Sorry BIGBAD, VS are a benchmark airline where moral is high and the relationship between flightdeck and management is one of utter harmony. Career progression is excellent and no one fears for their future when the economy wobbles. Redundancies, voluntary or compulsory, along with sabaticals never occurred. Or maybe you're so high up the pecking order that what I have just said is irrelevant to you?

Ive said my bit. Get the thread back on track and goodluck to those seeking a move to Virgin.

Nearly man, thats a matter of opinion ;)

strangely I would prefer the BA idea of essays , at least you get to say a bit about your experience. A CV is merely an exercise in word proficiency on your PC.... I can understand having a shiny one, if they are trying to pick you out from 200, 250 hour newbies.

My mate got in last year, mid-late 30s, 9000 hrs, command time 73/75. I have very similar and not even a sniff.

I guess the industry is still well and truly over supplied......

SMARTCOL
You should get an email asking you to go online to select an interview date from a selection available. I would assume that an unsuccessful application would also get an email, so no reply is good(?) news.

Thanks Macdo, I shall keep the fingers and toes crossed then ! :)

Macdo, on the previous page you said the email invites had been sent, now you're also suggesting there is a 'rejected' email.

It seems there are a few of us with neither. Will they be having a second round if they don't get the numbers they want from the first batch of interviews?

In my experience, having received them all, their are 3 responses;

1. Please come for an interview.

2. We are impressed with your application but can't offer you an interview at this time. We will keep you on file for 6 months and contact you should an opportunity become available.

3. PFO.

The PFO's tend to go out first. The longer you wait the better your chances of a getting an opportunity. Might not be the same for everyone but that is how it was for me.

Only other advice I can give is that the SHL OPQ forms a reasonable part of the interview. It highlights strengths and weaknesses which you will be questioned on in the guise of "give us an example of when....". Answer honestly and CONSISTENTLY. The test results will highlight if you have just randomly started clicking boxes and I get the impression it doesn't go down well if the results are not consistent. Questions may be asked by a slightly fierce, but not unpleasant, lady who will expect you to justify what you say and want to know how that made you feel.......Just jump through the hoop and hopefully start swimming!

Good luck

Call sign kilo

You are so funny, aha, ha ha ! What you have described is every airline in the UK, and indeed the world..... There is no pilot utopia anywhere !!!!

From the look of this thread there are more than enough people who think VA has something to offer. Better luck next time in getting into a decent airline like VA or BA !!!!

BIGBAD with the greatest of respect if we are meauring a 'decent airline' by how many 'oh's' and 'ah's' you get from 'the ill informed public' when you say who you fly for and how quickly that persons mind runs away to a carribean island and you being paid £500K a year for the privilege of being there then yes, BA and Virgin are some of Europes most 'decent' airlines.

If you're measuring the job on the basis of pay, job security, actual customer survey satisfaction ( Virgin Atlantic Airways Customer Reviews | SKYTRAX ), it's profitability, it's rostering policy and its likely future then I'm sorry but Virgin Atlantic comes second last for UK airlines just ahead of Monarch because at least I could have a go on a bigger plane.

1000', first part was fact. The second part was assumption based on the comments earlier on the thread. I thinks its reasonable to assume if you haven't actually received a rejection email, you are still in with a chance.

Blackandbrown - what a bizarre and contradictory argument you present !!

I have had experience of several large, regional and foreign airlines and from a pilots point of view the whole package you get at virgin - pay, pension, rostering, lifestyle is better than I have had anywhere else. I am fairly junior there, but I get paid well for working less hard than I did when I operated short haul , my roster once published never changes and I get a good chunk of what I bid for considering my lowly position on the seniority list.

Unfortunately most of the points you make are not quantifiable . The skytrax point is interesting - I have worked for a ME carrier who scores very highly in these type of awards, and I believe some airlines may be able to 'manipulate' these awards by more than just customer satisfaction.

If you can point to the survey your mention that puts VA as the last but one airline in the UK I would be most interested.

Until very recently Kingfisher was a "five star" airline on skytrax - and even now the rating is only suspended.

I'm not trying to have a go at anyone (although I'm sure someone will take offence at that!), but apply to VS if you fancy it and do what is right for your circumstances.

Good luck to all that have applied! :ok:

A Pumps,
Was your application form filled in a similar manner to your above posting? If so then you shouldn't be too surprised if you don't get an interview. Do you never use full stops or commas? Lack of grammar and spelling is often the quickest way to get your application binned!
Vsflight

I thought this site was for sharing information. If so, why are there so many bitchy comments?

Vsflight, you sound like a fun guy to fly with!:)

Irony much?

I removed it
 

Hi A Pumps,

I removed my post, because on second reading it was probably a little confrontational.

However, the gist of it is this:

When I joined VAA, the interview process was a gentle chat with two fine gentlemen (Current Airbus CP and the former overall CP), assisted by someone nice from HR.

Very quickly, things turned nasty in late 2008 and early 2009. The redundancy scenario wasn't handled very well by a couple of newly promoted managers IMHO.

The irony of it is that even those of us who had "done the right thing" and taken sabbaticals in order to mitigate job losses, weren't ever given an honest answer as to whether or not we would actually be redundant or not in the second round of cuts which was looming large.

Where is the irony there? Well, some of us left with quite a decent sum of money (about 7 or 8 months net pay in my case - for <3 years service) and were then contacted to see about coming back 6 months later. I said I wasn't interested in the end.

