Fewer stripes means less weight, better climb performance and lower fuel burn 👍

that could also mean that LTC was doing walkaround while second officer was sitting on the LHS as an observer before LIFUS. Other scenario could be that three striper was the safety pilot as the two striper was having one of his very first LIFUS sectors.

Stripes are a very unclear way of determining experience , you could have 5000hrs of flight time and join BA for example and be a 2 striper as you don’t have “BA” experience….

Indeed, stripes mean very little.
I've worn 2 stripes on the flight deck of a wide body jet where I had more command experience than the captain (4 stripes) and the senior FO (3 stripes) combined!

(this was a rare situation - the FO had been in the company many years, waiting for command - and the captain had recently completed his command training which was also his first command. I had maybe 5000hrs command time from GA and airlines).

They were both consummate professionals, as I would expect.

All the stripes tells you is the position in the company that pilot holds. And even that differs between companies.

No shortage or genuine demand in the UK I’d say, I have UK licence, right to work etc and I still can’t find work.

Interesting, in a time where everybody is hiring, fully sponsored cadet programs are coming back and even easyJet sponsors the type rating for non rated direct entry FOs. At least there seems to be a slightly higher demand there than in the EU, although Eurowings recently offered €30k signing bonus for DEC in Palma, Prag and Stockholm.

Every UK airline is recruiting like mad at the moment, there is a genuine shortage of qualified and experienced pilots. Maybe you’re doing something in mental in the assessment process?

that's the another odd side of the current selection process. What is the point for experienced guys to solve equations, sudoku or to play roleplays in the group exercises??

It’s their train set to decide how and who they want. Tbh, hopefully it nudges out all the CRM nightmares from getting in.

however as demand increases, standards will possibly have to fall.

What you are saying is just a whip on the pilots. i have seen many cases, where guy with very poor CRM skills made it to the Lead captain position or LTC just because he was looking handsome or was having the sweet chit chat with CEO of company :-)

Years ago I attended a screening in Interpersonal, Hamburg
Among us was an A380 pilot who wanted to move back to Europe
He was failed cause he didn't study enough the Skytest
Some years ago, these kind of interviews were just to block weirdos
Now any weirdo or whatever who has time to practice for long time all these tests that can buy online has good chances to pass any assessment

Reading the original post and all of the replies from the author here, I would say perhaps there’s a case of having a very large chip on your shoulder. May I suggest it’s this chip on your shoulder that’s holding back your career and not the cadets and/or the Airlines.

If it’s obvious here, it’ll absolutely stink in-front of a recruitment team.

I don't know how is the situation in Australia but if you follow European companies accounts you will see how proud they are that they have all woman or all non european crew
They post photos all the time
I guess that has also an impact in the selection
I opened a thread about nepotism in pilot selection
A poster that says that he flies for airbaltic admitted that he was hired despite he was not meeting the entry requirements
Food for thoughts

i have no hard feelings at all even it might sound like.
Everything I am sharing here is the experience i observed or experienced myself.

Well aren't you a little Ray of sunshine.

Take a look on my thread
https://www.pprune.org/interviews-jo...ispreloading=1

Pilots claiming that fly for a specific company admitted that were hired without meeting entry requirements
On a brand new fleet of A220 they had 3 runway excursions, one hard landing with AOG afterwards and descend before FAF ending up 800ft MSL at 6.5 nm before the threshold in brussels
One final report for excursion blames among others the pilot selection, rest are pending
..........
investigation has analysed the all available (provided) information about the training process of the pilot involved in the serious incident and suggests that there are potential gaps in the company pilots’ selection, training and checking programs,........

So it seems but no joy for me, clearly something is wrong with me somewhere but unfortunately i never get to know or learn because no feedback is given. I’ve been rejected by BA several times and rarely ever get past initial application for all airlines so I don’t know what mental I’m doing in the assessment process.
I apply for what they’re asking for at the time, I don’t have bucket loads of experience but I am qualified and ready to work. like someone posted earlier, it’s their train set and they can do whatever they like.

Take it with a pinch of salt when people say they can't get jobs. Just having a licence or even a licence with experience doesn't mean they have what they are looking for. Unfortunately someone has to come bottom of every class.

What are they looking for?
For people who don't meet entry requirements but still get invited and pass the assessment?
Or for 1.5m girls with piston experience?
btw since I was 18 years old ( Air Force Academy) I never stayed unemployed for more than 2 months
This doesn't prevent me to say what I see

It might sounds like i am unemployed :-) However it is not the case.