Cathay Pacific
- Thread starter Minima-No-Contact
- Start date
scramjet
Well-Known Member
Excellent! Congrats! Cathay is on my list of desirable overseas airlines.
Minima-No-Contact
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the comments guys!
All of what has been said above is correct. The advertised minimums to get an interview are purely that - 'minimums'... I have been applying for 8-9yrs and got a go when I had over 4000hrs and a bunch of jet time.
Even though I qualified to have a shot at Direct Entry F/O, I decided to pass because that is a freighter gig and I want to live in Hong Kong and fly the pax fleet. So S/O was it for me, I got the A340. They are however, doing alot of recruitment for the 777, as they have 18 777 ERs on order. Exciting times!
Upgrade times to FO seem to be around the 2.5yr mark. Guys in the past have had to wait up to 4.5yrs but now is the time to strike at CX (IMHO) if you want to enjoy a couple of yrs in the jump, then move straight onto a A330 or B777 in the window seat.
If anyone has any questions feel free to post or PM me. If anyone is specifically interested in the process I went through, I will post my experiences in detail - just let me know.
Cheers,
MNC
All of what has been said above is correct. The advertised minimums to get an interview are purely that - 'minimums'... I have been applying for 8-9yrs and got a go when I had over 4000hrs and a bunch of jet time.
Even though I qualified to have a shot at Direct Entry F/O, I decided to pass because that is a freighter gig and I want to live in Hong Kong and fly the pax fleet. So S/O was it for me, I got the A340. They are however, doing alot of recruitment for the 777, as they have 18 777 ERs on order. Exciting times!
Upgrade times to FO seem to be around the 2.5yr mark. Guys in the past have had to wait up to 4.5yrs but now is the time to strike at CX (IMHO) if you want to enjoy a couple of yrs in the jump, then move straight onto a A330 or B777 in the window seat.
If anyone has any questions feel free to post or PM me. If anyone is specifically interested in the process I went through, I will post my experiences in detail - just let me know.
Cheers,
MNC
Minima-No-Contact
Well-Known Member
I had a couple of requests to post more info on my Cathay interview experiences, so here goes.
As far as timeframe goes, I was given 5 weeks notice for round one interview which I had in April. A week later I was notified I was good to go for round two which was going to be in July. A week after round two, I called and was notified I was successful and have a class date for Dec this year.
So all in all, there is plenty of time to study and gather notes and once you get the good news, you have a bunch of time to plan your move and say good-bye to your girlfriends!
Interview process – Round one.
Flew to Sydney at my own expense. You sit a 30 min – 30 Question technical quiz, basic stuff that is mostly covered in the study material floating around. Then straight into the Interview, the two guys that quizzed me were thorough but did their best to make me relaxed. HR goes first (20mins) then Tech (25mins) there is no BS’ing these guys, they both know what theyre looking for and if you start telling stories, it will open up a can of worms and you’ll find yourself digging holes for yourself. Best thing to do, is be prepared and be honest.
Interview process – Round two.
Fly to Hong Kong at CX’s expense, and they put you up in their hotel at Cathay City for 3-4 nights and also pay you an allowance, which is more than enough to pay for your meals while you are there and have a few drinks. The Headland hotel was full while I was there, so they put me in the Novotel in Tung Chung – 5 mins away from Cathay City where you spend your two days of interviewing.
Day one – Welcome brief firstly, where you will hand over all of your photocopying of Licences, medical, logbooks etc etc… and you find out about the way things run for the next two days.
Then I went to a sim brief (747-200), in the info pack you receive about a month prior to arriving, there is a few handling notes for the sim and a rough guide on what to do. GET PRACTICE SIM TIME!! When you go to the assessment, you have 30mins to prove yourself, and there is no time to learn the aircraft, when they ask you to do a maneuver you really want to be able to do it straight away without thinking. Invest in a couple hours of practice. Im told the Sim assessment is heavily weighted.
You will takeoff, clean-up, climb to 2500’ while accelerating to 280kts. Steep turns follow, 30 and 45 AOB then vectored to about a 15nm final where you configure for your first ILS. You don’t get visual, so you miss out and come around for another go where you get visual at about 400’ then land. The assessor will not prompt you nor help you too much, single pilot 747 is the way I looked at it, and talked myself through (out lout) any correction I was making. If you aren’t stable, GO AROUND.
