Grades and airlines

CaptainChris87 said:
Do airlines major or reigonal care about the kind of grades you got in college wether, it be aviation or non aviation. -thanks
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NO. As long as you have your degree, you're fine. If you have a 4.0 GPA and want to brag that you had no social college life, then it could help. :)
 
JaceTheAce said:
NO. As long as you have your degree, you're fine. If you have a 4.0 GPA and want to brag that you had no social college life, then it could help. :)
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I disagree. Any airline that asks to see your transcripts is going to be impressed if you had good grades or they are going to have additional questions if you had mediocre grades or lower. If I was hiring someone that would be going through an intense training environment I would want to make sure they are good at studying, which is what good grades show.

Airline training doesn't give you the luxury of cramming for an exam. You must learn the systems and procedues in a short two week ground school. If you can't handle that they you don't pass. The only way an interviewer is going to find out if you study well is if you had good grades in school.

Your success as an ailrine pilot then hinges on your ability to absorb a lot of information, sometimes very quickly. At the airline I work for, a pilot is required to know information from 8 different books. It's a bit over the top, but those who can't do it don't upgrade ( Period ). Those who try to do it without the required work will fail somewhere in the training process. We don't coddle pilots like they do at U.S. majors. You either do the work or you fail.

If you can't be bothered to study hard you won't succeed, either as a pilot or in life.


Typhoonpilot
 
It's true, whether (note the spelling on that word btw CaptC) we like it or not, good grades in school opens doors in life and poor grade close doors.
 
Typhoon it looks to me like you don't work for a company in the states, so what would you know about airline interviews here? Unless that is, you were on the hiring board at a regional here or something and then left this country?
 
From everything I've heard from many pilots, HR agents (at all kinds of places), previous managers at different places....

its all just another piece that fits into the picture of making yourself an attractive candidate for the position.

having a little less strength in one area probably wont be a dealbreaker, but you should 150% make up for it with extra strengths in another desirable area of your profile...
 
John Herreshoff said:
Typhoon it looks to me like you don't work for a company in the states, so what would you know about airline interviews here? Unless that is, you were on the hiring board at a regional here or something and then left this country?
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Good and valid question. I've done 10 airline interviews in the States so I think I'm qualified to state the point.

Typhoonpilot
 
Indeed, and I appreciate a quick, level headed reply.

The only reason I would argue against it is that most HR reps that I talk with (and mind you this is not in airline hiring, but hiring in general) is that after you put a few years between you and the university, grades start to matter a lot less and job performance matters a lot more. Because the chances of being hired at an airline right out of college are nil, I would imagine that a slate of good references from employers would make all the difference in the world.

And I'm trying to tell myself that my 2.9 GPA from college won't hurt me. I'm pretty certain I have nothing to worry about, but you never know :)
 
JaceTheAce said:
NO. As long as you have your degree, you're fine. If you have a 4.0 GPA and want to brag that you had no social college life, then it could help. :)
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Or maybe someone happened to be very gifted and who also had a great social life. :)

My GPA helped me get my last two jobs, but as time passes, like JH said, job performance starts to matter more.
 
YES grades will matter. In fact I just applied for an airline and what did they require with my application packet? A sealed college transcript. Just because you didn't get spectacular grades though doesn't put you out of the running - if there was one or two classes you struggled with - or a specific area and you can prove you grew past that then they may still be interested. Also if you shine in other areas more than others that may make a difference as well. For instance they may take someone with a 3.4 GPA who held leadership positions and was involved in extracurricular activites over someone with a 4.0 who didn't do anything other than the required coursework. Also the further you get away from college transcripts do count less and more weight is put on recent job performance. Especially if you've had other proffessional flying jobs or graduated other airlines training requirements and done well etc. Your future employer is taking a gamble on you and they are going to want some indication that you'll pay off for them and not waste their money by failing training etc.
 
BZNflyer248 said:
YES grades will matter. In fact I just applied for an airline and what did they require with my application packet? A sealed college transcript. Just because you didn't get spectacular grades though doesn't put you out of the running - if there was one or two classes you struggled with - or a specific area and you can prove you grew past that then they may still be interested. Also if you shine in other areas more than others that may make a difference as well. For instance they may take someone with a 3.4 GPA who held leadership positions and was involved in extracurricular activites over someone with a 4.0 who didn't do anything other than the required coursework. Also the further you get away from college transcripts do count less and more weight is put on recent job performance. Especially if you've had other proffessional flying jobs or graduated other airlines training requirements and done well etc. Your future employer is taking a gamble on you and they are going to want some indication that you'll pay off for them and not waste their money by failing training etc.
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Applied for Horizon eh?
 
John Herreshoff said:
Indeed, and I appreciate a quick, level headed reply.

The only reason I would argue against it is that most HR reps that I talk with (and mind you this is not in airline hiring, but hiring in general) is that after you put a few years between you and the university, grades start to matter a lot less and job performance matters a lot more. Because the chances of being hired at an airline right out of college are nil, I would imagine that a slate of good references from employers would make all the difference in the world.

And I'm trying to tell myself that my 2.9 GPA from college won't hurt me. I'm pretty certain I have nothing to worry about, but you never know :)
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When it comes to major airlines in the States grades will matter. As previously stated, they want a college transcript and they will make note of what your GPA was. 2.9 isn't bad so I don't think you need to worry too much about it. I'd rather hire a guy with a 2.9 who understood how things work then a guy with a 4.0 who is only book smart.

Oh, and I was hired by a regional airline less than one month after graduating from college. Hired by a major 16 months after that. So the freshness of grades was a factor.


Typhoonpilot
 
I can't speak about airlines, but I can speak about corporate America. And after your first or second job, nobody cares about what your GPA was. Hell, man, I can't recall mine. I couldn't tell you what my college GPA was if my life depended on it.

I just put down where I graduated from and that does the trick. Nobody cares what my GPA was.
 
"It's a bit over the top, but those who can't do it don't upgrade"

"We don't coddle pilots like they do at U.S. majors."

There is no doubt in my mind I'd never make it through a CX interview. But, even yourself, admit that some international airlines take book knowledge too far. Myself, I think I'll know what I need to know to operate as a Capt domestically when I finish training. There will be gaps. I'll figure it out. As far as coddle. If you mean making sure EVERYONE gets through and lowering the bar as necessary, or applying different standards to different folks, I can say I've seen it happen. Do foreign airlines really not discriminate based on race or heritage but look solely at pilot performance? There's gotta be some coddling going on there, too....
 
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