So, Joanne responded to the 3 questions in my email.

I am not aware of the timeline for interviews for the Vancouver FIR

You would receive an invitation in the same format as you did for the testing session

And she confirmed that we would no longer have a phone interview.

Thanks for the update, @hopefulguy. I hope that they don’t schedule them for when either of us are out of town.
If anyone hears about potential dates for the next round of interviews in Vancouver, please let us know.

Well, as of today, my file was moved back from YWG to YVR after successfully completing the in-person assessment in YWG. Back in the YVR pool.

I tried asking about an interview timeline, but it sounds like no dates are set yet. Hoping either April or July-Sept time frames.

Got an email for interview dates! So excited.

hopefulguy wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2019 9:10 pm Got an email for interview dates! So excited.

I got mine yesterday. Still a little Can't wait and counting down the days! Congrats

hopefulguy wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2019 9:10 pm Got an email for interview dates! So excited.

When are you booked in for? I'm booked info this Wednesday morning. Are you before or after that? Also, what are you doing to prep?

YVRFlier wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2019 9:46 pm

hopefulguy wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2019 9:10 pm Got an email for interview dates! So excited.

I got mine yesterday. Still a little Can't wait and counting down the days! Congrats

Congratulations. When are you booked in for? I've got mine on Wednesday (26th) first thing in the morning. Also, what are you doing to prep?

aslam wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2019 1:44 pm

hopefulguy wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2019 9:10 pm Got an email for interview dates! So excited.

When are you booked in for? I'm booked info this Wednesday morning. Are you before or after that? Also, what are you doing to prep?

I had my interview on the 20th. It went okay, not great but not absolutely horribly, although I am less confident now than I had been the previous few months waiting for the interview.

The interviewers told us not to talk about the interview much, and we weren't allowed to bring notes from the interview back. But hopefully they don't mind me sharing a post someone else made like a year ago...

wanderlust_xx wrote: ↑Tue Nov 27, 2018 10:22 pm yah I think she said end of the week or early next week whether I passed or not.
Not sure when/if stream will be assigned at the same time. I think stream is assigned late?
Lisa, any input on that?

Honestly, they were very nice...

They will ask you to talk about yourself.
what stream you would like and why
5-6 behavioural questions "describe a time when"
and basic knowledge about the company

after they talked about the upcoming courses, general info, and asked if I had any questions for them.
it was pretty straight forward!

good luck and let us know how it goes!!!

Also, what was really disappointing for me was that the interviewer said that because of contract negotiations, there are no VFR courses planned for the forseeable future (maybe not even for the 18 months that our applications remain active). Can you help confirm this at your interview? Also a confirmation on the dates for the next FSS/IFR classes would be much appreciated.

From what I remember, there's a 4-person FSS planned in october, and another one sometime early next year, and an IFR class in april.

Also, what was really disappointing for me was that the interviewer said that because of contract negotiations, there are no VFR courses planned for the forseeable future (maybe not even for the 18 months that our applications remain active). Can you help confirm this at your interview? Also a confirmation on the dates for the next FSS/IFR classes would be much appreciated.

I'm currently waiting got the next in-person assessment in YVR. Your comment above doesn't sound very promising for any responses soon. I'm interested in FSS and VFR. I guess it's a little frustrating when your interview is quite a few months after the assessment, as compared to other regions where it seems to be a couple weeks after.

Thanks for keeping us updated hopefulguy!

hopefulguy wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2019 5:16 pm
Also, what was really disappointing for me was that the interviewer said that because of contract negotiations, there are no VFR courses planned for the forseeable future (maybe not even for the 18 months that our applications remain active). Can you help confirm this at your interview? Also a confirmation on the dates for the next FSS/IFR classes would be much appreciated.

From what I remember, there's a 4-person FSS planned in october, and another one sometime early next year, and an IFR class in april.

Did my interview today and I feel pretty good about it. Of course there were a couple things I realized I should have said that I thought about after I left but that always happens. And I struggled to come up with a good scenario for one of the questions but overall I think I did pretty well. However just due to my prior work as an independent consultant, I've done a ton of interviewing so I'm fairly confident in those settings.

As to your questions, here's what I heard from them:

He confirmed for me that they will be having an FSS course in October and another one early next year. He also confirmed for me that he runs IFR classes pretty much every April and that is expected to continue as such. Regarding VFR, he also told me that the current collective agreement has expired and so they aren't scheduling any more of those courses until a new agreement is in place. He told me that generally when he has run VFR courses, he is placing for anything that is a Grade 3 or lower tower (that's everything in the FIR except for YVR and YYJ). That is because the old collective agreement had a freeze on Grade 3 and above.

What another controller told me is that if the new agreement removes that freeze, then you can expect to see a whole bunch of existing controllers bidding to go and work at YVR or YYJ (more money, more overtime and the possibility of doing night shifts). In that case, it'll create demand for positions at lower grade towers which will create an increased demand for VFR controllers in general and that will mean they will need to run some big training cohorts. But the short answer is that, yes, don't expect a VFR course in the next few months. If you want VFR only, then you better expect to wait a while and even risk timing out. If you're willing to take IFR, then you might want to do that. And if you're streamed FSS, none of this matters or affects you.