After the Sim, it was straight to the interview. After trying to dry out from all the sweat and trying not to look out the window at the awesome views of the airport – you get drilled by HR and Tech for about an hour. Same format as round one, but I found it much more intense. You get absolutely no feedback on answers, so again… don’t BS them. If you don’t know something – say so.
Day one ended with a briefing from the Flight Crew Resource Manager. By this time you are exhausted, so staying awake is hard! But this guy had some very good info on the company and HK itself, if you have a partner you take them and they have the chance to have any queries answered too. Brief your partner on the importance of doing their research and not asking stupid questions. There was a girlfriend of one of the guys there that showed up with thongs and a summer dress. While the other wives/partners looked very smart and certainly looked the part.
Day Two – Kicked off with a group exercise. Not much you can do to prepare for this one. Use your common sense and obviously don’t be the one that sits in the corner, nor the one that is overbearing and doesn’t listen to anyones suggestions. Two HR managers observe, but you forget theyre there. A 45 min exercise that flies by.
Moving onto the Medical, extremely thorough. ECG, Eyes, Blood, Urine… Cough… etc. If you have a history of any health probs, take supporting evidence because they will get you to chase it up anyway before they offer you a position.
Then onto the Math/Pyschometric eval. The maths is pretty straight forward, I brushed up on High School stuff for prep. 33 Questions in 30mins then Physc was 187 Questions in 30mins.
The two days ends with a Cocktail party on the top floor of the Headland hotel. Spectacular views! This 90 minutes is still very much part of the interview process so its an exercise in common sense – don’t take advantage of the free alcohol. My group had 1 beer each and plenty of water. The applicants with partners there seem to get most of the attention and it’s a chance to prove to the management types that they will fit into HK and its also a chance for them to talk about what they’ve been doing while you have been hard at work in the sim! Ie-looking at housing, using the public transport, talking to other expats about schooling, shopping etc.
A week later, YOU ring THEM for the news. At the moment, if its good news – you will be looking at roughly 4-6 months to a start date. I got A340, others got 744 and quite a few are getting 777. They have 18 777ER’s arriving so they have a lot of slots opening up. And upgrade times to FO are now just over 2yrs.
Out of my group, the majority were Australian. I met a Canadian and one guy from Europe. Most guys were flying turboprops and had around 4000-5000hrs. Only me and another guy had jet time.
I had the chance to meet an American Captain while waiting for my medical, who had taken a base in LA and during his 12 yrs with the company, only lived in HK for about 4yrs.
For getting ready, read and do the following:
How to Prepare for your Cathay Interview – Capts XYZ
Revise ATP notes – specifically high speed flight, meteorology
Handling the Big jets. (A must!)
Climatology for Airline Pilots
2hrs sim practice
Dress to impress the whole time you are at Cathay city
Drink heaps of water, its an exhausting and dehydrating process
I studied my ass off from the day I got offered round 1, the process is much more enjoyable and less stressful if you are prepared.
Cathay put you on full salary from day one. You spend four weeks in Adelaide (Aust) for your licence conversion and HK Instrument rating. Then head up to HK for your ground school, where you live in the Headland Hotel (at Cathay City) until you find your own accom.
Cathay will pay your rent/mortgage for you and pay almost doubles after 3yrs.
I hope this info helps, if I’ve left anything important out I’ll try to ad to it later.
Cheers,
MNC
As far as timeframe goes, I was given 5 weeks notice for round one interview which I had in April. A week later I was notified I was good to go for round two which was going to be in July. A week after round two, I called and was notified I was successful and have a class date for Dec this year.
So all in all, there is plenty of time to study and gather notes and once you get the good news, you have a bunch of time to plan your move and say good-bye to your girlfriends!
Interview process – Round one.
Flew to Sydney at my own expense. You sit a 30 min – 30 Question technical quiz, basic stuff that is mostly covered in the study material floating around. Then straight into the Interview, the two guys that quizzed me were thorough but did their best to make me relaxed. HR goes first (20mins) then Tech (25mins) there is no BS’ing these guys, they both know what theyre looking for and if you start telling stories, it will open up a can of worms and you’ll find yourself digging holes for yourself. Best thing to do, is be prepared and be honest.
Interview process – Round two.
Fly to Hong Kong at CX’s expense, and they put you up in their hotel at Cathay City for 3-4 nights and also pay you an allowance, which is more than enough to pay for your meals while you are there and have a few drinks. The Headland hotel was full while I was there, so they put me in the Novotel in Tung Chung – 5 mins away from Cathay City where you spend your two days of interviewing.
