Apparently a disgruntled MD-11 pilot found out from a fleet captain the issue--and its not a military issue but a PE issue...
PEs--those once every 10 year hard candy supposed to help your friends--were probably doing the exact opposite. Why? HR decided to play fair and make sure we opened the doors up to non-insiders, so (according the the source--so there may be some distortion here...) it was 80/20 with non PE being the 80% since last March.
So--what did offering your PE do? It basically reduced the chance of your sponsee getting called by a factor of 4.
Now--do I think there needs be a path to bypass sponsorship? Sure. There are some good pilots out there who just don't happen to know anyone here. Should we eliminate 4 out of 5 pilots just because they are a known quantity to someone here? YGTBSM. That is nothing but a slap in the face to the pilots who go to work every day and night here and offered their once in a decade green stamp to try to help them.
From an coaching standpoint--we are going to help any and all clients who want our help. That's what a business does, and my team is glad to help. Guess what? Some of the people we've seen come through have struggled, and do not have the experience of previous candidates. We've also seen more rejections--both on the tests and the interview phase. This tells me the interviewers are not getting as much of what they want either. That isn't to say there aren't some great folks hired since March, and I flown with a couple and they were solid aviators.
What I will say, however is I have never met a pilot at FedEx who would knowingly recommend someone that they didn't feel would be a good fit and a good reflection of them--the sponsor. We all have a friend or two we like--but probably wouldn't recommend. When it comes down to trusting the future of your company, and your retirement--pilots get a little protective. I want my daughter to have the option to work here one day--so I dont' recommend anyone I wouldn't want to be her captain on the line. I've always thought our rec policy insured we got pilots who who knew the challenges of working here--but wanted to come anyway. Anyone can read about the payrates--but are you ready to hub turn, carry a thermos out to the 727 (yeah...old days), sleep in the afternoon and wait for deice on a Memphis ice event for the next 20 years? Most of us wouldn't put our name on someone we didn't think would be a good fit...military or civilian.
So--that's the issue. It wasn't anti-military. It wasn't pro-civilian. It was simply that if a FedEx pilot wanted you--HR didn't...at least 4 out of 5 of them. And--since so many military guys were networked in--they were the first to sniff something was "weird" when their sponsorees weren't getting called.
I still like it here. Its a very interesting mix of jets and flying and it pays very well. It is worth the effort to scale these walls. At least for now, however, you might not want to ask for a PE. It appears to be more of a hindrance than a help, which is absolutely jaw-dropping to me. I hope we get this fixed. And if you haven't figured it out--you damn sure better have a plan B, C, and D. When recommendations hurt you, you officially have a screwed up hiring process. After your first Delta profit sharing check you may just decide you lucked out after all...