Date of interview: April 19, 2007
Date interview was submitted: September 19, 2007
Were you hired as a result of this interview? no
Total flight time: 1240
PIC flight time: 1100
PIC TURBINE flight time: 0
Instrument flight time: 110
Total multi engine flight time: 101
Did someone walk in your application/ resume? no
How many letters of recommendation did you bring? 1
Are you a CFI? yes
Are you a CFII? yes
Are you a MEI? yes
Are you an ATP? no
Did you complete the ATP written? no
Are you an FE? no
Did you complete the FE written? no
How long after you sent your resume were you called? 1 weeks
Do you have a college degree? 4 year
Do you have a military background? no
What is your current job? cfi
What is your age? 31
What aircraft were you assigned? N/A
If you were hired what is your training date?
Interview experience:
Wow! This was the rudest interview I have ever been to in my whole life for any position anywhere! I don't understand why any professional organization would act like this. The interview consisted of SCREAMING and YELLING by the interviewers! It started like this. There were 4 candidates in my class. We all took a written test (if you have studied the ATP written lately you will do fine) and then did the sim evaluation, and were called in one by one for the interview. I was the third one to interview. The last candidate came out, and said to us, "Wow, they were very rude." Then the interviewer came out holding a file and just stared at us! Didn't say a word! Was he trying to intimidate us or something? I don't know. (One of the job applicants was a local flight instructor in Vegas and said he recognized this interviewer from a town meeting in Henderson, NV. The meeting was about noise abatement procedures and apparently this interviewer had stood up at the meeting at said "You want our pilots to follow this? Our pilots are lucky to chew gum and walk at the same time!") Unbelievable! What a professional thing to say about your own company! So anyway, back to the interview. This same interviewer was standing there, I don't know his name, but probably about 30 or so, kind of tall. I finally broke the silence and said I'll go next. He didn't say anything but just waived to me to follow him. I did and sat down at the interview with him and another interviewer, an older gentlemen that wore glasses and had a softer demeanor. Upon the start of the interview and sitting down, I tried to shake their hands and both of them refused! They both said that they had a cold, even though neither one of them showed any symptoms of a cold or flu. Then the questions started. The first question they will ask you is about your former job or career you had, specifically outside of aviation, and they will challenge you on something factual about it and say you were wrong (similar to gouge below where they ask the applicant "What happens to the price of bonds when interest rates decrease?") Maybe this is part of the hostile interviewer technique, but I don't understand why they would go this far. Next, they ask a question of what does the GS and altitude mean on the profile part of the instrument chart. At first I answered glide slope intercept. Then he just yelled at the top of his lungs, I swear everyone else down the hall could hear "You just killed everyone on the airplane!" For a split-second, I couldn't help it and almost chuckled just a bit. He then screamed again "It's not funny! This is serious! You just killed 20 people and their families!" I then regained my composure and said "Well I'm sorry; I was taught that was glide slope intercept." They then continued with their rant and told me that they answer there were looking for was that it was an altimeter check and nothing else. Okay then. Next there were questions about the Seal Beach ILS. Three ways to identify BECCA, etc. Then there was a question about a TAF, when it is valid. Then the whole interview was over in about 10 minutes. I thanked them for the opportunity and once again offered my hand for a handshake. Once again, they refused saying they were sick. What gives here! What culture are these people from? I don't understand this. Shake a man's hand for Pete's Sake! A week later I got the canned letter stating that I didn't get the job. It turned out best for me as I got a job with a different charter company, that is better for my career. As much as the airlines and different companies are desperate for pilots right now, I wouldn't recommend this job. It is almost all VFR flying in a fixed gear Turbine plane, with low pay and long 12 hour days in the hot, desert climate and they same route day in and day out. Not exactly the best type of flying to put in a logbook for a flying career. And with the way they seem to treat their pilots, and with the attitude they have toward their pilots, who would want to work for this operation anyway!
Well, the answers I gave them were:
1) On the 200 radial from SLI at 2 DME (look below the SLI VOR for this info).
2) Intersection of the R-200 and LOC.
3) Marker beacon (since BECCA is a LOM....they will ask you what color "blue").
4) I mentioned GS intercept at 1573, but he went on about what if you have centered GS and ALT is reading 1800'.......
The first three are the best answers.
I gotcha. I guess I wasn't wrong, I was just thinking in terms of what indications I would get if I was inbound on the approach. I guess #4 is to see if you would catch an incorrect alt setting if you got the OM tone with the LOC/GS needles centered but indicating 1800 feet altitude.The first three are the best answers.
Thanks for the write up. Appears that you did a good job with the interview. Was CottonMouth the other applicant with you? Good luck!Just thought I'd go ahead and post my interview feedback. First off, it was NOTHING like the event described above. I was there with one other applicant. Interview started a little past 0830. John led us into a room and described the wages, work, schedule, upgrade and training. There is no training contract, even for upgrade. He was kinda funny and sarcastic, even joking that new hires will have days off in the middle of the week so it's more convinient for them to interview at Expressjet. We were then told the ATP written was cancelled due to some computer issues. I was pretty bummed to hear that, since I'd been studying and spending lots of Friday nights with John and Martha King. We filled out tons of paperwork and had copies of our licenses checked. The simulator evaluation came next, I HIGHLY recommed taking it with Bob. I did the prep the previous day and it was much more difficult than the version on the interview. He would make you study power settings for each stage of flight and even though I'm IFR current it was pretty easy to fall behind the airplane. The simulator eval was typically one hold and one approach. He will administer a made up SID and then proceed to BLD. I was given a hold about 1 mile out (make sure you ask for an EFC time!). After one turn in the hold, was cleared for the VOR 25L into LAS. The approach is pretty straight forward, make sure you do the altitude callouts they suggested (1000 to go, 500 to go, 100 to go, minimums.) Also, callout the appropriate checklist (Climb, Cruise, Approach). I landed the sim (or at least tried to) and was given a debrief. They are mainly looking for your instrument scan, callouts, checklist calls and basic trainability. Next we were taken for the Tech portion with John and another gentleman. Quick logbook check, questions about failed checkrides. Asked to read a TAF, which was pretty easy although I did get a little confused about the forecast time he was asking. Next was told to finger fly the ILS into LGB. I struggled with this a bit, since it wasn't really covered in the prep the previous day. Three ways to identify BECCA (without an ADF), depart Seal Beach and enter the hold (entry?), altitudes and identifying the MAP. There were few other questions about windshear and how this would affect the glideslope, circle to land mins for 110 KTS, descent rate for that speed (you have to mentally interpolate), what makes a good Captain. It was a pretty straightforward presentation, non-confrontational. Most of the oral seemed to be ATP level questions. If you don't know the answer, they might help you along a bit and lead you down the right path. I got most of the answers right, and of course you will be asked "are you sure?" Just think it over and be firm with your answer. I'm sure they don't expect you to know everything.
I then asked the usual questions about training, schedules and such. We were both told in the beginning the October class was full and that there would be another in November. Essentially, they are running a hiring pool right now, since things have slowed down a bit. Also informed us a letter would be sent to both of us regarding good or bad info.
Finished up about 1230 and drove to LAS for my return flight. It was a fairly positive experience, even if I am not selected.
If anybody has upcoming interviews, PM me and I will reply with more specific gouge.