Great Lakes Interview

MikeD said:
Agree. I've never really bought into this reverse psychology crap of "going to interview at places I don't want to work at, just to get the interview experience." I mean, it costs time, money and effort to go somewhere and interview; and I don't have the time/money/luxury of going to interview at places I don't truly want to work at. Go to the interview, put your best foot forward, be professional. If you get the job, cool. If not, then you'll likely never know why you didnt, unless its something obvious.
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I don't see how it's "reverse psychology crap" to actually prepare yourself for an interview by using an interview prep service OR by doing one or two interviews at places you aren't super interested in. It doesn't cost that much money at all, as most regional airlines will fly you in. Every regional that I've dealt with has super cheap rates at the flea bag inn hotel wherever their training center is, and it doesn't cost that much to buy dinner and lunch (breakfast is usually included at the hotel). Would I interview at a place I have absolute zero interest in working for? Probably not. But I sure wouldn't want my first 121 interview to be at FedEx or Southwest either.

You also need to consider the majority audience at this website (or at least the ones applying to regionals right now)... Most of them aren't guys like you that have a military background. They're young guys that don't have much real world experience, probably just got out of some flight school a couple of years ago, and are still pretty green. Sure, some are probably sharp enough to blow everyone away during the interview process. But a lot of them are not, and this is still an extremely competitive environment right now that will quickly weed those guys out unless they have some type of prep or background.

My first regional interview was with ASA (in 2008), who I really really wanted to work for at the time. I read all the gouge, I studied my butt off, and I had a lot of prior interview experience. It was still a very eye opening experience. I got a job offer from them, but looking back I still think it would've been smart to interview somewhere else first.

It absolutely will not hurt, and can only help to have prior interview experience. It really doesn't cost that much at all either, so what could possibly be the downside to interviewing at one or two places first? I sure don't see it, and I am really baffled by the response of rdsoxpilot.
 
wrxpilot said:
I don't see how it's "reverse psychology crap" to actually prepare yourself for an interview by using an interview prep service OR by doing one or two interviews at places you aren't super interested in. It doesn't cost that much money at all, as most regional airlines will fly you in. Every regional that I've dealt with has super cheap rates at the flea bag inn hotel wherever their training center is, and it doesn't cost that much to buy dinner and lunch (breakfast is usually included at the hotel). Would I interview at a place I have absolute zero interest in working for? Probably not. But I sure wouldn't want my first 121 interview to be at FedEx or Southwest either.
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Not criticizing interview prep services, but was speaking generally about the attitude. The bolded above I agree with. The first sentence is my point overall. And the last sentence, likely (as a civilian pilot), an interview with SWA of Fedex generally won't be your first 121 interview anyway, if you've taken the career path a majority of civvies do.

You also need to consider the majority audience at this website (or at least the ones applying to regionals right now)... Most of them aren't guys like you that have a military background. They're young guys that don't have much real world experience, probably just got out of some flight school a couple of years ago, and are still pretty green. Sure, some are probably sharp enough to blow everyone away during the interview process. But a lot of them are not, and this is still an extremely competitive environment right now that will quickly weed those guys out unless they have some type of prep or background.
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Thats why I agree with interview prep, but again, as I previously state I agree with the bolded second-to-last statement you made above, so we're on the same page anyway now.

My first regional interview was with ASA (in 2008), who I really really wanted to work for at the time. I read all the gouge, I studied my butt off, and I had a lot of prior interview experience. It was still a very eye opening experience. I got a job offer from them, but looking back I still think it would've been smart to interview somewhere else first.
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Still though, if you hadn't been hired by ASA, you could chalk it up as an experience.....I fully agree with you. But I guarantee you went there and put your best foot forward.......and ASA agreed since they hired you. You never went to that interview looking at it only as a practice session. Its use as a practice session was more like icing on the cake if you hadn't gotten hired. Still, good job though.

It absolutely will not hurt, and can only help to have prior interview experience. It really doesn't cost that much at all either, so what could possibly be the downside to interviewing at one or two places first? I sure don't see it, and I am really baffled by the response of rdsoxpilot.
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Now that you're written what you have here, I see that we're actually more on the same page than not, only an issue of semantics. As you stated, you wouldn't necesarily take the time to interview somewhere you had zero intention of working at, and Im with you on that. Other interviews.....if you get hired, great. If you don't, then it automatically becomes "interview experience". So I think we're talking the same thing, just from different viewpoints.
 
Interviewed last Thursday. Got the call today for the March class. Say what you want, but I'd be stupid not to take it.
 
MikeD said:
I had no idea what was going to be asked in the HR interview, but figured there'd be some standard Q's. I just sat straight, kept a professional demeanor, answered their questions straight with no BS, flowed with the tone of the interview (relaxed), looked them in the eye, and didnt tell them canned answers that they would supposedly "want to hear."

Canned crap like "If we were to hire you to the Puerto Rico base, would you accept?" Most people's answer was "oh yes! I'll take wherever Im sent!", regardless of whether it was on their request list or not and regardless of if theyd be miserable there or not.
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I'm glad that worked out for you. However, it isn't the case at every job... that is the "I'll just be a straight shooter with these folks" approach. In a recent interview I had the following questions:

Q: "How do you feel that our pay scale is lower than most?" A: "Well, it's not the part of the company that thrills me the most"
Q: "Do you see yourself at a Major in five years?" A: "Yes, the thought had certainly crossed my mind"
Q: "So you smell alcohol on the Capt's breath....?" A: "Well, I wouldn't want to throw anyone under the bus or ruin anyone's career, etc...."
Q: "Would you move to one of our bases or commute?" A: "Honestly, I would like to commute"
Q: "So do you think you could've handled X emergency better? A: "I'm sure there's always a way to do it better, but I was satisfied with the outcome, so I'd probably do it the same.

