Virgin Australia Cadet program
 

Hi all,

I hear Virgin Australia is opening up their cadet program later this month.
They have advanced program for current CPL holders and I think the program is planned to start from October this year.

Does anyone have insight and know if they will consider to shortlist a non CPL holder who is in integrated CPL course currently with the completion period before the start date of the program?

Thanks

They will have 1000's to choose from so I highly doubt it.
Who knows though?
Good luck

Only one way to know for sure. Submit an application, and if they deem your application suitable they'll get in touch with you to start the selection process and you can find out then.

1000's is excessive. There will be a smaller pool of people with a CPL, but not MECIR who fit Virgin's profile.

I too think 1000s might be a big number. Experience has taught us in the past that nobody really knows what these recruiters are looking for, maybe just girls, maybe just boys, maybe its just a survey, all I know is I got a ppl and a few hours short of a cpl and i'm going all in, the only thing i got to lose is nothing.

Good on you Albert Einstein - looks like a good program, but expensive. Lodging costs alone seem to be easy $30k, on top of course costs. Do they pay you throughout the course?

I must say the guaranteed job at the end is a good lure.

Good Luck! :ok:

Is anyone still waiting to hear back after submitting their videos?

Probably candidates with many more hours than you. Go get 1,500 hours then try again.

Hours not relevant as you can't have greater than 750 TT even for the "advanced" Cadetship

8 hours solo? Nearly beat my 6.6 mate

Nearly beat my 2.9 hours to solo

The point I am trying to make smart arses is that it doesn’t meet their criteria so I wonder exactly what that is.

Possibly over qualified. Who knows? Perhaps you annoyed someone at the interview.

Impossible to say what their criteria is, they set lower minimums in order to allow people with less experience make up for it in other areas. More hours doesn't automatically mean better and they know that. + Hours to first solo in itself is irrelevant.

Future Cadets of VA
 

Attachment 2333


ONe of the new batch of Cadets !

There was no interview. Girl I know got the same email. She has an instructor rating as well. Maybe they are basing it on looks although she is a lot better looking than me.

I wouldn't not mind if people got the chance to interview or testing but to not even be offered that when you have everything they need and more, is surprising.

Must be because I'm Kiwi/English will have to learn how to speak through my nose next time its for an Australian job ;)

Maybe they detected the sense of self entitlement coming through.

When you have about 6 positions and probably 1000 applicants, everyone that hits submit and gets through has the 'minimums'.

Quite simply with those sort of numbers above, thats why they aren't interested in people that are 'close' to a CPL or any other way of not meeting the requirement. Not really possible to interview everyone in this situation who meets the minimum....apply for other in demand jobs like firefighter too and sometimes you just don't make the grade to go further. As to why, one makes it over another ?!?!?!

Remember this cadetship was also advertised for internal staff before going external, they won't take substandard candidates, but there are lot of very qualified and capable people in the ranks within the company too.

It seems as if the program heavily favours females as well.

Take a look at the previous class that was a run a few years ago:

http://www.flyfta.com/wp-content/uploads/DSC_0682A.jpg

You can see from the photo that out of 8 cadets, 5 were women. You can't seriously tell me that 60% of the applicants were women. Last time I looked at the statistics, less than 10% of commercial pilots licences in Australia are issued to women. I would think applicant numbers in this program would be similar. You would therefore have a far higher chance of getting through just by not being a bloke.

This is the problem with companies trying to use quotas to rectify perceived injustices. There are less female pilots simply because less women want to fly, just like there are less male nurses and teachers because less men want to go down those career paths.

Shame on Virgin.

Welcome to aviation.

I am still waiting too, anyone else?

I just got a reply from them. I applied for the ab-initio route and have been rejected.

Although I have no flying experience, I have a master in Professional Engineering and have had experience working in an airline's technical services. I also thought I had a pretty good candidacy but didn't even make it to online testing like you. I wonder who's making their online testing?

I too applied for ab-intio. Ive only got my RPL and like 30 command hours, had a pretty solid application. Low hours but a licence that showed I was interested in the field, solid cover letter. Sent them my ASIC, a copy of my class 2, etc even though i didnt really have to. Sent my training notes, log book, all of it. Only one problem didnt have a passport yet. Sent them an email, they were happy for me to send it after the close of date. Sent the passport app off and get the passport like a week and a bit after the application closing. In the mean time when i applied, i noticed some things in the applcation that it didnt say on the requirements page. Things like a birth cert, and the last 3 pages of your log book. The page on their website just said log book. So i send an email with extra stuff to cover myself. Yeah sure no worries i added that to your aplication. Passport comes in. Send it to them on a monday. No response. Thats strange normally they reply within the day. Send it again on thursday morning. Response thursday afternoon. Rejection email. Seems very suss.

I understand getting the rejection letter may come to as a shock to a lot of you, I've had my fair share...but you have to remember you are up against a very high number of applicants. Ask yourself, how do you stand out against the other 1000 applicants, what's makes you special. If you want to be trained and given an airline job at the end, you're going to have to be a cut above the rest.

