Phone Interview

elitehelipilot

Just another CFI
So I have a conundrum. I am supposed to have a phone interview with an International operator about a position flying in a contract role. Now, here's the thing. I am a low hour pilot and haven't done anything outside of flying with/for the company I trained (and am continuing my training) with.

I am pretty comfortable with my hours and I have my CPL and will have my Instrument Add-on before I would leave to the job if I were offered the role. But the thing is - I've never actually interviewed for a pilot job before. This is my first one, and it's international, and it's over the phone - and frankly I'm FREAKING OUT.

What I'm hoping you guys can do is give me some pointers on how you have handled phone interviews, what questions should I expect from the other side of the line (company owner/pilot) what questions should I be asking him when it's my turn to talk?

I want to go into this as prepared as I can, and my gut says ask questions about how well maintained the aircraft are, how many average hours a month are his pilots logging, what sort of conditions are they typically flying into, what is the salary, is their per diem or some sort of pilot housing, will they be paying for my relocation from the USA...I know there is more that I should ask.
 
phone interviews are usually heavy with HR questions and scenario based questions (tell me about a time.... or what would you do if..... etc). They mostly just wanna get to know you and see if you'll be a good fit. They might ask what you know about the company, so do a little bit of research about their operations, what they fly, destinations, etc. If they ask anything technical, it's usually not so bad. Some phone interviews I've done have me look at an approach plate and ask me to brief it then ask some questions about it, what's this or that. Another asked pretty basic regs: ifr fuel requirements, alternate requirements.

Make a list of questions you want to know before hand, that way you're not scrambling at the end. Most of the time they'll answer your questions when they describe the job. I usually ask about training, pay/benefits, future of the company, and then i usually end with how does that person like working there, how long they've been there, etc. I like to almost interview the interviewer haha. The questions you have are all good things to ask. There's nothing wrong with getting all the information you can before deciding whether or not to take a job.

I'd say practice your responses to HR questions and the TMAAT stuff. I wrote down my answers and go over them before the interview so I'm not struggling on the phone or in person. Be comfortable. I find it's a lot less stressful than in person interviews. GOOD LUCK!
 
Hey thanks for that! I'm going to make a list of TMAAT answers, and maybe even jot down my "about me" replies - that's a good pointer. I interview well in person, I think the notion of being on the table for a spot like this so early in the game (my game) is putting me on pins and needles. Since I don't have any time in the platform they are flying, should I brush up on that? Do you think they'd ask me technical stuff about it even though my resume shows I've not flown it yet?
 
i think you'll be okay. know the part 91 stuff that everyone was trained in, and you'll learn the 135 or 121 stuff at training. they should realize that and probably don't expect you to have the 135 alternate requirements committed to memory. i'll bet you'll get like 90-95% HR questions...maybe even 100%. what's the company?
 
what's the company?

I'm not entirely sure. It's a civilian company contractor, doing some attached work with the SOG my buddy is deployed with. I'm not going to dismiss the possibility of my military experience being a factor in this opportunity as well. Flying Bell 206's overseas, jungle ops mostly. From what I've been able to research the parent company is an International Construction company.
 
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