paper louder than I could hear the 'beeps'. :(

I concur about the hearing test. When I did my initial medical I had to do it again as I didn't know it had begun! Nowadays, when I go for my medical renewal the hearing test is the one bit I loathe. Hearing seems to be good enough though and I can certainly always hear pilots moaning.

Why would you want an ATCO to interview somebody for the job of an ATCO?? That would be like going for an interview to join the Police and being interviewed by a Policeman :ugh::mad::mad:

Still, HR know best eh?.....:ugh::ugh:

Maybe because an ATCO may see the qualities required in future trainees better than HR?

Maybe because an ATCO can weedle out an applicants' motivation more than an HR 'person'.

God know's how motivation is being gauged now, if as marco888 says, they seem completely indifferent to visits to units!!

Take the time to read all of my post (and note the smilies) and you will realise that it was made a tad tongue in cheek.

Of course it makes sense for ATCO's to be involved in the recruitment of other ATCO's, it's just that NATS don't see it that way!! :mad::\

Glad it's not just me then.

Like you, I initially wasn't sure the test had started.

Despite all this, the lady doing the test said when viewing the results that my hearing was "extremely good" which was pleasing, but if that's the case then I feel for anyone with normal or sub-normal hearing as they won't hear a thing on that test.

just because an ATCO may not be present at an interview doesn't mean that they have not been involved. i have been told that ATCO's across the whole of the compnay in both disciplines were used to design the new competancy based interview.

the best advice to prepare for any interview is think of good work & personal examples that can be adapted to the Q's being asked of you. i rang HR for advice on what to expect and they were very helpful - make sure that you are speaking to someone in the TATC recruitment team for the correct advice though.

i agree with a previous post that you should remember that this is a RUMOUR network and not to take everything you read as the truth. if you are in any doubt speak to the professionals. i always contacted them by replying to the "invite/confirmation" emails and they always got back to me within 2 days.

I did my S3 on the same day as Marco (8th April) and had the same experience. There was one question about what efforts I had made to explore what a career in ATC would be like, whether I had visited a control centre but absolutely nothing to do with identifying planes, ATC procedures or anything like that. It was suggested to us at lunch by one of the interview panel (I think it was the head of ATC training) that the technical side of the interview had been removed because it was covered at S1 and S2 and it wasn't necessary to learn anything before college anyway as everything would be taught thoroughly there. That said, with the motivational section removed from S2 they may bring it back in some form in S3.

Also, I don't suppose any of the other guys who did S3 on the 8th still haven't heard? My nerves are getting a little shot.

Edit: Just logged into the NATS website where it says my application has been unsuccessful, yet I haven't had a call or an email. I'll ring them first thing Monday but does anyone know if this is definate or just something that goes up when an application is pending?

Hey Pete! I remember seeing you at the Stage 3. My online application was updated the day after the interview. Couldn't believe how quick they were to decide I was unsuccessful and they still haven't confirmed it.

I've already accepted that I was unsuccessful but it would have been nice to have been told properly. I tried the message centre but that was ignored. Feedback could be a pain to get.

Hmmm. Just off the phone with HR and apparently an email was sent out on the 9th, but I definately never recieved one. Maybe it was a bit stupid of me not to check my online application until now but I was giving it the whole 15 working days. Pretty gutted.

Oh well, there's always next year.

Hi Pete/Marco,

That's pretty gutting for both of you. Did HR give you any feedback about why you didnt pass? I would have thought S3 should be better than S2 and S1 because its more about you and less about just your brain.

Stage 2 testing
 

Hi

I've just been invited to the stage 2 testing :)

Could anyone tell me of the nearest hotel to the Nats Headquarters and the best airports/airlines to use from glasgow (prestwick/glasgow) etc

The dates are all in June so I've got a month to wait, would rather just get it over and done with!!

Thanks

Moravcik25
Surely in the time you've been waiting to get a reply from someone to your questions above, you could have easily found the answer yourself on Google or indeed on the search facility on these forums? :confused:
It surprises me somewhat that you are applying to be an ATCO, yet you don't know what airline would operate between Glasgow and the south coast (easyJet/Flybe/BA). These kind of details are included in the stage 1 motivation paper so its even more surprising! :ugh::hmm:

On a rather different note, is it me or is the new format for stage 3 sound like they couldn't care less about your motivation in applying &wanting to join NATS, ie. Marco888's post stating the HR couldn't really find his visit to a NATS unit very valuable/useful.
How exactly are HR finding our motivation now? There's no motivation paper further than stage 1, no technical knowledge required, as at stage 3 they're interested in 'you'?!?
So a person who knows the right words and stuff to say could wing the interview and have no interest or motivation........:ugh:

Motivated?
 

I dont know about HR, but just for personal reasons I want to visit the NATS control rooms (i.e. I want to experience what goes on). I had a great visit to Heathrow tower yesterday and that really cemented the fact that this is what I want to do. Spent a total of 7 hours there and frankly would have happily stayed longer.

Down to Swanwick next week and hopefully Farnborough and Prestwick at some point to. I dont know if its required or not, but at least I will have an idea of what & where etc etc. Plus it has made me (so far) more determined than ever.

New Stages
 

I apologise in advance if I am being dumb but could someone please run through what is expected at each stage of the application process?

I keep seeing references to the 'new stage 2' or 'new stage 3' and am wondering what to expect. I applied last year and passed the initial selection tests but failed at the next stage and have re-applied this year with my initial tests being this Thursday 30 Apr. I am slightly confused about the motivation paper aspect as last year this was done on the same day as the initial psychometric tests and this year they have explaiend the same in my confirmation email with a link to the document but I see that others haven't and are mentioning the motivation section at a later stage. I am now slightly anxious as I want to be as prepared as I can be for what lies ahead.:)

Stage 1 will be the same as you had last year.
Stage 2 is now a day of computer tests, rather than the Motivation/Interview/Computer Tests you experienced last year.

Learn the booklet upside down and backwards for stage 1 again

Was wondering if anyone has contact details for someone at heathrow who i could get in touch with with regards to arranging a tower visit.
Currently i've filled in the vistor request form for swanwick and i've emailed a contact a gatwick, yet as i've got no firm visits.

any help would be much appreciated.

Hey DaleyDFC / Avestrux

I've got my stage 2 on the 18th of May. Managed to get booked into the Premier Inn in Fareham. Looks like it's only a couple of miles from the test centre. If either of you end up staying there, give me a shout and I can drive us to the test centre on the Monday morning.