Aer Lingus Assesment Centre
 

Thanks Roger,

Jeans and T shirt at the ready. How many candidates were at the assesment centre and were the same eight tests used?

Also, was there any mention of how they are selecting for the next stage, is it based on the tests alone or any other circumstances. Have they mentioned what costs are involved for the student.

Finally, have they said when you will hear if you have been succesfull?

Thanks

I can't think of any reason why you wouldn't wear a suit to the assessments to be honest.

Roger, you cant be serious? :eek: Theres no way most people turned up in jeans and tshirts. Am I missing the sarcasm here? RyanJ if I were you I'd wear a suit.

You wear jeans and a t-shirt you may as well not turn up

Sorry folks it was me being sarcastic with Roger. He has obviously posted that in the hope that his competitors will believe it and give him a better chance of succeeding.

Any info regarding the numbers at the assesments, partial funding costs would be appreciated.

Thanks :ok:

Ah rite, im not too good at picking out the sarcasm, good to see you didnt fall for it anyway. But there will be someone in jeans, guaranteed. I cant think of anything worse :O

How about turning up as you feel ift, let Aer lingus see you not who you think they should see.

Also surely testing should be left to the individual on the day not for someone to practice over the next while to better others who have already sat the test.

i know what I'll be telling people when I have attended. Sweet Foxtrot Alpha!

Cheers for the sarcastic and generally poor attitude to my question guys. There is one thing I do know, and that is an attitude like that will not get you anywhere near a flight deck.
Pilots currently flying will be well aware of the difficulties and competition faced when trying for a 'first job' and a 'heads up' in any form isn't a bad thing to ask for - I didn't want the answers to the tests - although im fairly confident that a few people on here wouldn't know the answers anyway ;) ... Airlines are looking for testing results as a small part of the process - personality being another huge factor......
And as for the jeans and T-shirts comment, please...Can we show at least a slight bit of maturity, after all, we are applying for a reasonably significant position of trust/responsibility...some of you wouldn't last 5 minutes!!
pprune certainly lives up to it's reputation doesn't it, and well done for fuelling it future captains of the industry :rolleyes: my my, what a scary prospect...

Just a quick change of thread direction boys and girls, but seeing as though this has now been merged ....

Going back to the last winter recruitment drive and interviews/sim checks earlier in the year, has anyone heard any news regarding these?

I know of a few who got positions.
I also hear one or two have been advised by letter at the beginning of September, that they are in the holding pool.

Any info on the size? Or who else on here might be in it?

Strange how they were again advertising for typed people in summer, and now organising the cadet scheme.
What do they want?????

Very interesting indeed that when it comes to assessing a person's ability to operate a complex machine under challenging conditions clothing should be the number one concern ... just wondering where that leaves my instructor's favourite adage "Always let logic dictate".

"Seats, Belts, Suit & Tie - ADJUSTED, ON, ON" should be on the emergency checklists.

Asking that question about the dress code under the circumstances is perfectly fine, the fact that the latter is of any relevance in an interview or assessment in the 21st century isn't at all.

All done for now
 

Now that's the current round of assessments finished, I guess we can all un-clam and start discussing what we thought?

My enthusiasm had somewhat waned before attending this session, and now, afterwards I'm really hoping to get one of the 20 places! I thought it was a very interesting day, and not really what I expected at all.

The fact that there was no interview as such (yet) was an interesting move, I bet for those of us lucky to get to the next stage it will be a considerably more detailed assessment of your individual character.

One thing that they came up during the Q&A at the end that I thought was great was the fact they are not cutting any particular number or percentage from this phase - they'll be calling back anyone that they feel has potential.

What about the need to secure that loan eh? I'm gonna be busy over the next while... suit's going to be seeing more use than it has in a long time!

PS Solar power all the way :ok:

Actually, geothermal came through in the end.... But we all know that's not the only, nor the most important, point of the exercise/session.
I believe the assessment day WAS already the first opportunity for AL to assess your character, though the interviews will no doubt include further exploration into all aspects of you that pertain to being a good AL pilot.

As you may have learned from your session, AL's standpoint is that if you cannot secure funds then there's no point in you continuing any further. Interested to hear how all those loan seekers fair out now. Let us know how that goes.

I don't believe geothermal was one of the 5 options to choose from...

And the 5 were?

Go wind power!:ok:

I was thinking with the volcano that geothermal would be perfect, perhaps they didn't have that as one of the options because it would too obviously be a hands down winner. Although I do agree that the chosen solution wasn't important, the process of arriving there and the reasoning, individually and in the group, was the part you were being assessed on.

Unless you chose fossil fuels - then you just crazy brains and shouldn't fly the shiny jet.


It's a shame that such a large amount of money is required, although I do feel more secure in the fact Aer Lingus will do all that they can to place you because they have invested money in you.
In the case of the British Airways scheme, the airline has less of an incentive to employ you, because you've paid the entire cost of the training and they haven't outlaid anything. I'm not saying that they would just cast you aside on a whim, just that there is no financial penalty for them in doing so (unless they've acted as a guarantor - which they are willing but not keen to do).

Interestingly though, to fully sponsor the training of 20 cadets (if the figures being bandied about are accurate) it would cost Aer Lingus an extra €1M (20x50,000) which seems to me, not that huge an amount to an airline. Or rather, €1M to an airline is a less significant figure than €50,000 to Joe (or Joanne :p) Public.

Although, given the current economic climate, I'm sure running a cadet scheme at all was a hard sell to the powers that be.

Like mentioned above it's not what you pick but the process that you go through in order to make that decision. From the 5 options that we had on the day, geothermal wasn't one of them and picking one that wasn't on the list wouldn't put you in good stead. This is from my point of view. I don't know how it would appear in the eyes of HR and the training dept.

I'm on the assumption that the 5 options we had were the same as every other day but I could be wrong with this.

In the 30 minutes we had to prepare our discussion I was looking equally at each possibility and each option had it's pros and cons. Oil and Gas for example would make the island less dependant on the middle east ensuring a smooth supply of oil and gas, another revenue stream could be opened up with exporting the resource easing the financial pressure the country currently faced, infrastructure was already in place, it meet current and future demands....

There isn't a right or wrong answer and that includes the fossil fuels. Yes, it may be bad for the environment, but when discussing your reasoning behind choosing it, you will see that it addresses many of the other issues the country faces while wind for example may not. However, with wind you don't have the issue of pollution. So every one has it's ups and downs and they just want to see that you have reasoned with all of them before committing to your final choice and back it up with the data extracted from the table.

I guess they look at other things aswell such as eye contact, understanding and answering questions correctly, body language (nervous or open and confident)...when I got asked as question, I had to give 3 advantages and 2 disadvantages (perhaps this tested me to see if under pressure I remembered what I had to do...a little memory game or I'm just looking it too much!) :p

For those that hadn't caught on, the test was Foxtrot Alpha to do with your knowledge of geography and I think my group got bogged down in all that.

The test was off the back of the pychometric testing we had completed online.

Decision making skills and showing resilience, remaining calm under pressure, being innovative, influencing others, sticking by your conclusions, calm, passive, etc etc etc. I would imagine there was no wrong answers at all, it was all about you.

Remember the seats in the circle were marked for a reason. They were considering our responses, reactions and interractions. And they should tie in with how you answered the online questionnaire, or you're pants were on fire.

I was actually thinking too, if there was maybe one stooge in the group from EI HR as well, I have seen it elsewhere. Someone maybe to stir the pot.

Anyway good luck all, and lets hope EI HR are having a hard time working through the selection process. :ok:

Through to stage 4 for Aer Lingus! Anyone else?

Me too! :ok: