You're referring to the interview that has little if anything to do with aviation vs. the interview where you're asked relevant questions without the ego trip attached to it?

Having come from another industry with those sort of salaries and also having been involved in quite a bit of recruitment in said industry I think I can speak to that;

1. I have never seen a position requiring a psychometric test for anything other than a graduate position where they had no industry experience to back up their application
2. If any employer in any other industry took the "good cop, bad cop" or adversarial approach during an interview that you hear about in aviation, they would literally go broke as they would have no applicants, or the applicants that they got are probably not the sorts of applicants which would lead to a successful enterprise.

If a company recruiting for a technical role bases their decision on mostly HR and arbitrary measures that have nothing tor little to do with the job, rather than a proper mix of tech and HR. Then you need to ask yourself; Are they wanting to find the best applicants for the job, or are they looking for individuals most malleable to how the company treats (or wants to treat) their employees?

Possibly the most accurate comment on the interview topic in general, especially the bold.

Reality is as pilots you should be questioned on technical aspects of the job and have a sim ride to ensure you're trainable. The multiple role playing games, numerical and verbal testing before and after the interview are just HR tools with no bearing on how you do your job as a pilot.

I am confused though at how this has any bearing on a thread about Qantas buying Alliance.

The technical aspect of the job is assessed by having a licence, experience and passing the sim check. It’ll become pretty obvious if you don’t have the knowledge or skills required in your initial training at the airline and you won’t get through that initial training.

However what the interviewing by HR is assessing is the things they are looking for that aren’t apparent from just holding a licence. Leadership skills, communication skills, decision making processes, how they treat others in the workplace etc

You could hold 1,000 hours on the type you’re applying for however if you’re lacking in the above qualities there’s potential trouble ahead. For instance the poster above who said they were knocked back from Cathay for not knowing the name of an obscure aircraft may show a lack of self awareness as to why their interview really didn’t go so well, they may have been faulted in other questions showing a lack of teamwork ability or the like it won’t admit to themselves they have a problem there, so invent a reason that lets them off the hook for an personal issue they refuse to acknowledge.

Back to Alliance - article from Australian Aviation saying Alliance will boost “non-monetary” incentives to attract and keep pilots. Any idea what that could possibly be?

So a charter flight? How much per seat in terms of cost?

Landing anywhere or just a spin around ADL city and surrounds?

Good question.

More days off? Which in turn will put pressure on rostering if they are short of pilots.

More annual leave? See above.

Difficult to imagine what the incentives may be.

Exactly. Not knowing the answer to a question is hardly likely to make or break an interview. It's far more likely there were other reasons for the result, such as "attitude" towards the questioner, or other issues. In this case, my guess is the question was about "Betsy", the DC-3 used to launch Cathay's operations in 1946, and now displayed in the Hong Kong Science Museum. It is hardly "obscure" in terms of the airline's history.

Of course I don't know the exact reason and its not likely it was not knowing that one answer. It wasn't Betsy, I knew that one, so they played the 'give the guy a hard time and see how he reacts' asking about the second one in the same museum.
Perhaps I was rattled by the good cop bad cop interrogation style and answered a tech question wrong.
It could be any reason, of course.

Point was their interview style resulted in them passing me over, while I went on to have a career without issue to date, never failing a check, never needing retraining, not having any major incidents, nor causing my employer any grief at any of the airlines I've worked for since.
Its just an example of:

CX clearly didn’t deserve you…:rolleyes:

Not what I said at all. No need to make it a personal attack.

FFS, I have done interviews for a LCC and also Qantas (believe it or not), and neither of them were exactly hard or anything like what a few negative comments have been above. Some basic and relevant tech questions that anyone with good general knowledge should know, and a relaxed interview with a pilot and HR person. Even I can get through it!

If anyone can’t pass that and thinks it’s ridiculous and of Oztranaut standard, perhaps it’s best they disappear overseas.

Back to Qantas buying Alliance, it was nice to have a different airline that was independent of the two majors. It’s a shame that will be lost.

Has it been approved by ACCC as yet? I certainly hope it gets scuttled

Of course

Looks like it may not go ahead
https://australianaviation.com.au/20...ises-concerns/

Look past the spin around the industry being pushed out by certain people. ‘Expecting to be approved’ ‘Green Light’ ‘Forthcoming approval’. I’d be very surprised if it’s approved.

Virgin seems to be pulling away from many of its Alliance commitments. Competition reducing before its even approved. Alarm bells for the regulators.

It’s hard to believe Qantas didn’t expect this response.

Surely they are not that arrogant as to assume the deal would go ahead just because Alan said so?

