Originally Posted by gohfastur

I was replying to a question in the 9/16 interview thread. AFPirate made a good call and I am following his lead. Here is what I posted in the other thread.

All, just interviewed on the 16th, and am now in Phase 2. HIGHLY recommend going through the Emerald Coast Interview Prep. 4 hours of audio. 5-6 hours of video (some redundancy) and mock interviews with the EC staff. You don't even need to know the actual questions being asked...this prepares you in general for ANY question that COULD be asked. There is a lot of gouge my wife found (yep! I am a lucky guy) from other websites that covered almost everything. Some quick tips:

Suit - if you don't have it ready, get started ASAP. Don't forget little things - shoes, belt, alterations, etc. Sounds simple, but...get it done early. I was picking up a shirt day prior.

Emerald Coast - do it. Questions?

As soon as you get your flight booked, try to reserve a seat. I didn't think about it until day prior to departure. Nothing available. JetBlue check in crew member totally hooked me up. On the flight get to know the crew members and ask questions. The other interviewee from SAN brought treats. Nice! Wish I had that gouge! LOL. Ask this, "what should every new first officer know or what do you wish they knew?" Hands down - the answer was something to with just being courteous and human. Say hi to the crew, smile, shake a hand. So...starting off on that foot as an interviewee hopefully set a precedence for a long, fun career.

Start putting together all your paper work now. I put everything into a binder and it was super organized. They took it all out within 5 min of arrival. No worries. I may have...misplaced my ATP...and took a half day tearing apart the house and office.

Whatever you are bringing with you - don't wait until the weekend prior. Do it now. Pack it.

Book your hotel now. If you interview in the early morning (recommended if given a choice), then you can get an afternoon flight out. The Verve and Fairfield are super close and only 10 min away by foot. As I walked out the door and appreciated the cool dry weather, I realized how lucky I was it wasn't pouring. Coming from San Diego, i don't own one of those.....uh.....hang on.....UMBRELLAS! That's it - yeah, don't have one.

15th: Did one last mock interview w/ EC at 0830 and was at the airport by 1200.

I arrived JFK from SAN at about 2100. A320 Captain hooked us up and gave us a tour of JB crew member lounge at JFK. Awesome. Taxi to Fairfield Inn and got settled around midnight. At JB HQ by 0700. So...quick turnaround and 0700 for me as a PST guy was 0400 for the internal clock. Yep. Hurt. Consider that.

16th: DO NOT PEE UNTIL YOU GET CHECKED IN AND DO THE PEE TEST. Questions? Hahahaha - I uh...failed. Had to pee so bad, and did it upon arrival. My 0830 interview slid to about 1030/1100.

Arrived, met, taken upstairs into holding. Fingerprint and pee test. Small talk w/ the other interviewees (whom I still keep in touch with). Brought down to the conference room and meet w/ the Chief pilots who are super relaxed and provide a free Q&A session while you wait. Take advantage. Great time.

Interview is with one pilot and one HR rep.
-Tell us about yourself
-TMAAT...your customer service gained huge loyalty / you used leadership to solve a problem / you had a conflict with a co-worker / you had to stop an unsafe act.

Back to Q&A.

Close out interview w/ another HR rep and pilot.
-Why JB?
-Anything we should know about not yet disclosed? (Be upfront and direct about anything that could be a hiccup later. In phase 2, we were told by the JFK Chief Pilot, the biggest detractor is discovering the skeleton you thought went away, but didn't and now is back at a really bad time. He even mentioned busting check ride back in the day. Takeaway - if you question it, disclose it.
-I am a single seat fighter guy, now flying Encore's and was asked about the transition between two very different CRM platforms.

Back to Q&A. Stay as long as little as you want.

I finished by 1230 and took the standard one hour on the train to get back to JFK.

About one week after interview, received an email that Phase 2 is in effect and time to start filling out the background info.

Overall - as everyone has posted elsewhere, it was an incredible experience. Great company with huge focus on quality of life, family, and making sure the job they offer and the job you take is the right one for both of you. Hopefully it's the last job you ever take...you and your family. The Q&A is your time to interview JB. Feel them out. They seemed to try to put their best food forward as well. The other pilots and staff supporting the day's events - awesome. Super nice, professional, helpful. Never got that "you should consider yourself lucky to be here" feeling. It was really such a great opportunity to talk straight with stakeholders, crew members, and interviewees.

Good luck to all pending interviews and all of us in Phase 2. Hope to see you in the lounge and pick up your dropped trips! LOL

** One more thing - I wished I would have thought about it sooner and planned a few days in NYC w/ the wife. We have a bunch of Hyatt points and could have lived it up for a few days. All I could think of was the interview and getting prepared. If I booked a ticket for the wife the day I got notice - it would have been a great getaway. As it was...I saw the Empire State building from the cab and the one hot dog stand I hit was...sold out.

Sorry for the length and lack of organization in this. Just jamming it out real quick to pay back for all the great info I got off the boards.