BA Direct Entry Pilot.
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 6,729
Likes: 104
From: The Winchester
..a sorry state of affairs if skill of the selfie is considered ahead of other ability.
bex:
I hope they are only taking pictures of their meal above 20,000ft
Last edited by wiggy; 8th April 2018 at 09:33.
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 898
Likes: 73
From: UK
I am pretty out of touch with the current BA application process, but they must be doing something right because I have been very impressed with the many DEPs I have flown with on the 747. Two ringers often seem to think they are viewed as inferior, but whenever I have one on my flight, I tend to think the exact opposite.
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 1,040
Likes: 35
From: Home
https://www.pprune.org/members/95137...8ee808c1b.jpeg
Wiggy.
Re Flight Deck selfies.This would be good recruitment PR.
A mates afternoon tea, crew meal on his first route sector with VS after 16 years of RAF crew food!!!
His favourite Tristar meal, Chicken Tikka Lasagna!
Wiggy.
Re Flight Deck selfies.This would be good recruitment PR.
A mates afternoon tea, crew meal on his first route sector with VS after 16 years of RAF crew food!!!
His favourite Tristar meal, Chicken Tikka Lasagna!
PPRuNe Person
Joined: Jun 2001
Aviation Qualifications: ATP+Mil
Posts: 1,273
Likes: 13
From: see roster
Is a long while since I visited BA, but they always were a nauseating extreme of the HR psychobabble driven selection process, which some might argue, selectively recruits candidates with a rather inflated opinion of themselves!
Heard a figure of approx 60 sim assessments to be done asap, that was from one of the assessors.
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 291
Likes: 26
From: Hundred Acre Wood
Joined: Jul 2017
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
From: Hong Kong
Current tests used for BA Direct Entry current assessment (day 1)
Hi guys,
Everyone kind enough to share information about the tests used for the ongoing BA Direct Entry day 1 assessment?
On top of the verbal and numerical tests, is there only one capacity test or 2?
I read some confusion on the latestpilotjobs website about that.
As far as I understand there should be only the multitask test (with the TCAS, systems and RODs...).
Anyone to confirm that there is none of the tests previously used which involved a joystick (FD, shape test, FD + 2 things)?
In advance, thanks for your light!
Everyone kind enough to share information about the tests used for the ongoing BA Direct Entry day 1 assessment?
On top of the verbal and numerical tests, is there only one capacity test or 2?
I read some confusion on the latestpilotjobs website about that.
As far as I understand there should be only the multitask test (with the TCAS, systems and RODs...).
Anyone to confirm that there is none of the tests previously used which involved a joystick (FD, shape test, FD + 2 things)?
In advance, thanks for your light!
Joined: Mar 2017
Posts: 134
Likes: 0
From: London
It’s a pathetic process ! I did manage to get a 787 offer today from doing selection around a year ago though which I rejected so hopefully some one will get lucky . It should be just a straightforward interview to see if the blokes or gals interviewing you can put up with you for 12 hours . The current interview doesn’t say much about the person other than that they can rehearse selected answers like a monkey
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 1,048
Likes: 2
From: United States
Two of the most dangerous people I ever worked with were hired by BA , one in particular stands out as an avid self promoter with no discernible flying or CRM skills , joined at the right time after the orange machine got rid .
Got a LGW command on the bus very very quickly. .....
Guess I’m just not good enough and bitter !
Thing is though , these clowns exist in every airline , BA is just the same as everywhere else in that respect .
Got a LGW command on the bus very very quickly. .....
Guess I’m just not good enough and bitter !
Thing is though , these clowns exist in every airline , BA is just the same as everywhere else in that respect .
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 123
Likes: 0
From: somewhere between Miami and Havana
Joined: Jul 2009
Aviation Qualifications: Spotter
Posts: 241
Likes: 50
From: Coast to Coast...
Look. Let's not get our nickers in a twist here. Good and bad pilots in every airline. On my assessment day there were definitely some very bright and modest chaps who deserved the opportunity and got the job and they are the vast (75%+) majority. Do consider that when a right plonker no longer serenades us with his presence within the work environment, it gets noticed. As BA is within the top third of employers (in number terms) that's where we'll naturally see a lot of plonkers go.
This is pure fact and not anecdotal, I do know at least one pilot in the hold pool who claimed he flew 700 hours in 2015 on a part time contract whilst he's colleagues on a full time contract managed only 550. Now, if the BA interview went something like this... "I see you flew 700 hours in the year 2015, flying only 8 months of the year, tell me how you coped with being so tired?" ....The little weed would've been discovered! But instead BA have focused on his academic strengths and ability to talk about himself in one postive light after another and came to be impressed by him.
The beef some of us here have is that BA seems not interested in hiring pilots who can prove they know the job. What has worked for us and served us well for getting other jobs doesnt work at BA. BA are fixated on a set of personality and profile traits they believe they can siphon out using a recruitment process that makes some exceptionally talented people seem like they're worthless.
The 'It's their train-set' argument can stand til the end of time but that doesn't change the fact that the candidate experience for pilots (CX within the recruitment industry) is poor and many hundreds of candidates who have seen it since 2014 will be completely put off from applying again. Is that what BA wants? BA will not struggle to find candidates for the next recruitment campaign as they can rely on the Flight Schools that are EZY and RYR (and therefore employ more former CTC and Oxford cadets). However, it will always remain an elitest employer in my eyes because of a selection process that requires me to pretend to be 21 yo again with cute answers that took me 3 months to memorise. Anyway that's how I and a lot of us, rightly or wrongly, feel.
