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Told I qual for pilot, now I don't?

Scott1867

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I was wondering if anyone with inside recruiting knowledge could help me.  I wrote my CFAT and did, according to the recruiter during my debrief, "extremely well" and that I "definitely qualify for pilot."  I asked to pursue that trade and was told to await an email to discuss Air Crew Selection.  I received an email a week or so ago stating this: "I regret to inform you that since you rewrote the CFAT on 1 Apr 2019 the entry standards for pilot have changed. The pilot occupation is extremely competitive and, although you did well on the aptitude test, you score was not high enough to continue processing you for pilot. Furthermore, there has been a big reduction in the number of open pilot positions."

My question is, are they just telling me that I didn't have high enough scores because all the pilot slots are now full and they want to push me into another trade to fill quotas or do the standards actually change on the fly like this?

I ask this because I applied a few years ago and they said after my first CFAT that I didn't qual for Officer but I could apply for some NCM trades if I would like.  But here's the thing; when I reapplied recently I asked to rewrite the CFAT to increase my chances of getting an Officer slot.  When hearing my rewrite request my file manager stated that "Your scores are about average for most Officer trades including Infantry Officer (which I selected). So a rewrite won't be necessary."  So this whole time I was thinking I didn't make the cut.  What is going on?  I even heard that some slots are prebooked for women and minorities?

Any answers would be appreciated.  Should I hold out and say "No I want pilot.  If I don't qualify then I understand."?
 
Scott1867, the e-mail you were provided is correct and pretty straight to the point. Due to a recent significant decrease in positions for Pilot this Fiscal Year, the trade has become even more competitive and the standards raised accordingly.

Unfortunately, there is more than a sufficient amount of applicants, much more, on the Competition List for Pilot that do meet the new cut-off scores.

If you state that you only want to be processed for Pilot and no other occupations, your application will most likely be closed. Best of luck.
 
Hi Scott1867, I can say that your situation did happen to me too. I did my CFAT in 2018 and I was told that I qualified for all my trades, including pilot. Then, a year later, I get scheduled for my first interview before my ACS and as I sit down to begin, the first thing the recruiting officer tells me is that I do not qualify for pilot anymore and she just wrote it off my file. She said the the CF changed the norms and put it higher. So obviously, I was pretty disappointed at the start of the interview, so she offered me the possibility to redo my CFAT to try to score better. She told me I was about 2 or so points from the new norm. As of for now, I havent redone my CFAT but im planning to do it soon. I found a pretty good app to help you practice if you are ever interested. Its called CFAT Trainer and its on appstore and its liteally the same kind of exercises.

Wish you luck

Tiwill123
 
So I’m switching trades from ACS Tech to Pilot, and to even apply I needed to minimum 30th percentile for Officers to apply for Pilot. I wonder if you apply off the street you didn’t need to be a certain percentile for Pilot, and now they moved it up to 30th percentile like those who apply from the ranks need to be.
 
Yeah I don’t know about that, the process for people who are already in the army is a bit different according to the recruiting officer. She told me it’s even harder to get in when you are already in the army and you want to switch trades because they offer more spots for civilians than for militaries.
 
Tiwill123 said:
Yeah I don’t know about that, the process for people who are already in the army is a bit different according to the recruiting officer. She told me it’s even harder to get in when you are already in the army and you want to switch trades because they offer more spots for civilians than for militaries.

They may offer more spots for civilians but I think there's less applicants from inside the military. I don't know for sure but that's my guess.

For the Aircrew Selection Test, members who are already in the military take the test in Trenton around November. I was offered 7 serials between 4 November and 28 November. With 20 personnel on each serial that's 140 people from inside the military for all competitions (VOT, CFR, SCP, CEOTP, etc...)

Say the pass rate is around 30%, my handy-dandy calculator says thats about 46 people who will pass. It seems like this year there's less external numbers being offered. Not sure what the internal numbers will be.
 
Drallib said:
They may offer more spots for civilians but I think there's less applicants from inside the military. I don't know for sure but that's my guess.

For the Aircrew Selection Test, members who are already in the military take the test in Trenton around November. I was offered 7 serials between 4 November and 28 November. With 20 personnel on each serial that's 140 people from inside the military for all competitions (VOT, CFR, SCP, CEOTP, etc...)

Say the pass rate is around 30%, my handy-dandy calculator says thats about 46 people who will pass. It seems like this year there's less external numbers being offered. Not sure what the internal numbers will be.


I am not quite sure of that statement. People taking the test in November aren’t necessarily militaries. I took it in November and many candidates in my group were civilians, including me. Also, passing the test doesn’t guarantee you a job as a pilot. It is only there to tell if you are good enough and then they use your results to help them calculate your score of competitiveness. So out of those 46, depending on how they did at their interview and the CFAT, they might still be at the bottom of the waiting list after all and they might wait years or they might also never be chosen.
 
There is a thread on the recruiting section where you can find the number of spots left for this year and if I remember well, there weren’t many spots for each given year. The number of spots for the Direct Entry plan was in the 40s and now I saw that there are only 11 spots left for this current year.
 
Tiwill123 said:
I am not quite sure of that statement. People taking the test in November aren’t necessarily militaries. I took it in November and many candidates in my group were civilians, including me. Also, passing the test doesn’t guarantee you a job as a pilot. It is only there to tell if you are good enough and then they use your results to help them calculate your score of competitiveness. So out of those 46, depending on how they did at their interview and the CFAT, they might still be at the bottom of the waiting list after all and they might wait years or they might also never be chosen.
 
There is a thread on the recruiting section where you can find the number of spots left for this year and if I remember well, there weren’t many spots for each given year. The number of spots for the Direct Entry plan was in the 40s and now I saw that there are only 11 spots left for this current year.

I didn't say all serials in November were military personnel. I said all internal serials are in November (mostly).

I just read how nominations were made from 2018/19 and it said 6 serials were dedicated solely to In-service programs, and candidates can be nominated on other serials if there are seats available... so that number from this year of 140 could actually be a lot more.

And I didn't say you were guaranteed a job for passing the Aircrew Selection Test either. If my last post came across that way, my apologies! Speaking of numbers, the other thing to note is that you're only competing against other applicants in the specific competition. So if you want a better chance of being selected, apply for multiple entry routes.
 
All right, my bad Drallib. But I do think applying for different entry plans is a good idea
 
Another thing, I wonder if the selection boards look at the CFAT scores or more at the CFAST scores or a combination of both. In my opinion it would make sense to look at the CFAST scores (for Pilot) since it's very specific to the trade. I wonder how much weight the CFAST score actually holds or if it's just used as a tie-breaker.
 
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