Hey I'm 17 Caribbean national currently in 1st yr of A'levels. I will be 18 by the time I finish the entire course. I was wondering if I should continue on to a degree or apply with my Advanced Level qualifications to get into CX CPP?

Hi everybody,
I've just applied for the Cadet Programme with Cx!I'm Italian but I'm now living in the UK.Does anybody know haow long does it take to have the 1st interview in these countries?

Thank you :}

Hey folks, I'm still here and in line for the cadet program. I thought I might share the timeline I have experienced so far as this is one of the main topics on this forum.

I applied for the cadet pilot program on the 16th June 2009. I received an automated email the same day saying that I "will be notified of the application outcome in 8 weeks." On the application I stated my preferred stage 1 location to be at home, 2nd preference Hong Kong.

I patiently waited 8 weeks and at the end of week 9 I emailed the recruitment team requesting the status of my application. I received a reply the same day stating "your application has already been received. Your application will be considered along with all other eligible applicants in your geographic area when we next select for interviews."

On 6th November 2009, 20 weeks and 3 days after my application, I received an email with an invitation for the 6th December 2009, 24 weeks and 5 days after application, stating "We wish to invite you to attend an initial Interview. The interview comprises a forty-five minute technical multiple-choice questionnaire, a reasoning test and an interview of approximately forty-five minute in duration with both personal and technical questions."

Naturally I accepted the invitation and received a further email with a medical questionnaire and job knowledge information booklet. The outcome of my 1st stage interview was made known to me on 1 January 2010, 28 weeks and 4 days after application.

On the 2nd January 2010 I received an email, following a prior phone call, which said "we hereby invite you to attend a Stage 2 and, if successful, a Stage 3 Cadet Pilot Programme Interview in Hong Kong on 16 to 17 January 2010," 30 weeks and 5 days after my application.

On 22nd January 2010, 31 weeks and 1 day after my application, I received a phone call stating, I was successful in stage 3, and inviting me to stage 4. I was told that since I have some flight experience I may be able to participate in a shortened course of which they still need to finalise with Flight Training Adelaide. They said I would hear from them again in approx one month.

I have heard from the recruitment team since. Last week they went to Adelaide to finalise, as is my understanding, whether or not they will be running a short course. I am expecting to find out at the end of this week. I asked, if I'm successful in Stage 4, when the course might start. I was told that at this time Cathay Pacific is over staffed with pilots and Cathay Pacific does its best to time the course start and finish date to coincide with when 2nd officer positions become available. At this time they think it may be around August this year. This was consistent with the information I received in the briefing at the end of stage 2, where we were told that there may be a stand down period between finishing the course and beginning work with Cathay Pacific. It makes sense economically, no point in training cadets and then not being able to put them to use.

This is all I can say with regards to my interview time-line for now, I'm happy to answer any questions. My advise to cadet wannabies is this, use the time you have between applying and your interviews wisely. I found the interviews with HR and management pilots enjoyable - probably because I was well prepared, they hardly asked a question that challenged me - in fact in this aspect I feel disappointed, however, pleased I was able to answer them admirably. The aptitude testing etc is difficult - find ways to practice your maths and improve your hand-eye coordination.


Time line

16 June 2009 - initial application
6 November 2009 - stage 1 invitation
6 December 2009 - stage 1 interview
1 January 2010 - stage 2 invitation
16/17 January 2010 - stage 2 and stage 3 interviews
22 January 2010 - information of success in stage 3 and expectation for stage 4
23 Fabuary 2010 - phone call asking me to give them another week
2 March 2010 - phone call - negotiations with FTA for short course starting following week, next contact 16 March 2010.

congrats happyguy! do you mind me asking what experience you have?

happyguy
 

That's great news. I'm glad things are going so well for you. Wow 30weeks. Thats a long time. I have the same question as well if you dont mind. What experience do you have? I have a CPL with 250 hrs and I'm curious/nervous what kind of questions they will ask at that level. Also the stage 1a interviews (aptitude and reasoning tests), what are they like? What is a reasoning test? What is the best way to prepare for these tests?

As for the interviews a 45 minute interview is longer than any interview I've been a part of. haha. Wow. My friend tells me they ask some questions about Hong Kong and the area. Is there anything special we should know?

