Our comprehensive graduate employment services consist of a bespoke 3-day workshop with our instructors who have a wealth of experience in pilot recruitment. We wanted to share a bit more about what the course covers and thought who better to ask than one of our graduates who did the course, Kieran:
Hi! My name is Kieran and I am a graduate of Leading Edge Aviation.
After being the first course to complete their APS MCC with Leading Edge Aviation, I had finished my flight training and was a qualified commercial pilot with an instrument rating. I had everything I needed to start applying for First Officer positions but didn’t know what to expect when it came to assessment days nor how best to prepare for them. Luckily, Leading edge Aviation offers a Graduate Employment workshop as part of their LEAP course which aims at preparing and supporting their students in landing that all important First Officer role.
The course, which runs over three days, is taught by a team who have a wealth of experience in pilot recruitment and is held at Airspeed house in Oxford. We began day one by discussing what each of us wanted to achieve from the workshop and our previous experience; this allowed the instructors to tailor the course to our needs and make sure we really got the most out of it.
The rest of day one saw us having an in-depth look at the airline recruitment process from start to finish. This was great as it meant I knew what to expect when it came to attending my first assessment day. Using the instructors pilot recruitment experience, we also discussed what airlines were looking for in pilots and how best to display these attributes when we go to our assessments.
Day two began, with a look at our CV’s and cover letters (which we had created prior to the beginning of the course). The instructors reviewed them both, suggesting how best to adapt them to make sure we really caught the recruiters attention. From here, we were then taught about interview techniques where we discussed the best way to structure our interview responses in order to articulate our competency-based examples clearly. This was great as it helped us to prepare for not only future interviews but also the mock interview that we were going to do on day 3!
The day also saw us reviewing group exercise techniques, ensuring that we knew the competencies that airlines would be assessing us on. Teamwork, leadership and communication skills are a few of the attributes that are assessed and we completed a group exercise to practise these. At the end of the group exercise, the instructors once again gave us feedback on what we could work on in the future to really ace our first assessment!
The third day saw us starting with mock interviews. Run like a normal airline interview, the instructors would act as a pilot recruiter asking us a range of questions that we could expect to hear at an airline interview. After the interview, they debriefed us discussing what we’d answered well and what we could work in on the future. This was really helpful as it not only gave me something to work on but gave me the confidence that I was ready for an airline interview. The day ended with us reviewing our personal development plans and also discussing the importance of our online presence – including utilising LinkedIn to its full potential.
And just like that, we were done! Our 3-day workshop was over and our final bit of training at Leading Edge had come to an end. In just three days we had covered everything from airline applications to mock interviews and I left the workshop feeling confident and prepared for my first airline application and interview. As part of the Graduate Employment Services, Leading Edge continues to support us every step of the way. They inform us of any job opportunities while the instructors continue to give us feedback on any CV’s or cover letters that we send over! Now it is time to begin the job hunt and secure my first role as a First Officer!