There is precious little career path for promotion any more. It is truly dead mens shoes. If you join today, I would honestly say you are 20 years away from Command. If you can cope with that timeframe, and can survive the usual cull of 100 or so bods every few years, then you'll love it.

But, if you've got a good, stable job in either seat right now, I'd stay there.

Remember, these are HOLD POOL positions. What does that mean?:ugh:

Hold pools
 

A hold pool position offers no salary, flight pay, leave, career progression, travel benefits or uniform. It is a very uncertain position to hold and can be terminated at the stroke of an accountant's pen. Alternatively it can lead to bigger and brighter prospects. I held one of these positions for eight months back in 2007 and it amounted to nothing more than a 5 minute conversation culminating in 'thanks for everything, but no.' The airline went tits up less than two years later, so maybe I got a lucky

I love these dubious positions so much that I hold one at the present time. I am pretty certain the outcome will be the same, however the airline in question is unlikely to go bust. :ok:

What news???

VIRGIN ATLANTIC CONDITIONS
 

Hi!

I am considering to move to another airline and I would appreciate very much if someone could tell me the actual conditions that Virgin pilots have:

Roster, salary, pension, bases/fleet, staff travel...are they really happy? have they laid off any pilot in the last few years?

Thanks

Not happy chaps at Virgin. 2 rounds of redundancies/demotions/sabbaticals in the last 8 yrs, flat salary (FO take home abt 3k, Cap 5k), ineffective union in bed with management, no career progression for new FOs, LHR base has become posn to GLA for a night then op GLA/MCO/LGW with maybe a bit of extra DH thrown in, .... upshot : avoid VS if you have a better prospect.:(

25 years of continuous permanent employment, pension contributions, pay increment, staff travel, London base...... Yes command prospects a huge let down, but for those applying in 2012, the rest is hard to come by anywhere else.

"25 yrs of permanent employment"
:\:sad:
Unless you were one of the unlucky ones in 2008 eh?

Spider Man
 

You say "25 years of continuous permanent employment"....

Did you not read the previous bit about 2 rounds of redundancies in the last 8 years?

I can tell you, from bitter experience, that it is a fortunate FO in Virgin who has even 5 years of "continuous permanent employment" at Virgin, before a redundancy scare of some kind.

All well and good if an airline expands, but if it is relatively stagnant then you are pretty much at risk for a long, long time.

I agree. Better avoided if you have other options - or are a current Captain.

No, it was posted as I typed. Yes it does sound far from ideal, but for any experienced Boeing pilots seeking permanent employment in the south east right now, its probably the only option on the table. Everything else is Airbus, short term contracting or overseas.

How did it ever get to the point where we have to regard being employed by Virgin as an 'only if you are desperate' option!:{

Macdo,

Not sure anyone said "only if you're desperate" (apologies if I missed it).

It is more an "only if it is a step up for you" kind of job nowadays.

I personally wouldn't dream of giving up a Command in order to sit near the bottom of the VAA seniority list in this day and age.

Sorry, Narrow Runway, I wasn't having a pop at you, more lamenting the state of affairs in our industry where we no longer have any 'employer of choice'. VS, insecure, BA, lamentable new T&C's, TCX, effectively bankrupt,TOM, the axe could fall anytime, EZY, worked til you drop, JSY, trapped in propland forever, RYR, no I can't be bothered to go on. At least 15 years ago, there was the aspiration to work for an airline where you would be well looked after for your toil, VS was one of those. Even with a command and seniority, you are not safe as the demotions at TCX showed this year.
Anyway, let us hope that the world economy picks up soon for all our sakes.:ok:

You left Jet2 off your list there.

A bigger fleet than Monarch or Thomas Cook, it recruits & expands every year, is in profit every year and promotes on ability rather than seniority.

Or am I missing something?

*cough* SEP *cough*

Sorry mate, you were saying?

Kisses ;)

It is probably a newer plane than most of Jet2's fleet and he gets to go upside down...

Like your whining.....

(sorry, it was wide open!)


(crossed posts) - it probably is. It's also younger than most airline fleets out there. While I'm petulantly stamping my feet I'd point out that BA's 73 fleet has a similar average age to Jet2's so we'll have a little less of your ageist,northist chat thank you. :ok:

But saying that I hope to be joining Stoppers pretty soon;)

Announced in the Times today that virgin are looking at launching short haul routes from Heathrow come spring 2013. No mention of a/c type? Maybe just another one of Bransons announcements for the sake of publicity but could be a boost to the numbers they're looking to recruit if it's turns out to be for real

Virgin are looking to go back to Moscow amongst other things

So people with 3000+ hours and a stable job are willing to join a short haul virgin?!?! You're mental if you do.

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/183/Virgin...%20%202005.pdf

Unless this changes, virgin might find it difficult to operate flights to Moscow

jlider pilot

thats the whole point, now bmi have been integrated into BA there is now the opportunity for VS to operate the Moscow service alongside BA...

Blackandbrown - do you have a positive word to say about anything? What if a UK shorthaul job suited someone who is out of the UK keen on coming back to be based near their family. Does that make them 'mental'?

Its interesting to note that when the last application process opened up Virgin had over 500 pilots applying for the hold pool in the space of a week, so some guys can slag Virgin off as much as they like but the bottom line is people still want to work here!!

I'm not saying Virgin is great at the moment as there are numerous issues but overall you could do a dam site worse..

Each to there own at the end of the day and whats right for one person is wrong to another!!

Just got a "hang on, we're swamped with applications, we'll get back to you soon" email from VS.
Pleasantly surprised actually, thought they'd just ignored me because I didn't make the grade.