Aer Lingus Cadetship 2013

nabanoba

CM175 wrote: »

Still in the dark lads ?
No news for me so far..

Someone on pprune saying they have a friend who's been accepted. Seems genuine enough. Fair play to him!

Future Pilot

nabanoba wrote: »

Someone on pprune saying they have a friend who's been accepted. Seems genuine enough. Fair play to him!

I have had word too someone got one of the January spots. It took quite a while, but it seems like it is all over for most of us now. Officially I still do not know, I haven't received any e-mail or phone call yet since the group assessment. So theoretically there would still be a very small chance, but if so, they better hurry up now.

Flying is my passion and my dream, but in these times it is quite risky to get started. In the past few months I have already spent money to carry on with other things. Money which otherwise may have also been spent, but if they would still intend to call people up now...all that money would be wasted. Whereas a more timely answer could save that and the uncertainty.

So to Aer Lingus, if you intend to run such a programme again, be over with it more quickly. I hope it is clear why. That way you also make sure you do not leave a bad impression. "Great Care. Great Fare". I hope "Great Care" does not only apply to paying customers, but also to those willing to work for you.

That's the final thing I got to say about this. In case there are no further great developments I wish everyone the very best and hopefully I will see you in the skies

icelandflyer

Futurepilot I am in total agreement.

I hope the way AL have treated us here isn't indicative of how they treat their flight crew in general. If so maybe it's a bullet dodged in the long term.

Good luck to the chaps who made it, their patience has been rewarded and it must feel great and I hope their process is a lot less painful now AL only have 20 names to contend with!

However for us, who have no doubt spend £100's on travel, hotels, food and not to mention the time preparing, the fact we haven't even received a consolidation email is frankly unprofessional.

My advice is learn from how BA FPP is run, strict timelines given to FTO's, great communication to those still in the running and those who failed to meet the requirements at each step. Whilst it was refreshing to not have to pay AL money each stage of the assessment, if the BA £250 means a well oiled and communicative process then I feel its money well spent. As both my Group stage and interview stage were poorly run, we didn't start the first stage until 45mins after being told to arrive and similarly I wasn't collected in reception for my interview until 20 mins after arriving 10 mins before I was told. If I make the effort then I'd like to be shown similar respect.

Nuff said.

directPEPOD

Friend of mine got an invite on Friday to the interview after group stage. Pity, but he's already on another airline scheme. He recalls the e-mail began with "If you're still interested..." :pac: This is a full 6 months after his group stage.

PinOnTheRight

This is a full 6 months after his group stage.

Exaggerating slightly?

directPEPOD

Only going off what he told me, I've no idea what the timescales are/were.

PinOnTheRight

He must be. 6 months ago would have been mid-May. Applications only closed at the end of May.

Roblestone

directPEPOD wrote: »

Friend of mine got an invite on Friday to the interview after group stage. Pity, but he's already on another airline scheme. He recalls the e-mail began with "If you're still interested..." :pac: This is a full 6 months after his group stage.

Think your friend is telling fibs the final cadets for January have been chosen. Type in "aer lingus pilot" to twitter. A guy who got the course in January writes about it.

Very unprofessional on Aer Lingus' behalf not to contact the unsuccessful and for us to find out we haven't got it through social media.

If they run their HR department like their Airline I can see it running into the ground!

directPEPOD

I saw the e-mail myself so no fib-telling here - whether you choose to believe me is your perogative. Only trying to give hope to others in this situation as I know how it feels. They were planning the interview for Wednesday or Thursday.

CFM56

If they call me now, think I will get a free class 1 and then tell them..

Future Pilot

directPEPOD wrote: »

I saw the e-mail myself so no fib-telling here - whether you choose to believe me is your perogative. Only trying to give hope to others in this situation as I know how it feels. They were planning the interview for Wednesday or Thursday.

So would that imply that there are still spots open? I mean, could someone who have only attended the group assessment so far be called/e-mailed for further selection?

happy_head

directPEPOD wrote: »

I saw the e-mail myself so no fib-telling here

Then why did you write "if HE recalls correctly the email began with...."

The January spaces have been assigned folks. I'm as annoyed with the whole situation as most of you are here. They will be running another cadet programme in 2015, but I really think I'll give it a miss. This has been six months of phone watching and absolute torture not knowing where I stand. Still waiting on official word, but I am now confident I have not got a spot so I can now move on with my life!

Madpaddy79

New programme in 2015? Is your source a good one?

directPEPOD

happy_head wrote: »

Then why did you write "if HE recalls correctly the email began with...."

The January spaces have been assigned folks. I'm as annoyed with the whole situation as most of you are here. They will be running another cadet programme in 2015, but I really think I'll give it a miss. This has been six months of phone watching and absolute torture not knowing where I stand. Still waiting on official word, but I am now confident I have not got a spot so I can now move on with my life!

Pipe down Columbo - I'm trying to be very careful not to reveal either his or my identity as it may be detrimental to his future and my career. The reason for this choice of wording was that he wasn't on the campus at the time - later that night we had a look at the email while he was responding.