Good luck to anyone else who has their interview coming up. I can confirm that the advice provided by wanderlust_xx previously is correct, btw.

Hey @aslam, thanks for the update.

I actually really like the prospect of a grade 3 or lower tower, because it seems to be the perfect balance between stress, flexibility and salary. Plus most of the towers are in lower mainland, which is awesome. The only one I was iffy about is prince george, but I just went there during tree planting last month, and it was a beautiful little city and the prices were super dirt cheap. I probably won't even want to move to a bigger tower even given the opportunity.

It sucks now that we can't see our streams like before, cuz if I was streamed FSS then there's no need to even consider waiting for a VFR spot, but if I was streamed IFR, I really might want to wait it out and take a chance. Can always take a course if it's getting close to the deadline (assuming we get offered one...)

Which made me realize I actually have a question. How does the 18 month work exactly? Is it from our interview date or from the date we receive a red light or green light? Or is it from some other date? And Let's say our 18 months ends in January 2021, but offers for the April 2021 IFR course went out in december 2020. Do we still have a chance for a seat in that class? Or is that outside of the 18 months limit? Basically, is the limit on the course start date or the course offer date?

hopefulguy wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2019 9:50 pm Hey @aslam, thanks for the update.

I actually really like the prospect of a grade 3 or lower tower, because it seems to be the perfect balance between stress, flexibility and salary. Plus most of the towers are in lower mainland, which is awesome. The only one I was iffy about is prince george, but I just went there during tree planting last month, and it was a beautiful little city and the prices were super dirt cheap. I probably won't even want to move to a bigger tower even given the opportunity.

It sucks now that we can't see our streams like before, cuz if I was streamed FSS then there's no need to even consider waiting for a VFR spot, but if I was streamed IFR, I really might want to wait it out and take a chance. Can always take a course if it's getting close to the deadline (assuming we get offered one...)

Which made me realize I actually have a question. How does the 18 month work exactly? Is it from our interview date or from the date we receive a red light or green light? Or is it from some other date? And Let's say our 18 months ends in January 2021, but offers for the April 2021 IFR course went out in december 2020. Do we still have a chance for a seat in that class? Or is that outside of the 18 months limit? Basically, is the limit on the course start date or the course offer date?

I just did my interview this morning. Same as the rest of you. I feel confident moving forward. As for the 18months, I asked. It will be 18months from your interview date to make it to the next stage. This is the OFFER. So as long as you get the offer, that moves you to the next stage, even if the start date is past the 18 months.

I don't recall when they said we would know interview results. Does anyone know the timeline? The suspense is killing me.

Maverick18 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 11:52 am I don't recall when they said we would know interview results. Does anyone know the timeline? The suspense is killing me.

When I did my interview Blair told me that I should expect to get results by late July. Last I checked, however, my status still says Interview and I’ve received no email indicating a change in status. Hopefully results (positive ones) will come any day now.

aslam wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 10:49 pm When I did my interview Blair told me that I should expect to get results by late July. Last I checked, however, my status still says Interview and I’ve received no email indicating a change in status. Hopefully results (positive ones) will come any day now.

Yeah, I'm in the same boat - no email & status still says interview. Hoping to get good news soon. Best of luck!

Maverick18 wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2019 10:04 pm

aslam wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 10:49 pm When I did my interview Blair told me that I should expect to get results by late July. Last I checked, however, my status still says Interview and I’ve received no email indicating a change in status. Hopefully results (positive ones) will come any day now.

Yeah, I'm in the same boat - no email & status still says interview. Hoping to get good news soon. Best of luck!

Ugh, I've been checking myworkplace and here literally daily hoping to see an update. I was excited to see there was activity here, only to be to find out everyone is still in the same spot as I.

I was told that after the final interview (being July 19th.... Mine was June 27th) that we would get an update in a week to ten days. It's been almost 3 weeks. I'm assuming, or hoping really, that not getting the "red light-please try again" is a positive sign at this point. Like Aslam is saying, the suspense is killing me lol

Hopefully something positive comes soon!

I was told we'd get our results soon after the last interviews are over, like july 20something.

But yeah, I didn't even check my account, I figured if results were out there would be people posting here so I just have a tab of this forum open and f5 it once a day lol.

Well, I received an email informing that I did not make it, so if you guys didn't receive that email, that's probably good news for you. Grats to those who passed and good luck to you guys.

Has anyone heard anything since?

My status has been stuck at 'Completed' since the in-person interview.

shantz wrote: ↑Thu Jan 02, 2020 6:12 pm Has anyone heard anything since?

My status has been stuck at 'Completed' since the in-person interview.

Haven't heard anything since I interviewed in late June, but my status was updated to 'Eligible for Offer' at the beginning of September.

As someone mentioned in another thread, negotiations between NAV and CATCA (the ATC union) are ongoing. Was mentioned in the interview that this would affect VFR courses put on in the FIR, but sounded like there should still be an IFR course April 2020. Guess we'll see.