Whitebread
Well-Known Member
Thanks in part to a few guys on this forum I scored an interview at USA Jet and was recently offered a DC9 First Officer position. As they were more than helpful to me with pointers and advice I would like to pay the favor forward to others that may be interested.
Before I get into my interview experience my first piece of advice is to research the company and what they do. USA Jet is an On-Demand Cargo company that also does NCAA sports charters. The Key here is "On-Demand." The sports charters are scheduled, but the cargo operations are not. The company has contracts with Ford, GM and Chrysler to transport last minute parts to different manufacturing plants in the US, Canada and Mexico with Falcon 20's and DC9's. The Active On-Demand side of the company runs an internet freight brokerage bidding system for freight loads all over the place. When these loads need expedited and cannot be transported in time by road, they bring in USA Jet to do the job. Due to the nature of being an on-demand carrier, there is a very short call out for flight crews. If GM is in a situation where a plant will be shut down for an hour if they don't get parts today, it could cost them close to a million dollars vs. paying $30,000.00 to scramble a DC9 within an hour to go get the parts and transport them to the plant. The job can entail long hours, very short call out and sometimes getting dirty. This job is not for everyone and USA Jet does a really good job at painting the reality for you during the interview process so that you know what you are getting yourself into. Now on to my experience.
I received an email from USA Jet that I was selected to fill out an online application for a DC9 FO position. The application was accompanied by a 4 digit code that is only able to be used with that particular email. The application cannot be forwarded and is for your use only. The application mentioned that it would take a few hours to complete, but if you are organized and have your job history, flight times and the typical application stuff handy, it takes about an hour. There is an 80 question personality test at the end of the application.
About a week after filling out the online application I received another email from their recruiter inviting me to YIP for an interview. There were a few interview dates to choose from. I replied to the email with the date of my choosing and their recruiter confirmed my date as well as offered to put me up in a local hotel since I was going to be traveling from out of town. They put me up in the Red Roof Inn which is literally about 4 minutes from the USA Jet Headquarters. The room was clean, close to Applebees, Wendys, Tim Hortons, gas stations, Wal-mart and a few other local eateries.
Arrived at the USA Jet Headquarters about 15 minutes early for the interview that was to begin at 9:00. We checked in with the front desk and received a visitors badge. There is coffee in the lobby as USA Jet is also an FBO. Promptly at 9:00 we were met in the lobby by Mr. Hotton who would be working with us for the first portion of the day. He gave us a brief tour of the facility and then showed us a 15 minute presentation about the company and it's history. After the quick presentation there were a series of 5 tests that we took. A few of the tests were timed and one was not. There was a 60 question math test and we were given 20 minutes to complete as many questions as we could. You will not be able to finish all of the questions in the time given so you are told to complete as many questions as you can. This test has a series of basic algebra problems, a number of word problems, square roots, long addition and subtraction, fractions and percentages. I was able to complete about 23 of the questions in the time allotted. The next test was a graph reading test with about 6 questions about trends in a graph. There was a test where you convert symbols to number for number recognition. Then came a mechanical skills test which is very similar to questions you might find on the Military Aviation Aptitude Test for mechanical reasoning. i.e If this gear turns this direction which direction does this gear turn, or how fast does this gear turn. Lastly there was an part 121 regulations test which was not timed. While we took the regulations test Mr. Hotton called us in one by one to do the SIM eval.
The SIM Eval is an MD80 ELITE PCATD on a desktop with two large screens and a center pedestal. Before we began taking the regulations test, Mr. Hotton gave us a briefing on the use of the SIM, how it worked and what we would be required to do. He is your Non-flying pilot and will take care of all NFP duties as long as you ask him to. The SIM is touchy, so keep your hands on the yoke (trim) and let him work the radios and make configuration changes. Very small power changes are required. If you make a big change you will see a big change. Set the power and let it go. They use to have you take off, intercept an airway, hold and then get vectors for an ILS. They do not do this anymore as they are confident they can see your instrument skills by having you shoot a vectored ILS. When my interview was confirmed he sent me the SIM profile with the required call outs and such. The call outs and power settings they sent me were right on. Here they are basically looking for a good scan and basic IFR procedures knowledge.
Once we all finished the FARs test and the SIM profile, Mr. Hotton took us to lunch at one of the local diners. Nice lunch with great conversation. Mr. Hotton is a very active participant and pilot at the local air museum.
After lunch was the HR/Technical panel interviews. One by one we were interviewed by two HR Representatives and a Flight Standards pilot. While going over the HR portion of the interview, the FS pilot goes through your logbooks. HR questions consisted of "Why do you want to work here? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What do you know about this company? What is the biggest sacrifice you will have to give up to work here? What was the biggest complaint by pilots where you use to work and how did you feel about those complaints? Then the FS pilot asked me about my busted multi-commercial ride. What happened and what I had to do to retrain and retest? What would I do if the Captain lit up a smoke in flight? What would I do if the Captain continued below DA to take a peek?" I didn't really get any technical questions, but the others in my interview group did. At the conclusion of the interview they asked me if I had any questions (always ask a question) and the interview was over.
The day started at 9:00 and we finished up around 3:45. It was a very nice interview experience. The following day I received an email with a class date and I gladly accepted. I am a prior part 121 regional FO and I have interviewed with a couple companies including other regionals. The folks at USA Jet go out of their way to make you feel relaxed and comfortable. Unlike the other interviews I had, these folks did not bring egos into any part of it. At USA Jet you have a name and you are not just a number.
I hope this information is helpful to anyone pursing a job with USA Jet. There area a few current USA Jet pilots on this board so if you have questions about the interview process please feel free to PM me, or you can contact one of them in the USA Jet forum.