Disappointed
 

It is very disappointing, but im with everybody else here, there are too many people competing for these positions, statistics say hundreds are going to be really disappointed once we receive the "thanks but not this time" letter. I don't feel bad cause I have my own career and I success in other things, it wasn't my time this time but it has been my time before and it will be my time many more times to come. who knows maybe they are looking for certain ages, or maybe for females, someone posted there something about them hiring many women in the past, or maybe they are looking for looks after all many of us had to submit a simple video with very quick and basic answers not really much you can do in two minutes, maybe they just wanted to see how easy on the eye your are. Hang in there everyone, keep getting involve in this sort of things and one day we'll make it, that's how it works. ;)

With all due respect coopmeup,

Perhaps your distain of having to do the video was obvious to recruitment!

Still waiting here, when did you submit your videos?

Whatever you submitted wasn't enough, you may have been borderline, they may have taken one look at your application and said no, who knows.

It's great you've studied maths and physics, but so have most pilots.

Don't take it personally and spend weeks thinking about the application you submitted, it was probably overseen by a member of HR who have no idea what to look for in a pilot, move on, your time will come.

It's no coincidence that these opportunities normally go to the applicants whose father is a widebody captain within the company. You'll watch the video the successful applicants make about how they grew up with aviation in their blood as they used to visit dad in the cockpit.

Work hard and it will eventually happen for you.

Mate, it's hard not to be bitter.
You may run in to the guys and girls who are successful and you'll wonder how the hell they got in, that's life.

I went down the GA road and now looking at the majors after 3 years, my mates went cadetships and are upset they'll never get to do the flying I done, to each their own.

As for nepotism, this industry is full of it, and if my old man was in an airline or owned/worked in GA, of course I'd be using him for a foot in the door, unfortunately for me he's an electrician who's terrified of flying!

having unwavering self-belief is considered a poor attitude is it XM?

Yes..............

Lots of dead pilots with unwavering self belief. :(

It is hard not to berate them with the blatant discrimination shown in this program in the previous cadet program that they ran.

5 out of the 8 cadets were females.

I would be willing to bet that less than 10% of the applicants were female.

Notice how these females are also very attractive as well. Maybe the same division of HR that takes care of cabin crew recruitment is also looking after the cadet pilot applicants.

There's a big difference between backing yourself to become the best, and thinking that you already are. I fall in the former.

First off, it isn't nepotism. Applicants who know people in the company (whether they be friends or family) do a unique insight to the recruiting process of an airline and are able to gain that knowledge prior to their selection process. They may get an advantage because of this, but that isn't proof of nepotism. Plenty of senior captains out there who have kids that have been knocked back from from cadetships.

Second of all, if any future applicants are reading this, don't for one second be arrogant enough to think that you "will make a better pilot than every one else they choose". Remember in Top Gun when Viper tells Maverick that he likes arrogance in a pilot? Well airlines absolutely hate overt arrogance in their pilots, and it's the easiest way to rejected from a cadet interview.

Lastly for all those whinging about affirmative action and girls getting the jobs over the boys, having known plenty of female cadet pilots, they are absolutely at the top of their game and do give the boys a run for their money. I've no doubt anyone selected for this program, regardless of gender, was at the top of their selection pile. It may just be coincidence that it was 50% female, and the females were the stronger, more motivated candidates than the men. But more likely there were probably just as many female applicants as male. I'm hearing in some university and flying school courses that female enrolments are equal to or are exceeding male enrolments in the last few years. The old boys club of aviation is gone. No use complaining, you weren't up to scratch, better start worrying about the rest of your career.

Nice coopmeup, I have read the thread properly, if you look back earlier in the thread I actually posted something that I thought might have entered into your head that whatever you had for your application might not have cut the mustard against other people external of the company, and people from within the company that have a demonstrated pattern of work and dedication and knowledge to the organisation. As for doing the video interview, yes they are BS...but you do realise that there is a 3 stage interview process to work at Bunnings to stack shelves?

Friendly bit of advice from someone actually in the industry, don't act like a douche(as you delightfully bought back) and act like the industry owes you anything. It's a tiny industry on the grand scale of things, and a crap attitude will find you not just getting rejected from this, but everything you ever go for.

Aviation needs skills and attitude, you might think you have one, but you have displayed so far you don't have the other.

As for nepotism, the first 2 courses had no Captain's children (women or not) on it, and plenty applied!

Mike - I suggest you hang around the airport a bit more and observe some of the VA cabin crew these days, they are not ALL the 20 year old blondes from 15 years ago.(Those still there are now approaching 40) Quite a large number of 45+ are being hired now.

Rubbish. Do I need to dig up the stats on annual numbers of CPLs issued to males vs females to prove your suggestion is utter BS?

All that having gender quotas does, is denies the position for people more qualified and capable for the job.

Perhaps we should also have quotas to meet to ensure we have an appropriate number of Aboriginals, Muslims, Gays, Trangenders etc in cockpits.

What if the female candidates showed they were more suited for what VA was looking for? Maybe the typical teen/early twenties male personality wasn't what VA sought for this cadetship in particular and, like has been mentioned on other threads, empathy and getting along with people are what airlines are looking for. Maybe the women were better suited to this.

But at the end of the day, the fact is the cadetship makes up a fraction of recruitment. 4 positions going to women when according to your standards it should have only been 1 or 2 or none is hardly anything to complain about. Males will still make up the majority of pilot recruits.

We all try to do the best we personally can do and strive to improve ourselves, but I think it's when you said:
That when you say that you know you will be better than every one else they could possibly choose, that comes across as arrogant.

The truth is you can be the best hands on pilot In the word but it won't get you past the HR BS in today's Airline interviews. I know some really good people who've missed out, and some others got in that leave you asking why!