At my Chief Pilot interview (Fall 13') it was explained to me:

There are 2 stacks. Following a successful CP recommendation your app goes into the "short stack". At that time I was told there were approx 30-80 folks in the "short stack", he also said if your have a successful CP recommendation that you will get an interview. However, there was not any specific time as to when that interview will occur (for me it was 4 weeks later).

Again, at that time, they were pulling a percentage from both stacks per week to ensure somewhat of an equitable pull from all dynamics. He also said that the pull from the database stack was set-up to bring a percentage of all backgrounds in per week of interviews.

During my period of interviews this did prove to be the case...mil, regional CA and FO, 135 etc...

Other key pieces of info -

The day I had my CP interview there were 5 of us and we all received the recommendation. We all went on to be offered Hogan/interviews....I was the only lucky one to get hired. How I was the only 1 of 5 to get a job offer I will never know (FWIW, I did pray very hard prior, during and after the process....just say'in, something helped) b/c they were all very good folks of all backgrounds, shades and personalities.

LORs - No letters of recommendation are considered until AFTER the interview. (other than the CP recommendation)

This is just the experience of 1, who went thru the process starting fall of 2013. Ask someone who makes it from the June interviews and their story maybe different.

Bottom line: none of us will ever know exactly how the selection for interviews take place and what gets more points than other things. Everyone has to work on their own resume to ensure it is very well rounded with Professionalism, Leadership and Community Relations/Service - flight hours alone will not get it done.

Network - Network and Good Luck!