Day one – Welcome brief firstly, where you will hand over all of your photocopying of Licences, medical, logbooks etc etc… and you find out about the way things run for the next two days.
Then I went to a sim brief (747-200), in the info pack you receive about a month prior to arriving, there is a few handling notes for the sim and a rough guide on what to do. GET PRACTICE SIM TIME!! When you go to the assessment, you have 30mins to prove yourself, and there is no time to learn the aircraft, when they ask you to do a maneuver you really want to be able to do it straight away without thinking. Invest in a couple hours of practice. Im told the Sim assessment is heavily weighted.
You will takeoff, clean-up, climb to 2500’ while accelerating to 280kts. Steep turns follow, 30 and 45 AOB then vectored to about a 15nm final where you configure for your first ILS. You don’t get visual, so you miss out and come around for another go where you get visual at about 400’ then land. The assessor will not prompt you nor help you too much, single pilot 747 is the way I looked at it, and talked myself through (out lout) any correction I was making. If you aren’t stable, GO AROUND.
After the Sim, it was straight to the interview. After trying to dry out from all the sweat and trying not to look out the window at the awesome views of the airport – you get drilled by HR and Tech for about an hour. Same format as round one, but I found it much more intense. You get absolutely no feedback on answers, so again… don’t BS them. If you don’t know something – say so.
Day one ended with a briefing from the Flight Crew Resource Manager. By this time you are exhausted, so staying awake is hard! But this guy had some very good info on the company and HK itself, if you have a partner you take them and they have the chance to have any queries answered too. Brief your partner on the importance of doing their research and not asking stupid questions. There was a girlfriend of one of the guys there that showed up with thongs and a summer dress. While the other wives/partners looked very smart and certainly looked the part.
Day Two – Kicked off with a group exercise. Not much you can do to prepare for this one. Use your common sense and obviously don’t be the one that sits in the corner, nor the one that is overbearing and doesn’t listen to anyones suggestions. Two HR managers observe, but you forget theyre there. A 45 min exercise that flies by.
Moving onto the Medical, extremely thorough. ECG, Eyes, Blood, Urine… Cough… etc. If you have a history of any health probs, take supporting evidence because they will get you to chase it up anyway before they offer you a position.
Then onto the Math/Pyschometric eval. The maths is pretty straight forward, I brushed up on High School stuff for prep. 33 Questions in 30mins then Physc was 187 Questions in 30mins.
The two days ends with a Cocktail party on the top floor of the Headland hotel. Spectacular views! This 90 minutes is still very much part of the interview process so its an exercise in common sense – don’t take advantage of the free alcohol. My group had 1 beer each and plenty of water. The applicants with partners there seem to get most of the attention and it’s a chance to prove to the management types that they will fit into HK and its also a chance for them to talk about what they’ve been doing while you have been hard at work in the sim! Ie-looking at housing, using the public transport, talking to other expats about schooling, shopping etc.
A week later, YOU ring THEM for the news. At the moment, if its good news – you will be looking at roughly 4-6 months to a start date. I got A340, others got 744 and quite a few are getting 777. They have 18 777ER’s arriving so they have a lot of slots opening up. And upgrade times to FO are now just over 2yrs.
Out of my group, the majority were Australian. I met a Canadian and one guy from Europe. Most guys were flying turboprops and had around 4000-5000hrs. Only me and another guy had jet time.
I had the chance to meet an American Captain while waiting for my medical, who had taken a base in LA and during his 12 yrs with the company, only lived in HK for about 4yrs.
For getting ready, read and do the following:
How to Prepare for your Cathay Interview – Capts XYZ
Revise ATP notes – specifically high speed flight, meteorology
Handling the Big jets. (A must!)
Climatology for Airline Pilots
2hrs sim practice
Dress to impress the whole time you are at Cathay city
Drink heaps of water, its an exhausting and dehydrating process
I studied my ass off from the day I got offered round 1, the process is much more enjoyable and less stressful if you are prepared.
Cathay put you on full salary from day one. You spend four weeks in Adelaide (Aust) for your licence conversion and HK Instrument rating. Then head up to HK for your ground school, where you live in the Headland Hotel (at Cathay City) until you find your own accom.
Cathay will pay your rent/mortgage for you and pay almost doubles after 3yrs.
I hope this info helps, if I’ve left anything important out I’ll try to ad to it later.
Cheers,
MNC
chris
Well-Known Member
Thanks again for the feedback MNC!
