Originally Posted by
Catboatsailor
We must have conflicting sources. I'm former XJ and three of my XJ friends interviewed. 2 were hired (out of the 3 total hired for the day). Mesabah's previous comment is a generalization that does not apply. Delta has not yet looked at our employment records (above and beyond PRIA btw) before the interview. The reason why my friend was turned down was not on mesabahs list. I know some have failed the cog test. The avg age of pilots being interviewed is mid to late 40's. They aren't the xbox generation, flawless 121 safety records, not so flawless with tapping a pen against a computer screen. I have heard of military guys taking the compass and expressjet interviews, just to get the practice. IMHO utilize the interview preps like Aerocrew, etc. The hunters out there understand the concept of "buck fever". The first time you climb up in a tree stand, wait all weekend and finally see a buck..... Odds are you'll miss with the first shot. On the whole we are all safe competent pilots. We have been up in that proverbial deer stand for years. Don't let the first hunt be for that prized 24 point buck (ie Delta). Practice with some Does (ie interview prep, friends etc). The panel interview is unnatural for the majority of pilots. We are not salesmen who deal with that on a daily basis. We need to be prepared.
Trying to prove you are Delta material in a 3 hour time span (HR & exams) is daunting. Mistakes will be made on both sides of the table. Unfortunately many pilots that we have flown with for years, who we literally trust to fly our families, who already exclusively fly Delta paying passengers, don't make it thru the process. <- excuse the longest run in sentence ever. My 8th grade English teacher is shedding a tear somewhere. No human designed system is perfect, the HR process will make mistakes and lose quality pilots. Swamp I bet you and I agree. We know some of these pilots being turned down. We have a vetted interest in their success, we have seen, on a daily basis, their professionalism.
It never ceases to amaze me the number of people try to skimp on the preparation for an airline interview - this is a job you will have for anywhere from 20-40 years and people are willing to forgo a few hundred dollars investment in interview prep. There are plenty of people on here who will point you in the right direction for interview prep for each airline (some do well with multiple airlines). Find out the dress code, match it (no matter how much it costs and even if you will never wear it again) and do all the other little things necessary to get hired (organize your paper work, check, double check, triple check everything on you to make sure it is 100% accurate). Congrats to those who have already made it (it is still a better job than 99.9% of the jobs out there) and good luck to those still working on getting hired.