Last question (I promise) - I saw in the email we would have to give a 5 minute presentation on a topic. What exactly is that like and who are we presenting this to?

Good luck to you. You've made it this far so I'm sure your in :ok:

Outstanding happyguy99. How did you prepare for stage 2 and 3? Did they fly you there and pay for everything? What was in stage 4?

Phili-T
 

Phili-T, did you hear anything about your CX interview?

How long is everybody waiting for interviews right now? I Applied on the 7th September but I haven't heard anything yet and I know people have applied after me in the UK and had their UK interviews already, which got me down a bit...
When i tried to log on, to check the status of my application I had a message to say my it was being processed/considered, but I'm wondering if I should email them before the next UK round of interviews comes up. Good idea, or would it look like I'm bothering them? I can only imagine the thousands of applications they're dealing with at the moment...

@ Chrisbowe82
 

Hey Chris,
I would definitely suggest you to write them an email asking them about the status of your application as it has been sometime since you applied. You would be correct in saying that your bothering them if you send them mails repeatedly but in your case go ahead and shoot them one.

I applied 1st week of dec. and so decided to send them an email 2 weeks back. I got their standard email saying they have received my application and they will send me an invitation according to my geographical area. Sending them an email from time to time will also give them an impression that you are really waiting for it, at the same time I would say don't trouble them also. Hope you get a date soon .

Regards,
Rahul Pereira

April 8-16th
 

Hi guys!
After months of waiting I have finally got an interview! (Stage 1) I applied back in August 2009 and just got an email back today saying that they want me to goto Hong Kong because they don't know when the next time will be when they will conduct interviews in my geographical location.(Canada) Will anyone be joining me April 8-16th? Thanks to everyone who has supported me and helped me on this forum. I will do my best to help the rest during my process as well.

Happyguy99,

Could you please flick me a PM? I'm in the same boat as you, would be good to keep in touch.

AgentJack

0Lancer0
 

Just read your post, and I too will be coming in from overseas to attend stage 1 in Hong Kong from 8th-16th April. It was a long wait indeed, but am hoping for the best from here on.

On a different note, I have gone through the JKI booklet which they have sent, and read on about their fleet, and a few of the destinations. I am getting a little nervy regarding the interview. Are there any other suggestions for further study for stage 1 interviews?

Hi, I don't mind sharing at all. At the time of my application I held a CPL, a grade 3 instructor rating. My total hours were 300.

Hi, a quick run-down of my flight experience:

At the time of my application I held a CPL, and a grade 3 instructor rating. My total hours were 300.

I was a little nervous about my interviews as well, it's quite normal and I'm sure they know that. The staff did their best to make me feel comfortable. After my interview I wrote down as many of the questions I could remember. Here are some of the questions I was asked in my stage one 45 min interview:

Human Resource Questions:

1) Describe yourself
2) Do I play any team sports?
3) Why change careers?
4) What do I do in my spare time?
5) What did I like about Hong Kong? (I told them I'd been there before)
6) What did I do in Hong Kong?
7) What do I know about the cadet program?
8) What do I know about the SO?
9) Do I know what the living conditions are like in Hong Kong?
10) Why work as an instructor?
11) What do my parents think of me being here at the interview?
12) What did my parents think when I decided to become a pilot?

Questions from Captain XXX:

1) What do I know about Cathay Pacific?
2) What fleet does Cathay Pacific operate?
3) Explain dutch roll?
4) How many nm in 1 deg of lat?
5) Explain how lift is generated?
6) Explain induced drag?
7) Explain how flaps work?

In my stage one interview I also did the multiple choice test based on the job knowledge information booklet - easy as. The reasoning test which I didn't know at the time is based on Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices. You can look this up on Wikipedia. It is basically a sequence of pictures and you have to choose the correct one from a possible 8 choices. It's easy to start with but gets hard quickly. I had no way of studying for this as I hadn't heard of this book until I found it on this forum by accident - after my interview of course!

I didn't have to give a presentation in any of the interviews. People may be referring to the group presentation from Stage 2. In stage 2 you work with a group to solve a problem, then one person needs to present the group's findings to the interviewing staff who will then ask questions to the group such as how we came to our conclusion.

Hope you find this helpful.

