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.:(