Meet Tobius Charnley: The graduate who landed his dream role after studying with ITC
Tobius has landed his dream role at Air New Zealand after studying with ITC.
Tobius Charnley graduated from ITC years ago, and has been bouncing around the travel and tourism industry ever since.
That’s taken him to Walt Disney World, Air Chathams, and now back to home ground with a brand new role with Air New Zealand. It hasn’t always been easy, but Tobius’ hard work and dedication has meant that he has the job he always dreamed of.
At ITC we are always here to support our graduates, even years after they graduate. This is the promise we make anyone who decides to join the ITC family. We caught up with Tobius to hear more about his story.
What have you been up to since ITC?
This new job was a hard secret to keep, from getting it to doing the training. But I passed my ground training and move onto the line training starting this Thursday.
Since finishing ITC I have bounced around jobs within the industry, starting with Walt Disney World, then I came back home and kept jumping around jobs until I landed my dream job with Air Chathams in February 2020.
Not knowing that we were about to face a pandemic, I said to myself: I have a two year plan to get to Air NZ. Then the pandemic hit and I thought, ok, time to adjust my plans, but I wasn’t going to give up on my dream airline and dream job.
I was luckily enough to keep my job with Air Chathams to help grow my skills and get what I needed to join Air NZ. The opportunity came along and I applied.
Has your ITC qualification helped you with your new role?
My skills that I learnt from ITC and the qualifications that I got really helped me through the last five years since graduating. ITC really helped open my eyes to the industry. At first I didn’t know where I wanted to go, but after heading to Disney and seeing the cabin crew do their job, I knew where I wanted to go after that.
So with the skills and qualifications I had, I proceeded to follow that dream of becoming cabin crew and getting the right work experience using what I learnt from ITC helped get that work experience.
How have you found the process of application with Air NZ? What has that been?
I have found the application process to be quite daunting.
I had applied 3 times by this stage for Air NZ, so when this third time had happened I was relaxed as I had done it twice before. Yes I failed before, but it helped me for the next time I applied.
Because we were in a lockdown the application process was different to what I had done before. I had to do a six-question video interview with just myself and no one on the other end.
From there I got a phone call asking for an interview via Teams with a cabin crew manager. I personally found it went well but did not want to get my hopes up as I had failed twice already. A couple of hours after the interview I get a phone call asking if they were okay with doing a reference check and for me to do all the testing.
The testing was interesting, had to do a pre-employment drug test, eye test and ears test. I had to do a swim test. Once that all came back and with my reference checks I got the call offering me a position to start in November. That was only two weeks away.
I was over the moon with excitement for this job opportunity, and amazed that I got a regional position.
The training process is the hard part, jamming three weeks of learning in was a challenge. You get tested on your mental and physical strength, sleep when you can and study when you aren’t sleeping. Luckily we were away doing training in Christchurch so I could focus my weekends on studying.
Seven exams and one practical later I passed with good marks, and now get to head online to do that part of the training.
Do you have any advice to help inspire anyone else deciding to enter into tourism or aviation?
My advice to anyone thinking about a job in travel and tourism or in the aviation industry: I would say go for it. Do not let fear of the unknown of when the industry will bounce back worry you. Because it will bounce back in due time and it has already.
We will see the industry come back so quickly and they will be short staffed but if you do your study now by the time you’re done we will be needing your help to grow back to what we once were.
I am excited to see where this new opportunity will take me, but if it wasn’t for all the help I got from ITC and knowing the tutors had my back and helped push me to be the best me I can be, I don’t think I would be where I am today.
I am very thankful for everything that has happened over the last five years and often think of the question: Where do you see yourself in five years? I wouldn’t have seen myself where I am today. But thankful that I am.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
If you want to be like Tobius and be working in a dream role in the tourism or travel agency in five, years, ITC could be your first step. Take a look at the qualifications you can earn with ITC and get in touch to find out more.
Campus Study – college@itc.co.nz 0800 TOURISM (0800 868747) or https://www.itc.co.nz/contact-us/
Posted in News, Student success | Tagged Air New Zealand, Employment, Graduate interview, ITC Award winning training, Travel industry | Leave a reply