The HR lady said that "some of your answers didn't fit the profile of someone we'd normally like to hire".
 
ryan1234 said:
I'm glad that worked out for you. However, it isn't the case at every job... that is the "I'll just be a straight shooter with these folks" approach. In a recent interview I had the following questions:

Q: "How do you feel that our pay scale is lower than most?" A: "Well, it's not the part of the company that thrills me the most"
Q: "Do you see yourself at a Major in five years?" A: "Yes, the thought had certainly crossed my mind"
Q: "So you smell alcohol on the Capt's breath....?" A: "Well, I wouldn't want to throw anyone under the bus or ruin anyone's career, etc...."
Q: "Would you move to one of our bases or commute?" A: "Honestly, I would like to commute"
Q: "So do you think you could've handled X emergency better? A: "I'm sure there's always a way to do it better, but I was satisfied with the outcome, so I'd probably do it the same.

The HR lady said that "some of your answers didn't fit the profile of someone we'd normally like to hire".
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But to me, the issue isn't YOU in your example, it's THEM. It demonstrates that they don't really want truthful answers, they're wanting to hear certain things. And that's very unfortunate and reflects poorly on them IMO. In my case where it did work for me, I had to make a choice of telling them what they wanted to hear and risk getting based somewhere I have ZERO desire to be. Or be honest and support the basing choices I made. In my case, it worked. However in neither of our cases do I consider you or I to have been the problem, since neither of us attempted to game the system.
 
MikeD said:
But to me, the issue isn't YOU in your example, it's THEM. It demonstrates that they don't really want truthful answers, they're wanting to hear certain things. And that's very unfortunate and reflects poorly on them IMO. In my case where it did work for me, I had to make a choice of telling them what they wanted to hear and risk getting based somewhere I have ZERO desire to be. Or be honest and support the basing choices I made. In my case, it worked. However in neither of our cases do I consider you or I to have been the problem, since neither of us attempted to game the system.
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It's a good approach. Why would you want to work in a place that you don't feel is a match for you? Straight forward is usually best in my opinion.
 
MikeD said:
But to me, the issue isn't YOU in your example, it's THEM. It demonstrates that they don't really want truthful answers, they're wanting to hear certain things. And that's very unfortunate and reflects poorly on them IMO. In my case where it did work for me, I had to make a choice of telling them what they wanted to hear and risk getting based somewhere I have ZERO desire to be. Or be honest and support the basing choices I made. In my case, it worked. However in neither of our cases do I consider you or I to have been the problem, since neither of us attempted to game the system.
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I agree with you - and wouldn't really want to work at a company like that for any length of time.

My grand conspiracy theory is that a lot of regionals know they're paying extremely low and would rather have someone that really just wanted the job vice a certain lifestyle. I thought it was interesting that the pay question was followed sharply by "But we don't make you pay for your training like many other places do".
 
ryan1234 said:
I agree with you - and wouldn't really want to work at a company like that for any length of time.

My grand conspiracy theory is that a lot of regionals know they're paying extremely low and would rather have someone that really just wanted the job vice a certain lifestyle. I thought it was interesting that the pay question was followed sharply by "But we don't make you pay for your training like many other places do".
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Corporate doublespeak at it's finest.
 
I interviewed at GLA in January. I had no intentions what-so-ever of taking a class date. I went for the 121 interview experience and that's it. It cost me less than 100 bucks to get out there and interview so I figured, "why not?" Anyways, for those of you who might want to actually take the offer and sign the contract, here's my experience...... First of all they will set you up with a pass so you can non-rev out to Denver on a GLA flight. I flew GLA out there so my commute was free and I stayed at the Red Lion hotel (which is where they interview at so make sure you tell them you are there to interview, you will get the Great Lakes rate.) I arrived in Denver around 11, interview was at 2:30. First they will take all of your paperwork. Make sure you have everything in order and properly filled out, there were some guys who weren't too prepared and it delayed the process for them. They will then give you a copy of the training contract and give you a few minutes to read it over before they take it away from you. Then comes the written test... It was somewhere between 20-25 questions if I remember correctly. The first page was basic questions from the AIM... they give you an approach plate and the last 10(?) questions were interpreting it. I think you have to make an 80 on the test or your day is done. They schedule so that there are 2 people interviewing at once, there was some type of mix up and there were 4 of us in the room interviewing. Instead of having a captain and an HR person, I only had a captain....she didn't want to be there. She was rude and she even went as far as answering her cell phone in the middle of the interview because it was "really important." After this important phone call, she asked question...I answered. Then I asked questions...she answered....

Basically all of the gouges on aviationinterviews.com are spot on.. KNOW YOUR JEPPS. VOR/NDB service volumes. Know the ILS system in and out. GRID MORAs, MRAs, MEAs, MEA GAPs, Changeover points. Brief an approach and finger fly it. Study the AIM and the gouges online.

Stayed the night in Denver after the interview for an early flight home. GLA lost my bag. By this point, I was positive that I wouldn't be taking the job. If you can survive on the pay until you upgrade, more power to you. I probably could get by with it but I refuse to.
 
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