Hmm, I think you might need to lower your expectations of what employment by BA looks like.

Like I said not expecting them to honour it and would gladly drop the holiday to work for them.I only ask as where I live and work currently it is something that happens. thanks for the reply though....

Cruel but fair...:E

Does anyone know if there is a plan, or likelihood, that BA will run the scheme for newly qualified pilots this year?

This is purely my opinion, but I suspect the recruitment plans for this year are gong to reduce significantly once the world realises this Coronavirus is already out of control. So I think that is unlikely MaverickPrime. I am expecting a severe cut in capacity with 747s leaving earlier than currently scheduled.

Imho, yes, and a fair few of them too.

back in the real world where more people die of flu than the Coronavirus I would imagine recruitment won’t alter much if at all.

There, I fixed it for you.

The only given in all this is that retirements will continue at a decent rate. On one hand that might mean recruitment continues throughout the year, OTOH if this gets really nasty and the flying plan takes a big hit that attrition might simply mean those pilots already in BA get to keep their jobs.

As someone who is old enough to have has seen up close how BA responded to the impact of Gulf War 1, GW 2, 9/11 etc I will offer one bit of advice:

If you really want to leave wherever you are currently , and you really want to join BA then now is really really is not the time to finesse a joining date....... grab the first start date that BA put on the table.

Wiggy spot on as usual and has seen it all.
Take first offer and do not ruffle their feathers as they will just ring next person on the list.
’when can you start?’ 8.00am tomorrow is the response,not that hard.
FWIW BA May be shying away from MPL licences due lack of SA and teamwork skill set.

Surely thats their training providers fault for not teaching it properly. MPLs are bespoke courses to the sponsoring airlines needs. I would expect BA to tell the relevant ATO to rectify the deficiencies in training rather than just giving up on a chunky investment of time and money. No guarantees taking cadets from elsewhere will result in anything better.

Have the first of the BA MPL cadets started on the A320 yet? I thought the scheme opened in 2018. I know BA city flyer have had MPL cadets for a few years now.

OTOH; and purely anecdotal; the son of a friend of mine was due to fly to the US to start training as a BA cadet the day after 9/11. Needless to say, this was delayed with no indication of when or if it would be reinstated. The employer he had just left took him back and he’s now on the main board of a FTSE 100 company. As one door closes another opens.

YS

SleepyBhudda,You make a very good point but these are three,four years out of school in established airlines both domestic and ME.A colleague recently witnessed the candidate’s CFIT during procedural letdown due turning the wrong way.

Good news for those of you who are crap at flying/CRM/decision-making etc, BA are trialing ditching the sim assessment for a select number of A320 DEPs.

Bad idea and could be expensive long term.
IMHO only one category is capable of that path is RAF.
BTW I’m not ex military.

Don't worry..it's only a trial :bored:...there's obviously no chance of screening by way of a sim being dropped for all candidates, even if a cost saving does get demonstrated....no, no chance at all..:oh:

Interesting.

What's the criteria for these fine individuals?

Anyone else got a start date In May and looking to share accommodation for TR course?

what utter tosh. In my experience ex mil are often the ones that need it the most! CRM and all that!

but that’s another thread.

ditching the sim is a very very bad idea! I think most people at coal face are horrified.

:rolleyes:

:ok:

The only part of the selection that actually assesses the candidate under a bit of pressure while working alongside someone they’ve probably never met and managing the day to a safe and sound outcome regardless of issues coming up here and there. Ie what we actually do every day at work.

And it’s being ditched!

That verbal reasoning garbage is obviously much more valuable!

We’ve seen some odd decisions made in the last few years dressed loosely as anything other than cost cutting, but this is by far one of the most shocking.

I respect your comments 2Whites 2Reds.
Do you have any idea of the Fail rate in the sim up to the time that this decision to waive the sim ride was made.
I understand it only relates to 320 applicants.
My Take is the Group Exercise is the most important element up to the sim.

no idea on the figures I’m afraid. Sorry, didn’t mean to snap. Wrong side of bed this morning.

Like many, I view the sim as a vital part of the recruitment process and I’m appalled they’ve decided to ditch it regardless of background or intended destination fleet. The sim has never really been about ability to fly. But more about navigating your way through a sector to a safe outcome alongside someone you’ve probably never met regardless of what’s thrown at you.

I think we could all do without the computer games and maths tests. But the sim.....bad idea.

Guess which part of the recruitment process costs the most.

Is there anyone who's been offered a 320 job recently who can give me an idea of how long they were in the hold pool? Ta

Please forgive me here but if you can fly a 320 for ezy (majority of 320 rated will be ezy) why can't you fly one for BA?

suppose they want to see a level of CRM which may not be present (lot of easy are ex cadets that don’t do a sim there)

Also the ability to learn/adapt as you go (looking to a future long haul TR)

Why bother interviewing either? If you can pass the interview for EZY then why can’t you pass one for BA?