This is pure fact and not anecdotal, I do know at least one pilot in the hold pool who claimed he flew 700 hours in 2015 on a part time contract whilst he's colleagues on a full time contract managed only 550. Now, if the BA interview went something like this... "I see you flew 700 hours in the year 2015, flying only 8 months of the year, tell me how you coped with being so tired?" ....The little weed would've been discovered! But instead BA have focused on his academic strengths and ability to talk about himself in one postive light after another and came to be impressed by him.
The beef some of us here have is that BA seems not interested in hiring pilots who can prove they know the job. What has worked for us and served us well for getting other jobs doesnt work at BA. BA are fixated on a set of personality and profile traits they believe they can siphon out using a recruitment process that makes some exceptionally talented people seem like they're worthless.
The 'It's their train-set' argument can stand til the end of time but that doesn't change the fact that the candidate experience for pilots (CX within the recruitment industry) is poor and many hundreds of candidates who have seen it since 2014 will be completely put off from applying again. Is that what BA wants? BA will not struggle to find candidates for the next recruitment campaign as they can rely on the Flight Schools that are EZY and RYR (and therefore employ more former CTC and Oxford cadets). However, it will always remain an elitest employer in my eyes because of a selection process that requires me to pretend to be 21 yo again with cute answers that took me 3 months to memorise. Anyway that's how I and a lot of us, rightly or wrongly, feel.
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 238
Likes: 0
From: London
In defence of the BA process, they receive thousands of applications every time they open recruitment, with only a relatively small number of positions available. There has to be some kind of definitive way to select people. They can’t go around rejecting thousands of qualified pilots purley on the basis they did not like the way they look or their jokes weren’t up to scratch.
The process is clearly not perfect and no doubt some odd people do pass, it’s obviously not an accurate measure of ones piloting ability (sim check excluded) but it’s fair, free of nepotism, impartial and equal. Everyone who applies has the same chances of being offered a job and in my opinion that’s preferable to the “my mate Dave says he’s a good egg” school of recruitment.
For some smaller Airlines recruiting based purley on personality might work but for a company the size of BA that’s simply not practical or even legal. There has to be a process and you either jump through the hoops or don’t bother, if you fail try again or don’t bother, it’s up to you but there is no point in complaining about how unfair it is or slagging off the people who did pass.
Also it’s not that hard to pass, all they are asking is that you are numerate, literate and able to cope with a relatively simply non technical interview, they are hardly asking you to prove string theory or cure cancer.
The process is clearly not perfect and no doubt some odd people do pass, it’s obviously not an accurate measure of ones piloting ability (sim check excluded) but it’s fair, free of nepotism, impartial and equal. Everyone who applies has the same chances of being offered a job and in my opinion that’s preferable to the “my mate Dave says he’s a good egg” school of recruitment.
For some smaller Airlines recruiting based purley on personality might work but for a company the size of BA that’s simply not practical or even legal. There has to be a process and you either jump through the hoops or don’t bother, if you fail try again or don’t bother, it’s up to you but there is no point in complaining about how unfair it is or slagging off the people who did pass.
Also it’s not that hard to pass, all they are asking is that you are numerate, literate and able to cope with a relatively simply non technical interview, they are hardly asking you to prove string theory or cure cancer.
Last edited by Enzo999; 9th April 2018 at 08:58.
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 138
Likes: 0
From: London
Also adding to Enzo999 post. From the outside the selection process might look unfit for purpose and not providing the personalities one might want. However from the inside, comparing the different personalities encountered within the airline to those encountered within former airlines, the band of personalities seems to be much narrower with less extreme characters then experienced in those former airlines.
That does mean that unfortunately some good pilots don't make it through the selection process but I would argue that the overall selection process works. Also looking at the amount of pilots who end up failing their training after being selected there seems to be a fair argument to keep on selecting on personalities rather then piloting/learning ability, in the end of the day, apart from the FPP's, all going trough the selection have a pilot licence and should know how to fly airplanes, trying to change a personality on the other hand....
That does mean that unfortunately some good pilots don't make it through the selection process but I would argue that the overall selection process works. Also looking at the amount of pilots who end up failing their training after being selected there seems to be a fair argument to keep on selecting on personalities rather then piloting/learning ability, in the end of the day, apart from the FPP's, all going trough the selection have a pilot licence and should know how to fly airplanes, trying to change a personality on the other hand....
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 954
Likes: 64
From: england
I would echo the above posters views. The vast majority of pilots I fly with seem stable and down to earth normal individuals. Ina company with over 4000 pilots, you will always get the odd outlier. Normally, it’s me.....
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 239
Likes: 0
From: FL370
BA is an entirely process and policy driven airline. If you struggle to accept that during the selection process, then you will be miserable when you join. Everything has a written policy and process attached to it. It can sometimes feel like there is no place for pragmatism over at Waterside. But you quickly come to realise that as an individual on a one to one basis the company work with you personally, but in general you are a number, part of a wider work group and we are all channeled into process driven policies such as Absence Monitoring and sick day handling, Grievances, leave and holiday etc. Everything has a process and policy and very little of it is personal. The same applies to our recruitment. It’s not warm and fuzzy, it doesn’t recognise if you’re a ‘good sort’, but it is fair and I would say judging by the vast majority of the colleagues I meet, it works.
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 238
Likes: 0
From: London
It’s a pathetic process ! I did manage to get a 787 offer today from doing selection around a year ago though which I rejected so hopefully some one will get lucky . It should be just a straightforward interview to see if the blokes or gals interviewing you can put up with you for 12 hours . The current interview doesn’t say much about the person other than that they can rehearse selected answers like a monkey
“BA has never appealed to me , I have not tried to get in and probably won't .“
It’s stuff like this Snapper that makes me mistrust most of what you say. Added to the fact BA were not running assements a year ago, you are either lying now or back then.