Treat your job interviews like you treat your girlfriends...

I said to a friend a week ago 'Treat your job interviews like you treat your girlfriends, work your charm and don't let them find out about each other'... now my perfect plan is starting to all come apart! 

 

My three major options for next (well ones that need applications and so on anyway) are all coming together a little to well. Malcom Sharp of Sharp Airlines has invited me to an interview in Hamilton (with a free flight from Essendon to Hamilton). Only trouble is Qantas still hasn't gotten back to me, so I don't know as of yet if I will be taking this option up or not. Malcom seems like a genuine bloke who has a love for aviation and passing on the knowledge he has acquired over the years, I definitely do not want to lead him up the garden path, so am hoping that Qantas gets back to me early this week so I know where I stand.

 

To make matters worse the RAAF has called me up to flight screening from the 14th till the 28th - right when the interview was meant to be and also schoolies. So even if I don't get Qantas I am going to have to reschedule the interview. Basically at the moment my next move all hinges on Qantas calling me back so I can work out what I am going to say to Malcom, reschedule or don't bother.

 

Flight screening should be a great experience and well worth missing schoolies week! I will be sure to take a camera and chronicle my thoughts.

Qantas Cadetship

As you will have read on this blog Qantas has had an on-again, off-again relationship with the 2010 Cadetship thanks to the GFC! Finally it was confirmed that the Swinburne Bachelors program would be run next year and applications opened on Qantas' brand new recruitment website. Overall a relatively painless experience, I submitted my first aviation resume and answered the two 100 word questions – Why do you want to be a part of the Cadetship and Describe a stressful situation or something along those lines. The hardest part was providing an in depth response in only 100 words that took me many hours and made me thankful for my trusty thesaurus I got in primary school.

At this stage Qantas goes through your application and I assume culls a number of people. If you are successful you are e-mailed with details of how to complete the OneTest personality and aptitude tests. They were very similar to the ones I had completed with the Air Force and are also similar to the SHL tests Qantas previously used. I am glad I had the practice of the Air Force exams and would definitely recommend any would be pilot put their hat into the ring in year 11, you get to practice tests, interviews and could even win a laptop – obligation free. I attacked the aptitude test aiming to complete as many questions as possible, any I couldn't get almost instantly were left to the end, in the end I had 'answers' for all of the questions (a supposedly unusual occurrence) but I will admit at least 5 were blind guesses! The personality test is odd, as they all are, try to be honest, I was mostly – when I was drawn between two I went to the answer that seemed more pilot like (sticks to rules, has command ability but is easy to get along with). A friend did not make it past this stage, he blames trying to pick the best answers rather than the honest ones. Do not do it! They will be able to tell, if not in the test but in the interview they will.

The same week I was e-mailed and invited to take part in a telephone interview. I was allowed to book a block half hour time for a 10 minute interview, this interview was a week after Trials so my preparation was a little thin and I was very nervous. 15 minutes into my block a 767 First Officer (FO) called, he explained the process of the interview and did his best to help me relax. He asked the usual behavioural interview, talk about a time you were challenged, worked in a team, worked under pressure etc. etc. He then asked me to discuss what I would be doing on the cadetship and the role of a Qantas pilot. He then have me the opportunity to ask any questions, at this point I only had one and in my opinion it is a killer, 'What is one quality you would like to see in a cadet on his first day of work at Qantas?' He gave a well thought out answer that helped me in my later interview when asked about qualities pilots should exhibit. He seemed impressed by the question so I filed it away for later.

Again at the end of that week I was told (this time by phone) that I had made it to the Assessment Centre stage. Two days the week after I graduated from school at the Qantas Centre an exciting prospect. The first day involved the Medical Assessment and the confirmation of my OneTest results and further testing. The medical assessment costs $150 to be paid by Bank Cheque. Read that again BANK cheque. I had no idea that a bank cheque was different from a personal cheque but luckily mum, the accountant of the family, was reading the documentation and told me of the difference. Unfortunately, this was Sunday, Monday was a public holiday and Tuesday was the day of the medical. Thanks to some mad running around by me and dad the (early) morning of the assessment we managed to attain one – don't make the same mistake, I was a little more than jumpy after that.

The next challenge was getting from the Qantas Centre (QCC) to the Jet Base where the medical was to be conducted. You have to catch a shuttle bus from outside the QCC entrance, the only trouble is there are also buses running to the domestic and international terminal and god knows where else as well. Luckily a friendly engineer (by his dress) pointed me in the right direction and it was a painless experience. The medical was quick and professional, what I would have expected from Defence and better. The doctor was lovely and seemed very knowledgeable a great experience and really relaxed me for the rest of the day – oh and I passed.

After catching the bus back to QCC I had more than enough time for a long lunch in the cafe across the road that I had found on work placement. This gave me time to review my notes for the interview tomorrow and what little preparation I could do for the tests. Waiting in the lobby of QCC I met another candidate, a lovely girl who held a commerce degree and had just gotten back from LA, as a Qantas flight attendant! What was initially intimidating became relaxing as we chatted and struck up a friendship, hopefully she makes it through as well. We completed our tests, pretty simple the same tactics apply work quickly and as accurately as possible.

