Some airlines have pre-employment sim rides, some do not.
I'm torn. Part of me says 'Well, what a great way to see if someone can actually fly"
but on the other hand "Well, what a great way to see if someone can actually fly… A FRASCA and we don't fly Frascas so what's the point?"
Thoughts?
It's both a great and an awful idea.
Let's go to the instant replay... my 1st job interview. Colgan. Aced the HR part... got into the full motion 1900 sim and I stunk up that check so hard that they should have done a full COVID-decontam of the thing afterwards.
Couple of months later got hired by Skyway and aced training. In a 1900 no less.
Flash forward to St. George and a Frasca sim. Now... this is after I was hand flying a 1900 for months. Flying Part 121. Got a downcheck. Because the screen flashed white for a sec or so and the instructor said I should have gone around because I went IFR on a visual clearance. I saw it for literally one second. If that. I was scanning my instruments, dead to rights on the LOC/GS and saw a flash and everything came back in and I landed normally. I honestly thought it was a glitch or something... but no. TBNT. Have a good flight home.
A few years later. A PC based DC-9 sim. Did fine, got that job. That 'ride' told the examiner nothing except that I knew how to play video games.
Finally, a job I didn't take, flew a 737/FTD type thing. Did fine. Couldn't see the point.
And, at my current shop... it was all TMAAT questions. And for the record, had a perfect training record. No repeats, nothing.
I have nothing to do with pilot hiring, but if I was king for a day, I would sit down and try to design a system that does the best job to find the candidates with the best cultural fit. Which means nothing in the end. Because no matter what you do, there will be a cottage industry of people who teach pilots to beat the house because we are talking about multi-million dollar careers here. So, in the end... is the person a good pilot? Would you like to spend a 4-day with them consisting of a couple of red eyes and day sleeps without wanting to strangle them? Are they are professional? Can they be molded into the professional that the organization wants?
So, the question is... what does a ride around the pattern in a unfamiliar aircraft with a nervous candidate tell you about a pilot that you can extrapolate out 15-35 years as a future captain at your airline? Is there observational data that you can get from that experience - good or bad - that can be used in a decision to hire? Is it worth the time/effort vs. other interviewing exercises?
I mean, you probably could gather the same type of data on pilots by watching them play Among Us as having them fly a Frasca around a pattern. Although, for a true character test, it would have to be a series of video games. Maybe a puzzle game like BOTW? (Problem solving skills, resource management, moral judgements...)