I have a hard time believing that 20 minutes in a sim validates much (other than the guy got the profile from Brand X prep course and practiced it on his own dime a day or two before he came in).

99% of the guys we hire are coming from a mil cockpit or a 121 gig. That probably tells you about as much as the sim snapshot - i.e. they can fly an airplane and they're trainable. Looking at past training/recurrent issues via training records is probably a much better indicator than 20 minutes doing climbs, turns, holding, etc.

Don't get me wrong. If there was a good way to validate someone's skills, I think that would be important. Doing it effectively would probably be cost and time prohibitive. Unfortunately, since the sim is such a brief look, I think the occasional "toad" could prep enough to mask his deficiencies. On the other hand, someone we would benefit from hiring might have a bad day and get shown the door after a "false positive".

Or.......maybe it's just another wicket the hiring gurus can use as an excuse to can someone they just didn't like.