I just got hosed

[Brand X]

Originally Posted by Pilotdude3407

Well I had my ASA interview today. I have worried about this day for a week now because of all the stuff they "might" ask you. I have studied every gouge that I could possibly find on the internet......It was all pointless and a waste of time.

I show up and have 4 other guys that are interviewing with me. They all seem to be super guys and I wish all of them luck. So we do the company overview as previously gouged and the two guys in the room are super nice too. Then comes test time. They randomly pick folders of who will be interviewed first and who will take the test. Me and another guy are selected to take the test while the other three go for interviews. The test wasn't THAT BAD....I guess I could have goofed on it though. Anyway we finish it in like 30-40minutes and then just sit there making small talk. Like an 1hr AFTER we finish, one of the interviewers comes back up and said he needed to see a CFI...? Anyway, that was not me. So after the other guy left I sat there by myself for another 20-30minutes. Then one of the original interviewers came up and got me. Super nice guy. We go downstairs to the interview room and he asks me virtually NOTHING!!!! We go over paperwork, he said it looks good to him. After that he asks like 2 situation questions which I answer correctly and after that we make small talk and he is like, ok we are done. He talks a lot about the sim the next day then we depart.

So I call the number and I am not selected!!! What the heck? Out of 4.5 hrs of my day I spend all of 15min talking to someone and they don't ask me back? And before some of you start saying what might have happened, let me tell you what didn't happen. I had my test with me until he let me go, so it was not graded or even looked at before the interview. He said he had not even looked at my paperwork before we had gotten into the room and I did not have any disqualifiers like arrests or more speeding tickets than I claim or anything about lying.....HE DIDN'T EVEN LOOK AT MY LOGBOOKS!!! Now some of you may say I am a sore looser and I very well may be, but don't you think I got done kinda wrong?? Everyone else got 1hr+ interviews and mine was 15min. I had every inch of jepp charts memorized....I knew all the 121 minimums....I can tell you in great detail about every system on the King Air plus memory items on the checklist, and he asked me nothing. He didn't even ask how I got into flying.

Now if I bombed the test...then I bombed the test and I can live with that but if I did, he did not know it before my interview so something else was up. I love ASA but for a company that is DESPERATE for pilots, they sure are cutting people without even trying.

All thoughts are appreciated, because I am not taking this very well.

They are probably only hiring CFIs because they need someone to keep an eye on the low time captains there. But don't fret, all is not lost. Maybe getting on with Delta or United will serve as some consolation. They are both hiring now and NWA will be soon.

[Brand X]

You still have a long way to go to get to the record number of rejections of Pilot 754.

[Cptnchia]

Originally Posted by Brand X

They are probably only hiring CFIs because they need someone to keep an eye on the low time captains there. But don't fret, all is not lost. Maybe getting on with Delta or United will serve as some consolation. They are both hiring now and NWA will be soon.

Umm, unless you got a few thousand hours of turbine time you aren't getting hired at a major. Not to burst anyone's bubble, but the competitive mins set is senior regional captains and military pilots. Don't get hooked on working for any one particular carrier, especially a regional. You should view a regional as a stepping stone, a place to build time and gain experience. Trust me, the management is viewing it like that. They know that pilots are just passing through, and really don't want anyone to reach retirement age with them. It's one way for them to keep costs down.
There are several financially secure regionals to choose from. Shotgun your apps. Take the first that hires you. The pay will be lousy, QOL will bite, try not to commute. Upgrade the first chance you get, even if it means junior captain. Once you start logging PIC, then you can become particular about where you want to finish your career. Don't paint yourself into a corner. The mistake a lot of people make is having a narrow target at the beginning. Don't get discouraged, and before you know it, you'll be the salty line guy!

[taseal]

Originally Posted by Cptnchia

Umm, unless you got a few thousand hours of turbine time you aren't getting hired at a major. Not to burst anyone's bubble, but the competitive mins set is senior regional captains and military pilots. Don't get hooked on working for any one particular carrier, especially a regional. You should view a regional as a stepping stone, a place to build time and gain experience. Trust me, the management is viewing it like that. They know that pilots are just passing through, and really don't want anyone to reach retirement age with them. It's one way for them to keep costs down.
There are several financially secure regionals to choose from. Shotgun your apps. Take the first that hires you. The pay will be lousy, QOL will bite, try not to commute. Upgrade the first chance you get, even if it means junior captain. Once you start logging PIC, then you can become particular about where you want to finish your career. Don't paint yourself into a corner. The mistake a lot of people make is having a narrow target at the beginning. Don't get discouraged, and before you know it, you'll be the salty line guy!

to me:

student to CFI -->> Med school
Regional/135 Carrier -->> Residency
Legacy -->> MD



each one is just as important, and I would have to say the regional is the MOST important one because that is your transition, and u better get hooked up with someone that you really want to be with.

