UAL CEO said he uses this hiring tactic to vibe check job candidates

[Springer]

MSN

• United Airlines' CEO said the company relies on "well-liked" pilots to assess potential hires.
• Kirby said the aim is to hire people who employees actually want to hang out with.
• United will receive 75,000 applications for a few thousand flight attendant openings, Kirby said.

You might be qualified for the job, but do people actually like hanging out with you?

That's a question United Airlines is interested in when assessing new hires — and uses a unique tactic in order to answer it.

Scott Kirby, United Airlines CEO, told McKinsey chief Bob Sternfels in an interview published in early April that he started a new process at the company aimed at evaluating if a candidate is a good cultural fit.

Kirby said he asked the head of flight operations to identify a dozen pilots who are "well-liked by everyone." When candidates come in for interviews, those popular pilots will hang out with them — walk them around the building, have lunch with them, and escort them to interviews.

"I told this group of pilots, 'Your job is just to assess: Is this interviewee someone I would like to take a four-day trip with? And if you say no, then they're out. You get a veto vote,'" Kirby said. "The idea is to pick people who care about others, who you want to hang out with, who you want to be with."

 

[///AMG]

I thought this was already basically what the interview was about? No?

 

[DE727UPS]

I'm so lucky I had a successful career at brown (quiet, introvert, never would have got hired at UA)

 

[Table Two]

The first five minutes of my United interview was talking about being on a swimteam as a kid. And that started while talking with a fellow interviewee in the waiting room, annd it spilled into the interview. Absolutely zero about airplanes, just back-and-forth chitchat, laughing and talking about spending hours in a Speedo. The HR lady did not look too pleased lol.

 

[🦈💜]

. . . yep.

 

[tcco94]

I thought this was already basically what the interview was about? No?

I do not understand why people are so infatuated with what CEOs say. An article like this will wow and drop the jaws of many in the corporate world, I’m sure it’s already been reshared thousands of times on LinkedIn lol

 

[DropTank]

"vibe check"

Stopped reading there...

 

[Cessnaflyer]

"vibe check"

Stopped reading there...

Vibe is the word of the week that is annoying me. ‘Vibe coding’, stupidest phrase I’ve heard.

 

[mikecweb]

Vibe is the word of the week that is annoying me. ‘Vibe coding’, stupidest phrase I’ve heard.

it's a vibe for sure.

 

[DropTank]

Vibe is the word of the week that is annoying me. ‘Vibe coding’, stupidest phrase I’ve heard.

"I use Prototype AI to write critical code" masked to be socially acceptable

 

[derg]

I'm going to go ahead and call "BS" on Kirby.

Maybe he does, but that seems highly unlikely.

 

[zmiller4]

‘Vibe coding’, stupidest phrase I’ve heard.

I was blissfully unaware of that and now I’m sad.

 

[jhugz]

I'm going to go ahead and call "BS" on Kirby.

Maybe he does, but that seems highly unlikely.

I haven’t done interviews in a few months due to fleet planning, so maybe things have changed…but this isn’t exactly how it works. The position he’s talking about is greeter position. If we are there for interviews we have a chance of working that position instead of doing interviews that day. You meet and greet the applicants, give them a tour, and a little presentation on what to expect. I really enjoy that position as it’s a fun change of pace. Do we have veto power? No…but will the pilot interviewer / hr rep ask us for input if they noticed something? Sure.

 

[///AMG]

I haven’t done interviews in a few months due to fleet planning, so maybe things have changed…but this isn’t exactly how it works. The position he’s talking about is greeter position. If we are there for interviews we have a chance of working that position instead of doing interviews that day. You meet and greet the applicants, give them a tour, and a little presentation on what to expect. I really enjoy that position as it’s a fun change of pace. Do we have veto power? No…but will the pilot interviewer / hr rep ask us for input if they noticed something? Sure.

Not saying that this happens. But it is bizarre to imagine that someone would be so socially inept as to highlight themselves in this setting. As they say though “this basic low-threat dog and pony show where you can just simply keep your pie hole closed, is yours to lose…”

 

[jhugz]

Not saying that this happens. But it is bizarre to imagine that someone would be so socially inept as to highlight themselves in this setting. As they say though “this basic low-threat dog and pony show where you can just simply keep your pie hole closed, is yours to lose…”

Oh it happens…it shouldn’t, but it does.

Just to add though, greeter input can also lead to good results not just negative ones.

 

[RORO]

Not saying that this happens. But it is bizarre to imagine that someone would be so socially inept as to highlight themselves in this setting. As they say though “this basic low-threat dog and pony show where you can just simply keep your pie hole closed, is yours to lose…”

I 100% believe a pilot would be inept enough to do that. One of my friends does interviews at my airline and said he had a candidate recently who sat spread eagle and scratched his balls non stop for the entire interview.

He did not get the job.