Hi, I did quite a bit of work to prepare for stage 2 and 3:

- re-read the job knowledge information book they sent me for stage 1
- studied my notes for principles of flight and performance from my CPL
- read my CPL meteorology book again
- read a book called handling the big jets
- prepared a list of about 140 questions I thought they might ask and how I would like to answer them
- had simulated interviews each about 1 - 2 hours going over the above mentioned questions, every night for two weeks before my stage 2 interview
- studied Cathay Pacific's website - fleet, destinations, visions, history, etc
- studied Flight Training Adelaide's website
- looked at Hong Kong's immigration website
- read a few articles on Cathay Pacific from Australian Aviation
- on the plane to HK, studied using Studio CX, all info about Cathay and HK on their entertainment system
- practiced maths reasoning tests you can find all over the internet

Cathay Pacific did fly me to Hong Kong and put me up in the Headland Hotel which is next door to Cathay Pacific City. All at their expense. I was fiscally responsible for flying to a Cathay Serviced Airport and paying for my meals while in HK.

It seems to me that preparation is a key factor to stand out in the interviews. There was one guy in Hong Kong with us who wasn't invited to continue with stage 3. After talking to him it seemed to me he hadn't really prepared himself, as though he could just wing it. He said one of the questions asked of him was how would he deal with a situation where his girlfriend/partner wanted to leave HK. He simply replied that he would ditch her. I don't know how this went down with his interviewers; treating people in such a way doesn't seem an admirable quality to me.

I am still in line for the final stage 4 interviews. They are currently sorting out whether or not they are able to offer a short course since I have a couple hundred flying hours. They haven't yet invited me for stage 4 but have told me I was successful in stage 3 and I will hear from them soon.

Happyguy

happyguy99
 

happyguy99, congratulations.

May i ask how old you are? I've got similar qualifications as you but i think i didn't prepare as well as you did.

@Happyguy99:

Thank you very much for your post. It was quite informative, and down to the point. I do feel a little more confident about attending the interviews, knowing roughly what to expect.
I do not have any previous flying experience, so I am assuming some of the more technical questions may not be asked, but as you said, its best to be prepared for those. I appreciate the time you took, and as long as the post may be, I am full of gratitude for the same :)

All the very best to you for stage 4. :ok:

@ HappyGuy

Really? Plenty of Cathay pilots have ditched girlfriends for reasons worse than work.

I'd suggest arrogance isn't a particularly desirable characteristic either. By the way, I think you'll find that a lot of current cadets have more experience than you. Perhaps best not to wait for the short course...

At the end of the day, it's all about who you can stand sitting next to for 12 hours in the cockpit. Good luck with Stage 4 - seems to be more and more people getting cut at FG lately.

Hi, in my third stage interview one of the Captains asked me if I would be interested in the possibility of attending a short course. I replied that I was quite happy do do either. I don't have the feeling that the decision is up to me, I think they will decide what is best for the company - that is assuming I get through stage 4 as you mentioned. I'm not sure how I can prepare for stage 4. Any suggestions? Thanks for your encouragement all-the-same.

happyguy99
 

Take a look at another thread, "Advanced Flight Grading". Hope it gives you an idea of what to expect. Try your best and don't panic, while it is true that more and more people are failing FG, I'd say it is simply because there are more applicants nowadays than before. As long as you can show them your learning ability, you should be fine. Good luck!

hey
 

hey anybody from florida or atleast in the US.
are they having any interviews in the states? or is it canada??

any advices for a new guy like me for this program?

Hey, thanks for your pointers and regards. I will hire an aircraft just to go over the basics again myself. Nothing like a little refresher course before the exam.

Thank you.

I hope you potential cadets have a handle on 2 important things.
1/ the cost of living in Hong Kong
2/ The very poor level of pay you will recieve.

Keep in mind that if you come from a civilized country you cannot find accomodation that is in any way comparable to what you have at home even with the the $80,000 per month captain level rental allowance, let alone the $50,000 home purchase allowance. A single person can rent a 500' sq foot appartment in a mass residential area for about $25000 per month. Given that your pay is about that much you are going to be living in poverty,literally.

If you think you are going to get home on a base, forget it, there are NO base slots at all for 90+% of ports. Guys with 20 years seniority cannot get on bases even in the country they want, let alone the city.

