Originally Posted by gloopy

The one I heard of had no training whatsoever. But even the one you mentioned is a mockery of the career. Rewarded with a 777 type for answering the phone for a week or two? Compared to what the vast majority of military and civilian pilots have to do to have a similar opportunity, that only cheapens it to the point of spitting in the face of everyone. Gee someone filled in for the receptionist at a DR's office for a week, let's let them do a kidney transplant cause its super cool!

You might be right about the interview vs the job now versus then. But "back in the day" being intern was absolutely worshipped by UAL to the point of jumping the entire profession to get an almost automatic interview that was an almost automatic job offer. IMO that's not good for anyone when 500 hour pilots can walk into a competitive job where everyone else needs 5000+ or mil equivalent...it just cheapens it for everyone. I hope those days are gone and don't ever come back. Unfortunately one negative of the "pilot shortage" are some of the upcoming bridge programs that could end up putting some shockingly low qualified pilots into seats at all levels of the profession.