I applied online and immediately received an invite to carry out an online assessment, it was a personality/numeracy and competency based test. It took a little while and some concentration, but it seemed relatively straight forward.
The following day, I received an invite to an assessment day. This was back in February, and I was unable to attend straight away but I emailed the recruitment team who were really accommodating and kept my application on file and emailed me regularly with upcoming assessment dates. I was finally able to attend in July.
What I liked about the assessment was that you got to see the company head office and meet numerous members of staff with first hand experience. You can also have a look around the terminal you could be flying from, it gives you a really good idea about the company and whether you could see yourself working there.
Unlike some assessments I’ve attending for middle eastern airlines, who expect you to make a blind decision based on one PowerPoint alone, I could make a real informed decision.
The day was long , quite a bit of waiting around so bring sandwiches and snacks - this certainly saved me.
I live up north though , and had to be up at 3.3am to arrive on time. So by the time it hit the assessment at midday , I was VERY tired. I would advise staying overnight if you do live quite far , just so you can ensure a proper rest.
The day began with declaring any tattoos and piercings, I have my ear lobes pieces and no tattoos so this literally took seconds to complete and confirm with a recruiter. There was also a reach test before it began, I’m 5’4 and was easily able to complete these barefoot. Take of your blazer jacket if you’re wearing one and just relax really, it’s very simple and you’re guided through each bit.
The two exercises were a group one and a 1-1 role play. There’s a lot of advice here about how to behave during these tasks but I cannot really give the perfect advice for this , I just tried my best to make notes in the group task and to pay attention of the time and try to talk to everyone there.
For the 1-1 there was some text we had to stand up and read before the actual role play began. For me , I didn’t really feel confident that this went well. I acknowledged where I thought I went wrong at the end and hopefully redeemed myself.
The actual tasks did not take too long , but there was about 40 other candidates to get though so we had to wait again.
I found the 1-1 really nerve wracking, second only to the moment they announced who was through to the second part of the assessment. About 15 of us were called and lead into a room, now I’ve read somewhere a few times that the room with sandwiches at the back means you’ve made it through. I looked at the back of the room and there was no sandwiches , but I was successful and went on through to the second stage. So I can dispel that myth right now (lol).
So I was pretty much called immediately into my 2-1 interview. I did make some notes but I was told I was not allowed to used them , they were just a safety net really I did do a lot of preparation before hand. I would say that you’d need to think of really specific examples of the questions they ask , don’t be vague. Think about precise situations , they will push you and encourage you. It’s about 20 minutes here. Then we were to present all the documents that were requested to bring and off we went home.
11am the following morning I received my successful email. Over the moon.
But I will say this , there’s no real way of understanding why some made it through and some didn’t. There is no feedback , you probably will make up your own mind about who will go through and who wouldn’t but don’t be so sure because you may be surprised. I looked at some of the candidates who I believed were really really strong but they did not make it through the day. Just focus of yourself and your own performance, basically.
No matter what happens at your assessment it is an experience into interview processes themselves and a real insight into the company which will help make a really jnformed decision about whether you would even want to work for them in the first place. So it’s a learning curve either way.