The next day was the dreaded panel interview, I arrived with plenty of time and ran into my new friend leaving her interview, she seemed happy. After being invited up and waiting outside the interview room for what seemed like hours (but was more like 10 to 15 minutes) I was invited in and met Michael Harris, Head of Pilot Recruitment and the two other interviewers, again 767 FOs. They each asked a standard question that obviously was asked to all candidates (again normal behavioural type interviews, there are plenty of lists around the next, particularly PPRuNe) and then each picked a question from a big list to ask me. As I answered the questions they asked follow up questions to clarify points or find out more information. Relax, be clear and concise and answer all the questions as best as possible. Keep track of what you are saying and don't let them muddle you, they are there to see you do well but also want to see how you work under pressure. Finally there was time for questions to be asked by me, I had prepared about 5 (including my killer from the phone interview) and picked the best ones to ask. They seemed impressed that I had written them down ready to be asked.

I left feeling relatively confident. That was two weeks ago, I now have to wait one more week (hopefully no more) to hear from them. Almost certainly I will be knocked back or given a conditional offer. Yet they do leave the door open for me to wait further so we will see. Overall the process was relatively easy and painless, especially compared to Defence – a positive experience.

Fingers crossed!

A Long Time Between Drinks

A shot from the North Norfolk coast from my last trip there

I see this blog has been left dormant for almost three months, not because I am done sharing my thoughts with you, sorry, but because real life has sadly cropped up and taken over. As I have mentioned I am in my last year of high school currently and in the past three months I have completed my trial HSC exams (and did quite nicely) and am currently preparing for the HSC itself which starts for me next Wednesday with English Paper 1.

These three months have been slow and largely uneventful except in the area of pilot training options. I was awarded my ADFA Education Award at school and are coming to you from the Defence provided laptop. I have been through almost all of the recruitment process with Qantas, which deserves a post of its own and am currently considering a new option if that does not work with Sharp Airlines which to deserves a post of it's own.

So that means that at some point in the next 3 months there should be a couple of blog entries heading your way!

Happy Landings and good luck to all my fellow HSC sitters!

Political Allegiance Change

I recent section from 'Strewth' of the Australian Newspaper Graeme Leech wrote a piece that highlighted why the Nationals may be the new libs for me. The idea of Carbon Trading is noble but the way it is being handled will cripple aviation.

A Tax from out of space

AS he probably will be the next leader of the Nationals, it's important to note the utterings of Barnaby Joyce.Yesterday, he donned his space-cadet uniform after watching science populariser Karl Kruszelnicki talking about the chances of a meteorite hitting Earth. On hearing dinosaurs had been killed off by meteorite-induced climate change, Joyce saw the future. "(Kevin) Rudd would have to save the planet with a massive meteorite tax ... he would work out who was going to be affected; that is, people living above ground. He could create a tradeable permit system to live above ground ... and reduce the number of permits each year. This would deliver a market approach to moving Australia underground. If you argued against the scheme Rudd could say that you were denying the existence of massive meteorites and putting all of humanity at risk." Joyce's meteorite reduction scheme will have to wait another day.

Trials and a few Applications

At the moment I am in the middle of a two week block of Trial HSC Exams, all worth about 30-40% of our school assessment mark - nice. The good part about it is though that on Monday I have my last exam. So after 10:30 I am a free man for six whole days! That's got to be good!

The First two exams, as tradition dictates, were English Paper 1 (common across all levels of English) and English Paper 2 (specific to each level). Both two hours and both pushed me for time a little more than I'd liked, but I finished all the essays so I did better than some. Overall, I was probably the best prepared for these exams and none of the questions where that surprising, straight out of the syllabus really.

The next two I had was Drama Practical, where our Individual Project and Group Performance are shown, and Drama Theory. I have no idea how my film went (IP) as we are not allowed to be in the room while they are marked, the GP I think went alright, could have been better but it will do, which is about all I want - I am not a fan of the GP at the moment. Drama theory was well pretty simple, you throw around techniques and evidence of experiential learning and get the marks.

My Thursday was the worst day, Maths and Physics both three hour exams with only an hour break in between. Maths was terrible, I will be pleased to have passed, despite feeling prepared some of the questions I just couldn't do - many of them I know I should have been able to. Luckily, a few of my classmates that I spoke to agreed, so hopefully my ranking is ok. Physics on the other hand was easier than I expected, although I am sure I somehow used a formula needing metres in kilometres despite highlighting all the units in the question so I didn't make that mistake!

Friday I finally came to Modern History. Before the exam our teacher told us that she was expecting a girl, half the class groaned, the other (my half) cheered and money was exchanged. The essay's themselves were pretty decent, I was very pleased with my Russia Essay on Stalin's adaption (or perversion) of communist theory and my Vietnam Essay on the North Vietnamese's tactics. World War 1 I wrote the most I have have for that section, I'm not sure if it was quality though. And our personality study was ably assisted by a page detailing Ho Chi Minh's life as we have only just touched on him in class so hopefully nothing to worry about there.

Right in the middle of Trials Qantas opened applications for the Cadetship! Finally! So now I am madly scrambling around writing 100 word answers to questions that need 500 words to explain, finding the documents required and getting references. Hopefully by about Tuesday I will have my application submitted to them, it is very exciting. I have also been asked to submit my resume and a covering letter to Menzies Aviation, an aircraft cleaning and baggage handling company that I enquired to about getting some part time work. I will definitely need the money that would give me for the Cadetship! I still haven't quite figured out how I would pay for it and where I would live in Melbourne yet.

So with these two applications, my History Extension exam on Monday and going to see Hale and Pace tonight I will have a busy weekend.

Hopefully I will have some exciting news for the next post about being asked to interviews. Until then, I will leave you with a video of Hale and Pace to very funny comedians.