Not too sure if this is the applicable spot however.......is there any ppruners reading this who have been involved in a direct or indirect way with the q recruitment process at a human resource level? If so...how does it work?
If accepted and put on a hold file, what happens to that individuals employment chances as time goes on? What affects their place in the line etc.
If not accepted, what then? How many bites of the cherry do they get?
Is age a factor?
The list goes on but I'm sure you get the drift.

Unfortunately there are no standard answers to your questions BF5.

The recruitment policies (hold file, review process, etc , etc) can vary depending on who is in charge at the time. Pretty much the only constant is that a fail of the written tests (including psych) will shut the gates in front of you.

The hold file has historically been a bizarre piece of work. Once the policy was a 'ranking system' which allowed people to leapfrog you if they did better at the testing/sim/interview. Then that was scrapped and went to some sort of date based ranking. Then there was a review board which kicked in if you'd been on the hold file for x amount of time and could recommend you either stay on the hold file or get the 'don't bother us anymore, have a nice life' letter. Then that got scrapped. And god only knows what it is now.

Age is not legally a factor (iaw anti-discrimination laws), but the basic premis is 'flying experience for age', so if you're 35 with a few thousand multi hours, you have a chance. Similarly, if you're 40 and have just attained your CPL on a single comanche, they won't deem you competitive!

It's pretty rare, but 3 or 4 people I know have apparently been rejected at interview and have had two bites at the cherry (another interview in a couple of cases). I don't know the exact circumstances, except that some post-interview doubt must've existed. They were pretty good blokes & I'm not sure why they would've been marginal in the first place. Qantas never, to my knowledge, gives anyone more than two chances at anything (including promotion).

Ballance yet again you are displaying your head in the sand membership card!

The gentleman concerned is the model of a professional aviator. Kind of makes you wonder about the legitimacy of these tests as ballance once again has showed.

Cheers DM

Doug, my point exactly. How can a psych/apptitude test show that a person is unsuitable for employment and then that same person is the right stuff for a chief pilot position.

And, as I have previously stated, I have no doubt that this person is the right one for the job and I am sure all those that know him or will get to know him down the track will agree.

There seem to be two sorts of readers here...those who know who this guy is and those (like me) who have no idea. But the general issue is interesting.

So...without re-igniting too many old fires, can someone tell us where this "fine aviator" was say 14 years ago? Was he flying domestic routes in Australia? Don't rush to bucket me for asking this. It's just that whether some PPruners agree with it or not, there is a view that says that one's aviating worth does not start and finish within the bounds of the cockpit. If a senior management pilot has a certain track record in times of industrial turmoil then that is part of his/her "aviating" worth. To some, a certain attitude may be a plus, to others a minus.

I think that, given the challenges ahead for both "low cost" pilots as well as AIPA pilots, the question is well worth asking.

About as subtle as a Jumbo wheels up landing at Sydney in peak hour..............

One guess how this thread is going to end up! :ugh:

Electra, probably a bit to personal there mate. Its probably fair to say that many airline pilots of a fair vintage were caught up in that nasty event. Unfortunately.

It is possible that QF had this person (and I also have no idea as to his identity) lined up for this position for some time, and intentionally kept him out of the QF pilots' ranks to avoid future possible problems.
That he was able to stay current on the A320, through employment with the Government aviation branch headed by "The Minister for QANTAS", speaks volumes for those who have suggested where J.A.'s future salary might come from, once he bails out of politics!

We are all well enough aware that the choice of the A320 was not merely co-incidental with the fact that it is NOT a type currently operated by QANTAS (as was the B767 with Australian), and that, as such, AIPA would have little likelihood of success in laying claim to the crewing of it by the QF pilots.

Jet Star is, imo, just another example of another company's willingness to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to start another new company employing workers at lower than the established industry standard, because of QF's apparent failure to be able to successfully and amicably NEGOTIATE with their current employees' unions, and in the HOPE that there will eventually be a flow-on into the parent company.
It is a "tactic" that appears to be becoming SOPS for management worldwide.