One other thing I was wondering.... how do the tech questions from the 1st interview differ from the 2nd? It sounds like the 2nd one is more intense. Did they have a/c models of the 747 or 340 and have you identify the engines, differences between a/c, etc during the 1st or 2nd?
I know in the past most questions were based on the 744 (i.e. discuss the RB211s, fuel management system on the 744, etc); however, did they ask you tech questions about the 340 or 777?
One other thing I was wondering.... how do the tech questions from the 1st interview differ from the 2nd? It sounds like the 2nd one is more intense. Did they have a/c models of the 747 or 340 and have you identify the engines, differences between a/c, etc during the 1st or 2nd?
I know in the past most questions were based on the 744 (i.e. discuss the RB211s, fuel management system on the 744, etc); however, did they ask you tech questions about the 340 or 777?
Please excuse my ignorance, but what is a SO on a two-men cockpit?
Isn't SO the FE?
Maximilian_Jenius
Super User
Please excuse my ignorance, but what is a SO on a two-men cockpit?
SO=Second officer!
As an SO, I believe you would pretty much just watch things in the cockpit and maybe sit right seat while the captain and FO are sleeping.
Not sure if you get to do takeoff's and landings. Me thinks not.
Minima-No-Contact
Well-Known Member
Here is an example of the type of Questions I was asked during both interviews. In the 2nd interview, there was a B744 model on the desk, other guys had an Airbus, some had both.
Stage one:
HR
- Tell us about yourself
- Why Cathay?
- Why not just stay in Australia and fly for a national carrier?
- Tell us about your current job, what do are your responsibilities when you arrive?
- What don’t you like about your current job?
- High points of your career?
- Any emergencies? And anything you would do differently looking back?
- Where about in North America does Cathay fly?
- Current Cathay fleet numbers and orders
- How many aircraft and staff does my current employer have?
- What will you do in your spare time in Hong Kong?
- How will your lifestyle change?
- How many people live in Hong Kong?
- Have any significant things happened at Cathay in the last 12 months?
- Who else have you applied too? What if they offered you a job the same time we did?
TECH
- Explain the hydraulic system in your current aircraft
- We then discussed a hydraulic failure, implications and considerations
- What do you know about typhoons?
- What happens to air pressure and temperature above a typhoon, and what would happen to your aircraft performance above a typhoon?
- Considerations for departing or arriving in severe weather like a typhoon?
- Talked about the differences between warm and cold fronts
- Which way do the pressure systems (High/Low) rotate in the Sthn/Nthn Hemisphere?
- Types of aquaplaning? What is the formula for working out the speed your aircraft will actually aquaplane on a wet runway?
Ended with them asking if I had any Questions for them.
Stage two:
HR
A lot of repeated questions from round one, only this time they seemed to press on with it a bit further
- Why Cathay?
- Have you interviewed with any other airlines recently?
- Who have you applied too? What if they offered you a job at the same time we did?
- Why would you want to live in Hong Kong?
- How will you adapt, being away from family and friends?
- Do your parents support your move?
- What is your relationship with your parents?
- If there is one characteristic about yourself that you’d change, what is it?
- How many Cathay pilots do we have?
- Where do you think Cathay is headed over the next 10yrs?
- Are you single/married/partner?
- What don’t you like about your current employer?
- Tell us about the job you had before the last one
- Do you know who the current Manager of Flight Ops is at Cathay?
- Are you bonded to your current employer? Can you afford to pay it out if we offer you a job?
- What are the main nationalities of our pilots at Cathay?
TECH
He started by second guessing a few of my answers from HR, just to push me to see if I’d change the answers I think. Then moved onto the following questions which seemed to be discussion points that lead into other questions, rather than quick answer type questions.
- This model of the 744 has swept wing, why?
- Tell me about why swept wing aircraft actually allows the aircraft to fly faster
- What are the advantages/disadvantages of pod mounted engines versus rear mounted engines?
- Tell me about a deep stall?
- What happens to the engines with all turbulent air entering the engines? Auto-ignition etc…
- Tell me about the engines on your aircraft
- Tell me what the MTOW / MLW / MZFW of your current aircraft is?
- What type of flaps and leading edge devices does the 744 have?
- Tell me about a balanced field calculation, what are the considerations?
- Why does screen-height reduce with a wet rwy? What is the definition of screen height?
- Talk about a RTO on a wet runway, what parts of the runway can be used to stop? Ie – discussed stopway/clearways etc.
- Rate your simulator assessment you just did out of 10?
- Wet runway consideration, what is the best way of slowing an aircraft initially? Reversers, brakes or spoilers?
