They obviously want DE so they can get them in the Air earlier and also move to captain quicker. Also less training resources needed.


The DE's will dry up and they will have to go for the Level 1's and 2's.
Probably take a year or 2 though. Hopefully I can get my commercial sorted by then.

I feel sorry for the trainee FO's who've made it through with no guidance from HR to when a trainee course is going to being run. (Hence my previous comment of not holding your breath for Qlink). Most of my mates who are DE have been getting starts anywhere between 2-6 months of being placed on hold.

I know of a DE who's been waiting 9 months with no news. As far as I know they still have DEs waiting

So why the roadshows to get more DE's ?

Who knows......strange things seem to happen in link.

Ok guys. Did anyone visit the road show? Any good informations? I'm thinks calls for the next wave of candidate will be soon. I'm getting the multi times in that column now so maybe I wait to upgrade to DE or follow my dream at another airline company.

Went along to the roadshow, it was certainly enlightening. Run by a previous recruitment captain who is now in Mainline, but still working with QLink Recruitment.

A lot of information given. The general purpose of the DE target roadshows is to shed some light on the whole process and avoid the ambiguity, false facts and rumours that seem to perpetuate after people are successful and/or unsuccessful.

Pay, conditions, time to command, progression and base options etc. all covered. Recruitment process was covered in depth. It has now been standardised across the board.

Mainline recruitment will be slowed and the general pathway will become QLink -> Jetstar/QANTAS etc. to ensure retention of quality crew.

Lots of detail about why people are rejected or more commonly deferred (the 12 month letter). Interestingly, for those who are griping about being rejected after sim pass or reference checks, it appears that the majority of the time this is done at a senior management level when they do a final review of your file and isn't necessarily exclusively related to your sim or reference checks. This is presented to them (CP, HOTAC etc.) by the HR team, minus name, gender, personal details etc. If there are a combination of red flags throughout the process (i.e. barely passing Psych assessment, sim was only a pass, not highly recommended, questionable performance in group and individual sessions etc.), they will often defer them for 12 months.

That being said, they are still working their way through the 1000 odd applications from L1 and L2 applicants and still have a steady stream of DE drivers coming through to Active Hold. Their main issue seems to be training capability, as it appears that they are pretty much almost at capacity, but trying to get more through.

Very enjoyable session. They were very up front and honest, happy to answer any and all questions and even gave an additional contact email for the Recruitment Captain to answer any future questions people might have.

Apparently difference is at least 50hrs more training with a training captain just for starters. Then trying to make up the difference for the multi PIC. So across the two intakes of 12 (300 & 400), with even 50% L2 candidates, that means their training resources, which are already pretty much stretched to the limit, have to cover an extra 600hrs training for the L2 candidates.

Or if it was 50% L2 candidates per year, 2500 extra hours training per fleet.

So why defer people who pass all aspects of testing by 12 months?
That's a long time and allows applicants to move into other carriers.

If someone attends QF testing, and is deferred, they are then also deferred from qlink and jetstar for a year.

What do they honestly think they are achieving by telling people to try again in a year. Why not 6 months?

A fair question.
It creates a work cycle for HR.

QF are late to the party, but the perspective is that like O'Leary an adversarial IR/HR structure ensures that recruitment is a dreadful slow and bureaucratic process. These processes indicate that HR process capture is active. The intent is not quick delivery of a suitable candidate to the airline, rather adherence to a cumbersome process.

In other words HR is wedged in there, controlling the process and they ensure their own survival. This model requires unlimited supply.

Again as O'Leary in Ireland and Horizon in the US are finding out, delivering a pilot to an airline in order to fly revenue services is actually of far more 'bottom line' value than an office full of admin staff...

Wait for the summer schedule of flying to assess how well the recruitment model delivers pilots to the airline..........:E

Good point. Just seems that no one has anything good to say about the qantas group HR team, successful or not, everyone seems to have their own horror story.

In term of why the 12 months, i'm not sure. But given the amount of time you spend going through all the steps of the process, even if it's an arbitrary time frame that someone in Qantas has selected, it still reduces their risk of just getting the same outcome i.e. someone who just scrapes through. Their emphasis is that the 12 months should be used to gain more experience.

A lot of people getting deferred are just low on experience. I have a couple of mates who got deferred and never even went to the sim. Why? No multi PIC, no recent flying experience, no IFR experience (although they hold the rating) or a combination of those. They're not bothered. They are just using the 12 months to gain more flying experience and then going back again.

Obviously there are some who are deferred who have significant experience, but again, 2000hrs 210 doesn't count as much as 250hrs multi PIC or turbine. Similarly 2000hrs flying skydivers over a coastal city in a caravan doesn't count as much as 500hrs flying charter in NT, Indonesia, PNG in a caravan.

Probably worth remembering too that even though there are plenty of people out there with the minimums or more, that doesn't guarantee you're a good pilot or the right future employee for someone. They have the right to hold you to a standard and if you don't meet it, choose not to hire you. It's not like they're short on people wanting to work there.

Thanking you eukey. Some great informations there for everyone out in the wild side. Did they give any indicatives of how many there taking each time of an intake? What about the L2 traineeship candidates, are there any numbers of them makeing starts?

It seem complicated but good to know they are making people employees based on there overall quality than just by name or male/female or ages.

Hi Hold_Filer,

At this stage i believe they are putting 12 at a time through on each fleet. I have heard of a few Level 2's getting through, but don't know any. They are very much still focussed on DE pathway so they can get more experienced crew through the door to cover their gaps at the moment. But they are definitely still intent on progressing L1/2 applicants in the future.

They appear to be very conscious that they are hiring people for an entire career (with the pathway into mainline now open), so they obviously want the best people they can get.

Anyone heard any news regarding the December course?

nothing regarding this. Lets keep our fingers cross for informations this week.

I’d be guessing next week at the earliest, week after more likely. Although a couple on the Last course got a fairly early call according to the rumours

Are these courses shared with the JQ dash guys for the NZ operation?

These trainings are done concurrently there is no jetstar training place in New Zealand. More competition for limited spaces for already high competitions.

Sorry what I meant was I know the training is all done in aus, do the dash guys share the courses together? aka qlink and jq nz