If you are from the 3rd world or asia you will find it barely acceptable.
If you have not been in HK before I STRONGLY sugest you find a way to understand how poor you will be. You will have NO money at the end of the month if you are single.
As for a married person, particularly with kids, forget it. I am a senior FO will the proper housing allowance and I have nothing left at the end of the month with the cost of living here. ( I have 1 crap car, no "toys" and no other expenses.)

I strongly sugest you do your own research into what you are going to get yourself into here on local terms. The reason why this scheme exists is that out of 7 million people in Hong Kong they cannot find people who will do the job for the money, even if training is paid. Most LEP's have family here and they give them somewhere to stay.

I sugest you stay at home, have a good life amongst your family, and dont be fooled by Cathay's lies. They have an appalling reputation for staff relations and honesty and things will only get worse.

Can anyone tell me...if you have 0 flying hours do they normally ask you echnical questions as well doring the interviews?

Thanks

hey guys

happyguy99 you are outstanding. thanx so much for the info. I'm based in South Africa and i got the call to Stage 2&3 :}. I'm so so so happy. forssi I will represent us Africans to the max

Phili-T what qualifications you going in with?

And I would do my research into what "&&&" was saying.

I was looking at apartment prices and it did go as high as 25000HK for a 500sq if you wanted there were like some from 12000HK to 16000HK and with an average monthly cost of living bill of about 7000HK. It didn't seem bad if the salary I saw on the internet for Cathay pacific first officers and second officers and maybe with a captain salary like that i'm sure its not poverty.

However the living conditions are real cramped but I guess its adpating to new lifestyle and taking new challenges.:ok:

Correct me if my estimates are far fetched.

flying ham
 

Me too! I will be arriving on the 7th! Hope im not too jet lagged! Your nervy? I only have 2 weeks to prepare haha so don't worry you will do great! I had a job interview today and I have an exam tomorrow so I can't prepare until the weekend. I will let you know if I find anything helpful once I start! Let's make it to FTA!

Phili-T
 

Congratulations!!!

Make us South Africans proud!!

don't forget to ask about benefits when you are at your interview. Specifically, health insurance benefits. Ask them what they will not cover - you might be surprised to hear that if you are based in HK, you will have the worst benefits of any airline in the world.... but they try not to mention this while dazzling you with the other stuff. Travel benefits are terrible, if you can get on an aeroplane. etc.... kind of important things to know before you join an airline for a long time.

OK guys I can see you are all as keen as beans, and honestly I was too a few years ago when I applied to CX for DESO. Now that I have been in here for a few years you start to see what has been going on for years and years and that is the gradual and deliberate reduction of terms and conditions.

Of course everyone knows about the greedy old A-scalers and their millions of dollars a year in salary, right? Well those guys weren't really paid as much as it turns out and now they haven't seen a payrise in 15 years (not payscale rise but actual dollars in the hand rise) and most have now been coerced into signing to the current contract with other loss of Ts and Cs. Many moons ago there was something called a 'travel allowance' based on the cost to fly you and your family home for a holiday each year - in first class - which sounds great, right? Then one day, new joiners magically didn't get it and the ones who were getting it had nothing to complain about, right? Until there were more guys not getting it than were so now the company has been able to phase it out completely...

Move to 2010 and the company has seen an opportunity to employ expats but not pay them any expat benefits... One day they will be phased out too I guess.

Now I see in HappyGuy99's post about his interview the same pattern. When I was interviewed for DESO, my wife was also allowed to come with me and they paid us a 'per diem' to cover the cost of food etc. This has evidently been taken away as you didn't know it was ever paid...

As a Cadet SO, will you be getting health cover? For you and your wife and your future children? Cadets have always had right of abode so no need for paid health cover. Have you really looked into the real cost of living in HK? &&&'s post covers it pretty well but I think his rent estimates are actually on the high side. Even so, a married couple will STRUGGLE to make ends meet let alone 'live the life of an airline pilot'. As for children, I would forget that notion for many, many years to come unless you have rich parents. I can speak with personal experience that HK is one of the most expensive places in the world to raise children.

As for all you future Cadet hopefuls, just wait until they start charging you a fee for the interview, or more likely, charging for the training course itself...