Coal face Captains getting on the issue and they will have to fly with this elite group without a sim ride and before that sim trainers to satisfy..

Lindsay would never have endorsed the no sim ride idea and Knight will fall on his sword when it comes back to bite him.
The BA sim assessment is different from many carriers flight test in which there are usually four candidates to process in four hours so just fifty minutes each and a blur of faces for the assessor.Fine that’s what Ryan do,Emirates ,CX and works for them.
The BA is two candidates over Five and a half hours including brief,PowerPoint and four hours in the box.
This allows the assessor ,who are chosen for their interpersonal skills to get to know their charges and say to himself a number of questions before making recommendation to accept or reject.
Perhaps the only sim ride which exceeds BA’s scrutiny is Lufty.

My BA sim ride was nowhere near 4 hours in the box. It was about 45 mins pre-sim briefing, 2.5 hrs in the box and a chit chat over a coffee afterwards. Job offer the next day. Pretty much the same as at Ryanair.

Still, a good workout, a good challenge and utterly essential in any recruitment process I’d say.

two weeks to the day from hold pool email to phone call with offer

On paper, maybe. In reality, no it isn’t that.
I certainly didn’t do anything like four hours in the box; as the above post says, a chat over coffee then good news a few days later.

Passing the sim certainly doesn’t make you some elite breed... they let me in 🤷🏼‍♂️

TBH I don’t think it’s the timing that’s bothering people on the line, whether they are trainers or not.

It’s the loss of the ability of a pilot to observe/screen another pilot operating in his/her natural environment that is bugging people....we must now all bow down to the wisdom of HR folks who in all probability will never have to interact with the candidates once they join the airline..

and BTW...it appears to be another example of what a certain CEO meant when he talked about “cost cutting is in (our) DNA”. If those outside BA ( perhaps some of those contemplating joining ) are sometimes puzzled by the grumbles of cost cutting at the company then they would do well to ponder upon this little tip of the iceberg...

Would it not be better to actually do the sim on day one? and ditch those maths and verbal reasoning tests, plus I hardly see what use the computer test actually serves.

The sim and interview surely would be a better way of assessing people.

Well KLM sim is kinda crazy as well,
two day sim,
day one 5hours including 1hour briefing.
day two 5hours including 1hour briefing.

two day sim assessment consist of two candidates.

Wiggy,Two Whites Two Reds.
Good morning and kindly humour me.
HR are trying to wrest control of Pilot Recruitment as it falls under their budget and not Flight Ops.
Its happened before and a Senior TC approached FoD who resisted it at that time.
HR do not understand nor would I expect them to the intensity,dynamic and mental Model required to perform in the simulator.They have minimal concept of terms such as MSA and CFIT.
Pilot Recruitment is Perhaps the only career path that is not exclusively run by HR and they don’t like it that way.
I stand corrected on Knight falling on his sword but if he wants to save his team he had better stand up to the task or it will be the thin end of the wedge.

Morning Phantom4

As Wiggy eluded to above, this sort of thing is just the tip of a very big and nasty cost cutting iceberg.

The short answer is, I think many at Waterside forget what we are. An Airline. And a hugely profitable one at that despite the significant costs involves in flying big aeroplanes around the globe. The back office departments such as HR are simply there to supply admin functions to for the part of the business which actually generates the revenue. Flight Ops. Unfortunately it seems to greatly annoy some at HQ that BA continues to spend lots on flying aeroplanes.

Thats not to say there isn't room for efficiencies...but not when they come at this sort of cost. When I joined British Airlines I started to see some of the daftest things I'd ever seen in my career. Baggage dollies being intentionally left behind aeroplanes, stuck chocks, no stand guidance, crew room staplers locked away at night "just in case" (WTF!!!)...the list goes on (and this was all at our home base). Having come from airlines where this sort of s*** just wouldn't be tolerated on any level I found it tough going for the first year or so. I'd never seen anything like it. Slowly but surely (and as my colleagues promised would eventually happen) these things started to wash over me. Not because I cared any less, but simply that trying to fight the system was pointless and allowing the nonsense at BA to get to you is a recipe for some sort of breakdown at an early age! Unfortunately, there seems to be no end to the appetite for more cost cutting. It's horrible to see from the inside. There's running an efficient business and making lots of money....GREAT....then there's flogging the cash cow until it falls over and dies....NOT GREAT. IAG are firmly on a road to doing the latter if they carry on. Which they will.

Just a quick one about the DEP interview, I have been speaking to a few people and got some info on what questions to expect during the interview from a HR point of view but I was wondering are many tech questions asked during it?
Are these based on your current type or the a320 also?

thanks, been trawling through this forum to see if anyone mentioned it but couldnt see anything so sorry if I missed it!