- What speed does your current aircraft aquaplane at? How did you figure that speed out?
- What is worse, aquaplaning during landing or takeoff?
- While you are climbing at a constant IAS, what happens to MACH and TAS?
- At IAS/MACH change-over, what happens to IAS and TAS when maintaining a constant MACH in the climb?
It ended with them asking if I had any questions for them again, then we wrapped up and I got to go and de-stress!
S/O: Second Officer, cruise relief pilot - required for ultra longhaul flying. Fully type rated position, and will fly the sim with the same required results as a F/O but will not get to be in control of the aircraft in the takeoff or landing.
Hope some of the info helps guys,
Cheers!
Stage one:
HR
- Tell us about yourself
- Why Cathay?
- Why not just stay in Australia and fly for a national carrier?
- Tell us about your current job, what do are your responsibilities when you arrive?
- What don’t you like about your current job?
- High points of your career?
- Any emergencies? And anything you would do differently looking back?
- Where about in North America does Cathay fly?
- Current Cathay fleet numbers and orders
- How many aircraft and staff does my current employer have?
- What will you do in your spare time in Hong Kong?
- How will your lifestyle change?
- How many people live in Hong Kong?
- Have any significant things happened at Cathay in the last 12 months?
- Who else have you applied too? What if they offered you a job the same time we did?
TECH
- Explain the hydraulic system in your current aircraft
- We then discussed a hydraulic failure, implications and considerations
- What do you know about typhoons?
- What happens to air pressure and temperature above a typhoon, and what would happen to your aircraft performance above a typhoon?
- Considerations for departing or arriving in severe weather like a typhoon?
- Talked about the differences between warm and cold fronts
- Which way do the pressure systems (High/Low) rotate in the Sthn/Nthn Hemisphere?
- Types of aquaplaning? What is the formula for working out the speed your aircraft will actually aquaplane on a wet runway?
Ended with them asking if I had any Questions for them.
Stage two:
HR
A lot of repeated questions from round one, only this time they seemed to press on with it a bit further
- Why Cathay?
- Have you interviewed with any other airlines recently?
- Who have you applied too? What if they offered you a job at the same time we did?
- Why would you want to live in Hong Kong?
- How will you adapt, being away from family and friends?
- Do your parents support your move?
- What is your relationship with your parents?
- If there is one characteristic about yourself that you’d change, what is it?
- How many Cathay pilots do we have?
- Where do you think Cathay is headed over the next 10yrs?
- Are you single/married/partner?
- What don’t you like about your current employer?
- Tell us about the job you had before the last one
- Do you know who the current Manager of Flight Ops is at Cathay?
- Are you bonded to your current employer? Can you afford to pay it out if we offer you a job?
- What are the main nationalities of our pilots at Cathay?
TECH
He started by second guessing a few of my answers from HR, just to push me to see if I’d change the answers I think. Then moved onto the following questions which seemed to be discussion points that lead into other questions, rather than quick answer type questions.
- This model of the 744 has swept wing, why?
- Tell me about why swept wing aircraft actually allows the aircraft to fly faster
- What are the advantages/disadvantages of pod mounted engines versus rear mounted engines?
- Tell me about a deep stall?
- What happens to the engines with all turbulent air entering the engines? Auto-ignition etc…
- Tell me about the engines on your aircraft
- Tell me what the MTOW / MLW / MZFW of your current aircraft is?
- What type of flaps and leading edge devices does the 744 have?
- Tell me about a balanced field calculation, what are the considerations?
- Why does screen-height reduce with a wet rwy? What is the definition of screen height?
- Talk about a RTO on a wet runway, what parts of the runway can be used to stop? Ie – discussed stopway/clearways etc.
- Rate your simulator assessment you just did out of 10?
- Wet runway consideration, what is the best way of slowing an aircraft initially? Reversers, brakes or spoilers?
- What speed does your current aircraft aquaplane at? How did you figure that speed out?
- What is worse, aquaplaning during landing or takeoff?
- While you are climbing at a constant IAS, what happens to MACH and TAS?
- At IAS/MACH change-over, what happens to IAS and TAS when maintaining a constant MACH in the climb?
It ended with them asking if I had any questions for them again, then we wrapped up and I got to go and de-stress!
S/O: Second Officer, cruise relief pilot - required for ultra longhaul flying. Fully type rated position, and will fly the sim with the same required results as a F/O but will not get to be in control of the aircraft in the takeoff or landing.
Hope some of the info helps guys,
Cheers!