Now some of you think that this probably seems a bit cynical but far from it. This is the world of the airline business where you are a work/cost unit where reducing the cost side is the name of the game. They are using our enthusiasm for flying as the tool to undermine what once might have been a really great profession. Expect to find the deal gradually getting worse and worse over the years to come as Air China take a greater role in running things. Don't expect to get rich or even recoup the costs of getting set up here for a great deal of time. HappyGuy99 - I hope you and your wife are ready for what you are going to drag her through and good luck.

hey guys congrats to the ppl who got accepted, really nice to hear that, guys i have a questions here, has anybody with no flying experiance ever got accepted ?

To "&&&" dont u think it is still really good to fly for cathay rather than flying a single engine for a charter company ? am not taking their side am juss asking, btw they refused me 2 weeks ago :( but i wanna reapply i have ma cpl and passed all ma ATPL subjects, and juss for the guys who r going for the interview they asked me questions like :

How much thrust a 747 produces ? i was like mmmm too much i guess :S how do they expect me to know? i have never flown a 747

How many fuel tanks a 747 has ?

and couple of more questions about 747 that i cant remember now.

and happy guy99 thanks alot for the info

hey flyremnant, im from daytona beach.. havent heard from them. they might and might have yet to conduct the interview yet but so far there is no news about it.

Application
 

Hi There,
can someone tell me what kind of documents are needed for the application? i.g. do I need some translated copies of my references or do i need them in a later stage? THX

Hey forssi. i am originally from Zim but been aound to other countries so I'm representing for Southern Africa. Any other news on guys who are going from the motherland?

@Ronny1992, I have about 540hours and I'm a grade 3 instructor in South Africa. I think that's quite a bit and thought that that would work against me. Turns out it didn' t. Seems like have exp or no exp matters none with them. It's the attitude that you have and how you come across I believe. Whether they accept you is not a thing about your ability but maybe you're just not what they are looking for right now. If they do take you then you have checked a box they needed filled.

danielthemc
 

hey danielthemc.

i'm also in daytona beach.
studying at embry riddle...

when did you apply and how much have you flown??

Wow. Good to see some other people from ERAU. I went there too. I'm currently doing my Masters Online. Good luck to everyone.

whats the point of a masters degree in aviation from ERAU? Is ERAU even accredited?

@CXmonkey

You're not the first to say this to me and I now see that it is a real flaw in this program. As a young single guy, the words "children school fees and housing benefits" don't really apply to me as I can sleep pretty much anywhere and i have no kids. But there will come a time when I would like to do the whole family thing. This is where the problem lies. CX is not a part time company where I can gain exp and then move on to something bigger. Shoot; this is as big as it gets. I reckon they would want me to stay the distance past my sell by date, so the decision cannot be made without considering all the permutations.

I understand where you are coming from and your concern to our careers is much appreciated. I would rather enter as a DESO or even better a DEFO but that may not happen anytime soon as we are, as you say, seen as an asset (or liability) with which they can save money where they can. So why would they take a DESO when they can take a cadet and pay him/her less?

Yes, it is better to gain exp from charter flying and smaller jets and the like, but the market is extremely stagnant at the moment especially on the lower end of the food chain. Piston twins are on the endangered list so acquiring twin time is not as easy as it used to be. They won't let you come anywhere near a Kingair or other twin turbo prop without at least 50hours on type. The pilot's who are in the Kingair's are not moving as they don't have their ATPL's so smaller airlines won't take them creating a bottle neck in the system affecting those who have just received their CPL. then with the recession, many companies rethought the hiring process and are playing it very safe by keeping who they need and shedding the excess. Several charter companies here have not hired a pilot in two years, but have doubled their fleet and stretch their current work force as far as they can.

In an ideal world, the path would be to climb the ladder rung by rung until we are LH seat of a B747. But the world is far from ideal and an opportunity like this is golden. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

If we consider both sides of the story, we see that this program is "OK" (for lack of a better term) for young pilots and not so great for the older pilots. The family life is crucial to the older pilot and not so much the younger.

From a young pilot who has just broken the 500 hour mark with no family, what would you recommend?

Hey Guys,

I'm planning on attending my initial interview for the CPP and was wondering (happyguy99 especially) if anybody would know where you can buy material which relates to the reasoning test. 'Raven's manual of progressive matrices' is the name i believe...and i can't find it for sale anywhere...?