I would have thought that those still waiting would welcome any hope of being offered a place but obviously this is not the case. I am not an 'insider' nor do I claim to be but I am happy to share information as I was in this position once and know how torturous it can be in a quick selection process, never mind something gone on this long. Last time somebody publicised their offer or final interview email and was promptly chastised - so that isn't going to happen. Besides, I don't know what you would need to see to believe anything you read on these forums apart from links to official sources.

Believe me or not, makes no difference to me, I'm no longer a wannabe. But I appreciated information on this forum when I was (second-hand it may have been), and I am returning those favours.

Paxi_R6

I thought it would of only been me who noticed the lad on twitter who got it, Guess you've to be extremely careful what you post online. Good research all the same, but should really challenge your energy else where (Like maybe where you had gone wrong in the process) I'm doing that now myself.

There was word of it running again in 2014 but that was only if they had taken 10 but that number was bumped to 20, so 2015 would be about right yes.

2013- 20 cadets filled their pilot needs
2014-Direct entries fill their needs (40 Is what I heard)
2015-20 cadets fill their needs
2016- Direct entries again??
2017- Cadets??

That's the plan EI have for now anyway. They will have a better indication what they will do at the end of next year maybe? 2016/17 is a long time away so hard to predict now how many pilots they will need, sure they might not need any.

basill

I would say watch this space. I haven't heard anything firm but AL as a general rule runs very tight on crews. The 330 is always run tight and so when expansion occurs we get caught short.

The commercial department is continually on the look out to get us more work in the winter where we have spare airframes. The rumours doing the rounds are that the Novair Carribean work might lead to us flying further afield. Also the CEO was noted as saying at a briefing recently that there are a number of airlines looking with interest at the Little Red operation which might lead to more ACMI work.

At the moment the shorthaul is being held together through the use of contract copilots, many of which are from mainland Europe. Should they leave there will be a need to fill the spots. Also in the last 6-7 years there has been a reasonably constant dribble of guys and gals leaving for other airlines. Historically this wasn't the case.

PinOnTheRight

Just noticed that my Application Status has changed, but not that it gives anymore indication of the state of affairs.

Killinator

For anyone concerned I just got a 'thanks, but no thanks' email from AL.

Looks like their finally putting people out of their misery!

Until next time, folks!.........

GTTDI GOD

Yea just got mine as well...long time waiting!

Bsal

I got mine too.

Calm Observer

Are the emails going to those that made it to the panel interview too? I haven't received one yet but am under no illusions regarding the outcome.

CFM56

Yes, I got mine this morning. I would say the process worked in some ways, because I am not the least bit upset. The process has been so drawn out that any desire I had to work for Aer Lingus has since passed.

Good luck to those who got in, hope you enjoy the course and Aer Lingus..

Anyone fancy the chance of flying an A380 ?

gerire

Calm Observer wrote: »

Are the emails going to those that made it to the panel interview too? I haven't received one yet but am under no illusions regarding the outcome.

Made it to 2nd interview recently

Pfo received this am. Weird feeling had let it out of mind over the few months, then the rush of the call 2 second interview and trying not to get too excited with that. So a little gutted but for family life maybe it's for the best

Mr. Sheen

Best of luck to the chosen cadets.

EI leave a lot to be desired on the recruitment front. If that's how they treat potential employees it makes me wonder are actual employees happy?

Seems nothing changes with them. :mad:

To those that didn't make the cut don't think EI is the be all and end all. They're only a minnow in Europe and are artificially propped up by Ryanair keeping out the competition.

flyingtom86

Received the PFO letter this morning. Thought I'd share an email I received from them last week in response to my attempt to get an answer out of them and portray my frustration at their recruitment process.

Dear X,

Thank you for taking the time to offer us some important feedback on your experience during the Cadet recruitment process. We certainly appreciate your candour. I am disappointed to hear that you feel the process has been handled poorly. From the outset our aim has been to offer as many candidates as possible an opportunity to apply for, what we believe to be, the most sought after cadetship in Europe. We invited over 500 exceptional candidates to participate in the assessment centres and demonstrate their suitability for the programme. This, I’m sure you can appreciate, is an enormous undertaking and logistical task. We remain the only airline in Europe offering 75% of the funding to successful candidates with the opportunity, upon completion of training, to fly our guests on our Airbus aircraft. Our aim has always been to offer this opportunity to as many candidates as we can.

All candidates who did not meet the initial essential criteria have been communicated with. Your application has been progressed over the last number of months due to your performance during the various stages of the process.

Our initial plan was to recruit Cadets for a commencement date of January 2014. Due to the nature of this type of selection process, and the number of applications, it was always expected to last a considerable number of months. This is to afford every applicant the best possible chance of being successful. It was possible to fast-track a small number of the best candidates and they have already commenced training with us.

We genuinely understand your frustration with the associated length of the process and we appreciate the patience that you and other candidates have had.

We expect the recruitment process will be complete by mid December and we will then be in a position to make contact with all remaining candidates who performed well and were invited to the various stages of the recruitment and selection process.

