Huge disconnect between Ryanair HQ and Ground Operations
Pros
No day is ever the same. It's a great job where you'll meet some amazing colleagues and can keep fit and active. It's a good starting point if you're looking for opportunities to start a career in the Dublin Airport or aviation.
Cons
Ryanair use an agency for hiring (Excel Aviation). Pay is €15.41 per hour, but only if you have 100% attendance for that pay period. If you miss even one day in a month, your pay will be reduced by €1 per hour for the full month (they call it an attendance bonus). You're told you have 25 days of annual leave, Ryanair will automatically deduct 1 day from this for Christmas Day, the airport is closed that day, however it's an annual leave day on your schedule and taken from your A/L total. Annual leave will only be approved now in 6 day blocks, or ad hoc leave only if applied for at least 8 weeks in advance. So with your remaining 24 days they'll mostly only allow you to take one 6 day block of leave off per quarter. During summer schedule they won't approve over 1 block of leave per quarter. So your summer holidays with friends and family will be capped by Ryanair. If you don't apply for leave months in advance before the deadlines they've set, annual leave will be automatically assigned to you at their discretion. Your hours of work are advertised by the agency and throughout your training as 3 early shifts of 6am to 2pm, and 3 late shifts of 2pm to 10pm. They actually start anywhere from 5-6am, or 1-3:30pm starts. It's something to be aware of if you use public transport, the latest shift can finish after 11:30pm up to 12:30am, and public transport from the airport is very limited at that time. During busy periods there are shifts where you won't get a break for the full shift, they'll even expect you to help other crews or add extra flights for your crew on top of this. This happens a lot during the busy summer schedule. There is a huge disconnect between Ryanair HQ and ground operations. Changes to policies are regularly made without any consideration of impact to staff on the ground. They ignore employee concerns, safety is only an issue when they're being audited. Employee moral is very low, higher management view everyone as replaceable and have a 'there's the door' attitude for anyone expressing concerns. Experienced staff regularly move on, either to other jobs or to other airlines in the airport for better conditions.