Are simulator portions of job interviews unfair?

No it's not unfair, because everyone else is dealing with the same exact thing you are. No one has an advantage. Any advantage they have comes in the form of preparation or skill... Which is used to help an interviewer differentiate between applicants and make a decision.
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
I think we can all agree though, that pilot interviewing has basically been taken away from the pilots.



Edit: by that I don't mean pilots aren't on the interviewing team, I mean the system that once was when pilots had a huge say in the process of hiring, getting pilots called, etc. Gone.
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I'm not sure that's a bad thing. In general, pilots are pretty miserable judges of character.
 
Fly_Unity said:
He/She does not care about the landing light being on or off or the checklist..
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This is where I disagree. If I were the interviewer in this situation and I had to judge applicants by their performance during a simulator audition, I'd only care about stuff like do they make an attempt to do the checklist, do they make an attempt to completely do all the items, etc. The thing I would care not at all about are the stick and rudder parts. I would expect them to be all over the place and unable to track a VOR or glideslope.

When I fly a place for real I always do the checklist. When I'm in an interview I'm flying the simulator like how I fly the actual airplane. In the actual airplane you never skip the checklist, why do it during an interview?

No one I've ever met can fly a simulator perfectly on the first try. It takes at least a few hours to get a feel of how the plane reacts to control inputs.
 
Hacker15e said:
This nicely sums up the whole discussion: you're not.

What you think they're evaluating with the sim portion of an interview may not be what they are actually assessing.
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It's a good indicator of behaviour under stress. If you freak out and get upset because the sim is all over the place, that's a good indicator of your temperament.
 
nbv4 said:
I'd only care about stuff like do they make an attempt to do the checklist, do they make an attempt to completely do all the items, etc.
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Well I mean credit where it's due, your interview would be much less expensive. You'll need to bring a checklist and a chair. I believe it would also uh "expand the talent base" to include at least the literate unemployed, so we're saving money AND putting Murica back to work. Win/win.
 
JustinS said:
No it's not unfair, because everyone else is dealing with the same exact thing you are. No one has an advantage. Any advantage they have comes in the form of preparation or skill... Which is used to help an interviewer differentiate between applicants and make a decision.
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Well, some do - some know how to fly BAI, and apparently, some (even with instrument ratings) do not.
 
nbv4 said:
The thing I would care not at all about are the stick and rudder parts. I would expect them to be all over the place and unable to track a VOR or glideslope.
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Um.

Airplanes are airplanes. They have their different features, and the numbers are all over the place, but for the most part they tend to work the same way. Pull back to go up, push to go down, etc.

A simulator is a sometimes-twitchy approximation of an airplane, but it's pretending to be an airplane.

I would expect someone with the words "instrument airplane" on their certificate to be able to corral a twitchy approximation thereof within some reasonable parameters. Not be all over the place/hazard to everything in the skies, birds included.
 
Autothrust Blue said:
Um.

Airplanes are airplanes. They have their different features, and the numbers are all over the place, but for the most part they tend to work the same way. Pull back to go up, push to go down, etc.

A simulator is a sometimes-twitchy approximation of an airplane, but it's pretending to be an airplane.

I would expect someone with the words "instrument airplane" on their certificate to be able to corral a twitchy approximation thereof within some reasonable parameters. Not be all over the place/hazard to everything in the skies, birds included.
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If you had the opportunity to fly a new airframe, for instance lets say P51 Mustang (I assume you have never flown that type). Would you want your maiden flight in that plane to be solo hard IMC? I sure wouldn't. I'd want my first flight to be at least with another experienced person on board and also in VMC. Once I have the hand of that plane would I want to attempt hard IMC. Even the most grizzled pilot would do it this way. Why does this company want to know how well I handle what boils down to a suicide mission? I'm not OK with this.
 
nbv4 said:
If you had the opportunity to fly a new airframe, for instance lets say P51 Mustang (I assume you have never flown that type). Would you want your maiden flight in that plane to be solo hard IMC? I sure wouldn't. I'd want my first flight to be at least with another experienced person on board and also in VMC. Once I have the hand of that plane would I want to attempt hard IMC. Even the most grizzled pilot would do it this way. Why does this company want to know how well I handle what boils down to a suicide mission? I'm not OK with this.
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...

It's in the sim. The entire point is to assess your performance in a reasonably consequence free environment.

(In the sense of nobody will die and the airplane won't be in small non-reassembleable bits.)

You are instrument rated, right?
 
I think it depends on their standards. If they're expecting flawless execution on a plane you have never flown, that's not very fair. If they are looking to see if you can a) learn the profile/info they gave you b) have a good attitude and humility about the situation or c) locate your ass using both hands...I think it's fair.
 
I'm curious of the result of this interview now.

Flying, whether in an actual aircraft or a sim, is simple. Make the needles do what you require them to do. If they don't cooperate, it's your fault. Since this is a requirement of any flying job, I find this type of evaluation quite reasonable.
 
nbv4 said:
If you had the opportunity to fly a new airframe, for instance lets say P51 Mustang (I assume you have never flown that type). Would you want your maiden flight in that plane to be solo hard IMC? I sure wouldn't. I'd want my first flight to be at least with another experienced person on board and also in VMC. Once I have the hand of that plane would I want to attempt hard IMC. Even the most grizzled pilot would do it this way. Why does this company want to know how well I handle what boils down to a suicide mission? I'm not OK with this.
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Wuss
 
Who on earth starts a thread about an interview 9 years ago?

If you don't like the interview process then don't apply. If you don't like the results and the company is hurting for people then it's their problem. If you don't like the results and they're filling classes then it's yours. Regardless, the applicant doesn't get to decide what is "fair".
 
Boris Badenov said:
Am I reading this correctly? Flying an unfamiliar, unchallenging, generic aircraft in IMC under IFR with no emergencies is a "suicide mission"? Dude, you should stick with software engineering, perhaps.
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Hey, it was a Frasca. That stuff is serious business mmmkay? It was straight from the sim to the dark night of ootsk single pilot hell. Can't take that lightly ya know.

Edit: @mikecweb your sim interview got you that left chair in the Lear, no?
 
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Screaming_Emu said:
I think it depends on their standards. If they're expecting flawless execution on a plane you have never flown, that's not very fair. If they are looking to see if you can a) learn the profile/info they gave you b) have a good attitude and humility about the situation or c) locate your ass using both hands...I think it's fair.
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Pilot shortage. Mostly item (c), and (a) and (b) "you'll learn on OE." :confused:
 
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