| Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Sherborn, Massachusetts USA
Posts: 1,282
|  Cape Air First Officer Interview
I sent an email to the director of pilot recruitment with my resume for the FO program. I was immediately send a reply back containing their application to fill out and send back within 10 days.
I quickly filled the out the form and then got in touch with my cousin-in-law who is a very respected pilot in their ranks to write me a letter of recommendation. They replied back that they would review my application and if I meet their standards then I would be offered an interview date.
Fast forward about a day, and my cousin-in-law walks into the chief pilot's office prepared to hand over a letter of recommendation when he is told that he is about an hour too late -- they had already sent an email to me offering an interview!
At any rate, I check my email and sure enough I got an interview date. Also attached to the email was a few word documents containing information about the interview and what to brush up on for the sim portion. I am really surprised that they did that for me.
Fast forward again to the day of the interview. My interview was scheduled for Tuesday, July 17th at 9:00am. Since I was coming from Nantucket, MA (ACK) I didn't want to leave anything to chance so I flew in the day before, rented a car, and stayed at the Econo-Lodge in Hyannis (all on my own dime... I'm sure that if I pressed the subject they would have reimbursed me for some of it, but I think it would have been poor form to start demanding repayment for my plane ticket, rental car, and hotel room during the interview).
I show up to the interview and find their offices on the upper floors of their hangars in Hyannis. I find that there's only two of us interviewing today; myself and on other person. Since I was a bit early and Gene Smith was running a bit late, I spend the time getting to know the other applicant and shooting the breeze with the secretary. Finally Gene comes out from the back and introduces himself and gives us the breakdown for the events of the day. First we'd go on a tour of the facilities, then one would sim while the other goes in for the HR portion, then we'd swap, then lunch/questions.
We go on the tour, where I met many of the upper management in the hallways. They all seem really nice and really glad to have us there. I knew I was in the right place when their COO, Dave Bushy, joked with me that I really needed to lose the tie. Of course I kept it on... better be safe during an interview.
After the tour, which lasted about an hour, I was selected to go into the sim. One thing I would note here, during the tour don't hesitate to ask questions and seem really interested in the company. For better or worse, I really never stopped asking questions. The other applicant, for the most part was kind of quiet. Cape Air, I found, wants a real "people person" for their pilots. So the more animated, excited, gregarious, and personable the better; they want someone who will put nervous passengers at ease because there is no cockpit door on their C402s and the copilot's seat is a revenue seat too so you're among the passengers.
Back to the sim portion -- I would heavily encourage people to get time in a PCATD prior to their interview. The sim is essentially a glorified PCATD and as such has all the quirks of a PCATD. I have a picture I stole from their website, but I've gotta figure out how to post it here.
The sim instructor was also a very nice guy. He started off the session with some small talk and then telling me that he's not looking for ATP standards, but rather instrument/commercial standards and it's just to see my instrument skills and procedures. He spent about a half hour talking me through the sim, where all the switches were, power settings, and airspeeds (because I had never flown a C402 before, which the sim is based off of). At times it seemed more like a full-blown tutorial than a sim evaluation. The key here is to be relaxed and just fly the sim as you would normally -- don't try to impress them with airline methods/flows because they will train you to their methods if you're hired.
Now for the sim profile -- everything is straight-froward. There are no engine failures or abnormal procedures to deal with. The applicant will take off out of Hyannis (HYA) on an IDP (I took off RW 15, then radar vectors). Then some basic maneuvers out across the sound to get used to the sim (turns to headings, climb at 500 fpm, descend at 500 fpm). Then some steep turns - one to the left then one to the right. Then head direct Marconi VOR (LFV VOR) and hold as published on the RW15 approach for HYA. I didn't even have to enter it - just call the proper entry - then radar vectors for the ILS. Since the sim is squirrly below 300 feet, he told me the evaluation was essentially over at that point (good thing too because I Vmc-ed it in).
To recap... the major bullet points of the sim are:
- basic instrument work
-steep turns
-situational awareness
-intercepting/tracking radials
-holding
-precision approach
Just work on those aforementioned things and you are golden!
The sim instructor seemed satisfied with my flying but he was professionally non-committal when I asked him if I "passed."
Then Gene came by again to collect me and bring me to the HR portion. This the one area I always do cold. I feel I give more genuine answers if I never practice for the HR interview for better or worse and it hasn't failed me yet.
The HR portion was one-on-one with the assistant chief pilot. Again, like everyone in the company he seemed like a nice person.
These are the standard questions such as what would you do for a nervous passenger, explain a time you had a disagreement with a coworker/boss, explain a time you were forced to do something unsafe, any checkride failures, what would you do if you came across a policy you disagreed with or have you encountered any and what did you do, explain a time you went above and beyond for a customer etc.
After the sim ride, this part was a piece of cake. If you have the option do the sim before the HR part. It brought me back into my element and I was pumped from a steller performance in the sim. Again, don't come across as a sick in the mud during the HR portion. Remember their motto: Make Our Customers Happy and Have a Good Time Doing it (MOCHA HAGoTDI), and if you have a glacial personality you're probably are not long for the job. Just show that you're excited to be there and draw upon your life experiences and you'll do well -- but come across as genuine.
Then Gene swung by again, gave us a lunch menu from one of the local restaurants. Remember this is an interview lunch so no buffalo wings! I ordered a chief salad, the other guy ordered a sandwich, and Gene ordered a sandwich as well.
During our lunch Gene went though the history of the company and gave us the opportunity to ask questions. Again, I asked the majority of the questions and the other guy stayed mostly quiet. I don't know if that was his personality or what, but he was certainly very quiet.
After lunch, Gene said that they'd let us know two days hence whether we had the job or not. Then he disappeared for about a half hour. When he came back he said my cousin, who works in the SOC, wanted to meet me and that the interview was over.
Upon reaching the SOC, I met my cousin, a few other good looking female pilots (daaam... I could definately dip into the company ink on that! ahem... getting back... to the... um... topic at hand), and one other pilot who I had become friends with during the numerous times he flew my butt from ACK to BOS. It was almost a reunion of sorts. It was us five or six, Gene included, and eventually the sim evaluator came in too. For about an hour my cousin and I caught up on family gossip.
Upon leaving, I ran into Dan Wolf (Cape Air's CEO). Who, I was pleasantly surprised to find as really nice guy. He complained to me about the radar being out in Nantucket and having to wait in line for an hour at the runway (I guess he knew I was ATC, the office is small so I'm not surprised). I took the time to explain that we hate it too because it really hamstrings us because once someone reports the fix, we can't launch or position and hold. Then that led us into a discussion about position and hold. I explained to him that we can't position and hold anyone if someone is cleared to land. In which case we have to go back, cancel landing clearance, issue the TIPH, launch the aircraft, then go back and clear the landing aircraft to land sometimes on short final. Then we wrapped up by him saying that he expects priority now since he knows an ATC.. I joked with him that I'll pencil him in beside AF1!
Then that was the day... to put the icing on the cake, I show up for my flight to ACK and who's flying it but my cousin-in-law! He had an FO with him, though, so I couldn't get the copilot's seat.
Then yesterday I got the call for a Sept 17th class! To say that I'm over the moon is an understandment!
__________________
Neil Harrison
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