Again, I would like to thank you for your candid email and associated feedback. It will help us for any future campaigns that we hope to run.

Yours Sincerely

Linda Byrne
Cadet Recruitment Project Manager

Mr. Sheen

Hi FlyingTom,

Well done on getting a reply. You obviously hit a nerve with them. There's no excuse for their unprofessionalism (which they admit to by apologising about in the rejection email). When I applied in 2011 I found out I hadn't been chosen by reading The Mirror (they went with a press release before informing rejectees!). Couldn't believe it. I've never seen the likes anywhere else. If they can't handle the processes involved then they shouldn't conduct the scheme.

Needless to say my view of EI is tarnished. Wouldn't want dealings with such an organisation. They did me a favour.

Best of luck Tom!

basill

I've never seen the likes anywhere else

Oh come on grow a pair. If you want to find out what real frustration is then log onto pprune. There you can read about the hold poolers at BA that were swimming for years and have now expired. If they want to reapply then its back to square one. And the BA process is a hell of a lot harder than AL.

You fail to realise that it's the airlines train set and purse and they will choose to do with it as they wish.

The process cost you a bit of time but you can bank that for the next opportunity that comes along and be much better prepared. If you were sitting by the phone waiting then you were misguided from the outset of how the airline business works. You should have your iron in many fires and get on with life. If you are truly willing to put in the hard yards then you will get there eventually.

This is the best gig going as the successful cadets already are discovering.

Future Pilot

I agree that the whole process took too long. In the meantime I had to get busy with other things to work on my future. Some while ago I posted here that if they would itend to call me, they better do it sooner then later since I am spending money to continue with what I am doing...
That is definitely Aer Lingus could consider in the future in my opinion.

Let's just not forget that Aer Lingus does offer a great opportunity indeed. No other airline, not even BA offers to pay 75% of the training costs (of which 25% is to be paid back later), that is absolutely unique. Each and one of us may be suitable candidates for a place in the right seat, but with only 20 spots to fill ofcourse people are going to be disappointed.

Aer Lingus is a relative small airline, so I can imagine their HR department is not that big either. It put things into perspective for me. I feel that they did consider our application very carefully and did not throw us on the rejection list right away, thanks to the e-mail Flyingtom published. We got the rejection mail now... just get over it.

PinOnTheRight

Aer Lingus is still a great company to work for. Agreed, it is not what it once was, but find any other European airline that hasn't changed over the years for the worse. EI still offers the chance of a flying career working with some fantastic people at all levels, and part sponsoring you into that position.

Most of the HR department I believe, has been outsourced. Anytime I have dealt with them and they are allowed/able to answer my questions, they have been more than helpful and pleasant. However, for whatever reasons, be it lack of resources or management, the cadet process didn't run as smoothly or to an ideal time scheme. It sucks, yes, but I'm sure most of those who were replying to the e-mails and phone calls were equally as frustrated at the length of time it was taking to finish the process.

For those who are now going to ignore Aer Lingus for and any future opportunities they offer, then so be, it is your choice. But consider carefully the industry you are trying to enter as you are going to end up ruling out an awful lot more airlines for their morals in the hiring process.

cherrytaz

Also got PFO. Made it to final interview stage out in HQ and thought it went pretty well. Most frustrating part as has been pointed out is the complete lack of communication from Lingus. I was told at interview I would hear in 2-3 whether I had been successful or not. It is now almost 3 months from that interview.

cherrytaz

Sorry to bring up the thread again but has there been any confirmation of exactly how many cadets were taken on? Was it the rumored 20?

ProfessorPlum

cherrytaz wrote: »

Sorry to bring up the thread again but has there been any confirmation of exactly how many cadets were taken on? Was it the rumored 20?

I believe it was 18 in the end. It was to be 20, but due to 'unforeseen circumstances', it was left at 18.

Stemc95

Hey guys i was just wondering if you could help me out? Is Aer Lingus looking for cadets this year or would you know any other airlines looking for them? Much appreciated!

TheBoss11

Stemc95 wrote: »

Hey guys i was just wondering if you could help me out? Is Aer Lingus looking for cadets this year or would you know any other airlines looking for them? Much appreciated!

They could but I doubt it. There hiring low hour pilots this year so they may not need cadets for a few years now. BA recently ran a cadet programme in the last 4 months so I can't see them doing one either. West atlantic would be your best bet I think their running a cadet programme, although I think you might need flying experience if you have any?

Stemc95

Thanks I've tried BA already so thats off the list, yeah I've done quite a lot of lesson

TheBoss11

Stemc95 wrote: »

Thanks I've tried BA already so thats off the list, yeah I've done quite a lot of lesson

If you have experience you may be able to get into west atlantic I'm not too sure on their conditions

another question

Anyone know if Aer Lingus will run a cadetship for 2014?

TheBoss11

another question wrote: »

Anyone know if Aer Lingus will run a cadetship for 2014?

They could but it looks unlikely. There taking on low hour pilots

TheBoss11

Hi guys, just wondering if anyone here for a spot in the last 20? Or anyone who got far into the selection process, could you please PM me if you did.