Me thinks there must be another play going on here…..

Was Alliance used as a threat for the A220 flying to secure a cheaper agreement from NJS?

No. Apparently it was between SH Qantas and NJS but NJS were always going to get the 220 as the 717 replacement because despite the fear mongering, why not?
The Alliance takeover (full) is only a more recent development.

NJS we’re always getting the initial 220’s, enough to replace the 717. Further 220’s will likely be played off between groups again. 220’s have been discussed for mainline in the future

Any chance QF would rejig their bid and just go after Bravo Airlines?

Leaves the FIFO competition as it is and QF pick up another cut price jet operation.

GN,

that makes a WHOLE LOT of sense to me . . . . watch this space.

Oz2

I may have been hiding under a rock, but why would QF go after a Spanish airline?

I can't see them just buying Bravo. The core FIFO op is a goldmine of solid, guaranteed revenues, a Fokker fleet of scale (with the path towards replacing them with E190s), plus buying a much larger range of contracts, fleet and bases that Network couldn't replicate on its own. It's not just about access to another cheap set of drivers for the RPT operation.

Might be interesting to see if Qantas try to allay the ACCC's concerns by offering cheap E190 leases or sales to Cobham/Rex and Airnorth to allow them to scale up and bid for more FIFO contracts. Only issue is that Rio have just gone through a major procurement of their air services, so there isn't immediate opportunity for those guys to pick up a big chunk of work from the top end of town.

I doubt that would cut the mustard. It is very hard to see how QF can restructure the deal to overcome the existing concerns. There is no way the government/ACCC want to wave through a deal that results in a single player have 75% of the market.
The market currently has Alliance's share price around $1.30 under Qantas' offer price which suggests the market has decided it won't happen. There is no way the market would walk away from such an obvious arbitrage if it thought there was any chance of it happening.

What is Bravo anyway? What assets do they have?

Bravo is all the E190's innit?

I don’t think they own them? Or an AOC? Aren’t they just a bunch of pilot contracts featuring non-monetary incentives?

Even if the ACCC allows this the big miners won't. They will start their own airline if need be. They hate supplier monopolies whether be unions or businesses noone gets to have one.
So if QF do get this through just watch for a new charter business start up in BNE or PER and suddenly pick up a few lucrative contracts out of nowhere.

Where is the monopoly?

There are the Qantas owned companies. There is VA and VARA. There is REX and the NJE FIFO/Freight unit.

Three companies, made up of different business units.

Has the AFAP or TWU made a submission to the ACCC regarding this hostile takeover?

I can see very little benefit to the overall pilot community if yet another pilot group is controlled by Qantas. Imagine getting sacked from a QF group company. Without Alliance as an independent company it would make finding future employment in Australia that much more difficult. It would make moving to other entities (including mainline) significantly more difficult as well.

Qantas's proposed acquisition of Alliance is most assuredly not a 'hostile takeover'. The Scheme of Implementation Deed that would give effect to the acquisition was approved by the Alliance board.

So someone who gets sacked from one airline in the group (with good cause I’d take it), which denies them employment in the rest of the group. But then they’ll just waltz over to Alliance or VA or another carrier and expect them to hire them without that airline conducting the most basic reference check? Or will they tell their new employer the truth why they were terminated and expect them to not see it as an issue?

What percentage of the market will be owned by QF though and what sort of market power will they have? Sure it’s technically not a monopoly but I reckon none of the big miners will be a fan. They want maximum competition in their supply chain.

Townsville Mayor knows what’s best for the aviation industry
 

Sorry, the link is behind a paywall and I’m not going to take out a subscription to a two-bit regional rag, but apparently Townsville’s bogan Mayor, Jenny Hill, aka ‘The Mullet’, reckons such a deal will be devastating to the regions. It’s not the first time she has poked the Roo in the eye. She has either a big set or nuts or she is brain damaged. Love Qantas or hate them, if you piss them off enough, you will feel the brunt of them. My money is on her being a complete moron.

https://www.townsvillebulletin.com.a...30a-1662031385

The only Pilot group wanting this takeover to happen are the alliance Pilots. The improvements to staff travel makes people blind to the reality.

Staff travel isn't as great as outsiders think it is. If the airline paid us an extra $x I'd happily give it up.

What x is depends on your staff travel experience. Ruin a few family holidays and x becomes pretty low.

Ask the NJS crew what their welcome to Qxxxxx experience was like..

Not at all correct!

I always ask my friends and colleagues how many times a year they avail themselves of staff travel, the answer is always a very low number.

you couldn't be more incorrect. I know a lot of crew there and none of them want anything to do with Qantas