Good luck to anyone out there who is still searching for employment! If you are reading this, you are in a great place to network with other employed pilots who definitely have connections.
Before I get into my interview experience my first piece of advice is to research the company and what they do. USA Jet is an On-Demand Cargo company that also does NCAA sports charters. The Key here is "On-Demand." The sports charters are scheduled, but the cargo operations are not. The company has contracts with Ford, GM and Chrysler to transport last minute parts to different manufacturing plants in the US, Canada and Mexico with Falcon 20's and DC9's. The Active On-Demand side of the company runs an internet freight brokerage bidding system for freight loads all over the place. When these loads need expedited and cannot be transported in time by road, they bring in USA Jet to do the job. Due to the nature of being an on-demand carrier, there is a very short call out for flight crews. If GM is in a situation where a plant will be shut down for an hour if they don't get parts today, it could cost them close to a million dollars vs. paying $30,000.00 to scramble a DC9 within an hour to go get the parts and transport them to the plant. The job can entail long hours, very short call out and sometimes getting dirty. This job is not for everyone and USA Jet does a really good job at painting the reality for you during the interview process so that you know what you are getting yourself into. Now on to my experience.
I received an email from USA Jet that I was selected to fill out an online application for a DC9 FO position. The application was accompanied by a 4 digit code that is only able to be used with that particular email. The application cannot be forwarded and is for your use only. The application mentioned that it would take a few hours to complete, but if you are organized and have your job history, flight times and the typical application stuff handy, it takes about an hour. There is an 80 question personality test at the end of the application.
About a week after filling out the online application I received another email from their recruiter inviting me to YIP for an interview. There were a few interview dates to choose from. I replied to the email with the date of my choosing and their recruiter confirmed my date as well as offered to put me up in a local hotel since I was going to be traveling from out of town. They put me up in the Red Roof Inn which is literally about 4 minutes from the USA Jet Headquarters. The room was clean, close to Applebees, Wendys, Tim Hortons, gas stations, Wal-mart and a few other local eateries.
Arrived at the USA Jet Headquarters about 15 minutes early for the interview that was to begin at 9:00. We checked in with the front desk and received a visitors badge. There is coffee in the lobby as USA Jet is also an FBO. Promptly at 9:00 we were met in the lobby by Mr. Hotton who would be working with us for the first portion of the day. He gave us a brief tour of the facility and then showed us a 15 minute presentation about the company and it's history. After the quick presentation there were a series of 5 tests that we took. A few of the tests were timed and one was not. There was a 60 question math test and we were given 20 minutes to complete as many questions as we could. You will not be able to finish all of the questions in the time given so you are told to complete as many questions as you can. This test has a series of basic algebra problems, a number of word problems, square roots, long addition and subtraction, fractions and percentages. I was able to complete about 23 of the questions in the time allotted. The next test was a graph reading test with about 6 questions about trends in a graph. There was a test where you convert symbols to number for number recognition. Then came a mechanical skills test which is very similar to questions you might find on the Military Aviation Aptitude Test for mechanical reasoning. i.e If this gear turns this direction which direction does this gear turn, or how fast does this gear turn. Lastly there was an part 121 regulations test which was not timed. While we took the regulations test Mr. Hotton called us in one by one to do the SIM eval.
The SIM Eval is an MD80 ELITE PCATD on a desktop with two large screens and a center pedestal. Before we began taking the regulations test, Mr. Hotton gave us a briefing on the use of the SIM, how it worked and what we would be required to do. He is your Non-flying pilot and will take care of all NFP duties as long as you ask him to. The SIM is touchy, so keep your hands on the yoke (trim) and let him work the radios and make configuration changes. Very small power changes are required. If you make a big change you will see a big change. Set the power and let it go. They use to have you take off, intercept an airway, hold and then get vectors for an ILS. They do not do this anymore as they are confident they can see your instrument skills by having you shoot a vectored ILS. When my interview was confirmed he sent me the SIM profile with the required call outs and such. The call outs and power settings they sent me were right on. Here they are basically looking for a good scan and basic IFR procedures knowledge.
Once we all finished the FARs test and the SIM profile, Mr. Hotton took us to lunch at one of the local diners. Nice lunch with great conversation. Mr. Hotton is a very active participant and pilot at the local air museum.
After lunch was the HR/Technical panel interviews. One by one we were interviewed by two HR Representatives and a Flight Standards pilot. While going over the HR portion of the interview, the FS pilot goes through your logbooks. HR questions consisted of "Why do you want to work here? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What do you know about this company? What is the biggest sacrifice you will have to give up to work here? What was the biggest complaint by pilots where you use to work and how did you feel about those complaints? Then the FS pilot asked me about my busted multi-commercial ride. What happened and what I had to do to retrain and retest? What would I do if the Captain lit up a smoke in flight? What would I do if the Captain continued below DA to take a peek?" I didn't really get any technical questions, but the others in my interview group did. At the conclusion of the interview they asked me if I had any questions (always ask a question) and the interview was over.
The day started at 9:00 and we finished up around 3:45. It was a very nice interview experience. The following day I received an email with a class date and I gladly accepted. I am a prior part 121 regional FO and I have interviewed with a couple companies including other regionals. The folks at USA Jet go out of their way to make you feel relaxed and comfortable. Unlike the other interviews I had, these folks did not bring egos into any part of it. At USA Jet you have a name and you are not just a number.
I hope this information is helpful to anyone pursing a job with USA Jet. There area a few current USA Jet pilots on this board so if you have questions about the interview process please feel free to PM me, or you can contact one of them in the USA Jet forum.
Good luck to anyone out there who is still searching for employment! If you are reading this, you are in a great place to network with other employed pilots who definitely have connections.