[surreal1221]

Originally Posted by taseal

to me:

student to CFI -->> Med school
Regional/135 Carrier -->> Residency
Legacy -->> MD



each one is just as important, and I would have to say the regional is the MOST important one because that is your transition, and u better get hooked up with someone that you really want to be with.

I love that analogy.

[Cptnchia]

Originally Posted by taseal

to me:

student to CFI -->> Med school
Regional/135 Carrier -->> Residency
Legacy -->> MD



each one is just as important, and I would have to say the regional is the MOST important one because that is your transition, and u better get hooked up with someone that you really want to be with.

While your analogy is good, how many years do you spend in residency? 3, 4? Then you move on, to a new hospital or practice. That's the place you will spend your career, not the teaching hospital. Same with aviation. Get on with a regional that you can build quality time with and learn the ropes. Then move on. The regionals are all pretty much the same. Low pay, lousy QOL, hard flying. Don't tie yourself to one at the expense of the others just because you like where they fly or their paintjob. Use them because they will certainly use you. That's all I'm trying to say.

[P&H]

I realize this topic is a few weeks old, but having just come back from the ASA interview, I figured I'd bite.

These guys were a good bunch, and they really want to get to know you. I am not suggesting this was a reason, but it's something to think about. Attitude is everything during the phase prior to the sim eval. Maybe not everything, but a lot. I wonder if you were perhaps overly nervous, very reserved, or maybe there was something else about your attitude that they didn't like. It's also possible that you didn't pass your written exam. They're looking for a certain score, and I don't know what that is. It might not be 70%, but maybe higher. Just some things to consider for your next interview.

Best of luck.

[surreal1221]

P&H, the original poster has since been hired by AWAC.

[Pilotdude3407]

Originally Posted by surreal1221

P&H, the original poster has since been hired by AWAC.

Dang straight I have...haha!!!

See, I disagree to a certain point. I definatly learned a lot of things from the first interview that I took to the second however, as I stated before, I just didn't think anyone took the time to interview me. I hardly think that a written test should discard me from at least an HR interview. At AWAC, there was no written and no sim. I had a 2 on 1 interview and they asked me questions that I think needed to be asked to get to know me. i.e. Why do you want to work for us...what can you bring to the company, what makes you a leader, what can you do to help the operation go smoother, and why should we hire you over the others today? Now that to me is getting to know who I am. I think that maybe why AWAC has a very well rounded pilot base. It depends on what you are looking for in the long run. Yes the written tests and sim evals weed out SOME of the people that will eventually fail but if you are looking for good attitudes, the AWAC interview did exactly what it was supposed too. CHEERS

[zmiller4]

Originally Posted by Pilotdude3407

I hardly think that a written test should discard me from at least an HR interview.

A written test should absolutely discard someone from an interview. No company that I know of wants to see higher than 80% on the written portions, which is completely reasonable. With the interviews I've been to, the writtens are straight out of the ATP knowledge test bank. So you've got all the possible questions, and enough time to study them--they're just trying to see if you can put your mind to studying something and learn it as well as they want. Each of the airlines I've interviewed at would automatically disqualify who scored less than 80% on the interview.

BTW, congrats on the job!

[ready2fly]

Originally Posted by zmiller4

A written test should absolutely discard someone from an interview. No company that I know of wants to see higher than 80% on the written portions, which is completely reasonable. With the interviews I've been to, the writtens are straight out of the ATP knowledge test bank. So you've got all the possible questions, and enough time to study them--they're just trying to see if you can put your mind to studying something and learn it as well as they want. Each of the airlines I've interviewed at would automatically disqualify who scored less than 80% on the interview.

BTW, congrats on the job!

[cfii2007]

I agree....giving the written as part of the interview is silly. Why not just make the ATP Written required, along with flight time minimums??

[LoadMasterC141]

Awesome Job Dude! AWAC seems to be a better airline anyway!
CONGRATS!!!!