EMPLOYED!

Hello all!

So since my last blog post, I have been to interview workshops at OAA and had an assessment at Ryanair.

I applied to Ryanair directly through OAA as they are now owned by CAE, who deal with all of Ryanair's applications. I received an email exactly a week later, informing me that I had a date for assessment down at Stansted, which was set as12th September. This allowed me to prepare for the assessment over three weeks and using skills and techniques which I acquired at a 'careers day' that OAA offer to their integrated students, I feel I had prepared to the point of almost having a melt-down.

The careers day is a post graduate facility, which an integrated student at OAA can attend and have someone who is in the airline, either as a pilot or recruiter, who has been through the system with a few airlines, guide you on what the airlines are looking for in a cadet applicant. I found the presentation, all the booklets/handouts and group exercises given to us were spot on. Everything given to me on that day, I felt was of great benefit to guide my preparation for my Ryanair interview and it certainly helped me with my practice HR questions, some of which, I would never have even thought they would ask me.

I arrived at my assessment at Stansted at 9am and was first in the sim with another applicant. I flew first which involved flying a SID, basic handling, emergencies, procedural NDB, go around at MDA, engine failure on the go around into a circuit to land off a visual approach with both engines functional, all of which I felt went quite well. It was my turn then to be the pilot monitoring (PM) whereby I called my flight partners deviations, whether it be on altitude, speed, heading or configuration. Again, it was challenging, however it was everything that I had already done in the MCC/JOC phase on an earlier type (the B737-400 as opposed to the 737-800) and just flew how I had been taught previously!

I was then next into the interview which was extremely pleasant and light hearted, but involved serious HR questions and some tech questions on the 737 systems and engines. We shook hands, I thanked my assessor for his time and headed back up to Preston on the train, recalling and analysing my efforts from the day all the way home.

It has been an agonising wait over the past two weeks, but I am happy to say I got the call from Ryanair on Tuesday (25th September), informing me I had been successful on the assessment! I am due to start my type rating at East Midlands Training on the 19th November (day after my mum's Birthday and day after I passed my driving test in 2008 - just so you know) and then look to start flying passengers early in 2013!

The adventure and dream continues.....