Originally Posted by
Otters
The company does not want to hire an individual, have them go on MLOA for 2 years, and come back with an award to the left seat of one of their airplanes with no system experience.
Had approx 10 of 12 interviewees hired from my previous squadron, all non retirees. Over the past 10 years, only 4 offers, just to interview, from the same 'widget factory' and all 4 were retirees. Not one person who separated was even offered an interview.
You are spot on. Im a UAL pilot. Was having this conversation with our system chief pilot several months ago.Im former military so heres my small story on this.
System chief pilot tells prospective military people to get through training and consolidate after 100 hours then go ahead and do military work. After saying this the Chief pilot had a pilot come in and after one week of indoc, drop military orders to take a long break. Im here to tell you, its an honor to have each and every member serve our country.
But Ill call a spade a spade. When you game the system and take several years off then return, I cant blame any hiring department looking out for their own best interests. The idea of getting an offer means you have availability for employment. Thats not unreasonable to expect. Now does any airline guarantee a long prosperous career? Nope!!!!! One dog one bone. But the company is going to turn around and take that bone and look out for their own interests.
Best of luck
Otter,
Am certain this is an outlier. Did the CP share the details? How long? Occasionally a person gets hired, affiliated with a unit and the occasionally true invol occurs.
Not convenient for anyone, but a necessity of military reality.
We have had a few folks work with over the years where this has happened.
USERRA allows the CP to call the unit to get details. Most units understand the airline pilot training and consolidation requirements and give up the member for the 3-4 months to complete airline training.
However, said service member has 3-4 months of drills and military re qualification or qualification/currency issues as well. Military budgets are critical as much as it is for an airline. Takes some time and tough budget management to complete these quals/requals and others label them as gamers. They are not gaming. It is a reality of being a dual employee.
One case we had was a new pilot who notified taking military duty over Thanksgiving, Christmas and the into the New Year. He lived in same town as mil unit. CP claimed he was gaming the system and abusing the military capability to stay home over the holidays. Truth was he was being deployed to a FOB in the war zone.
Of course a few outliers justify the discrimination and bad opinion by the rest of us on the honorable 99%.
Maybe this person was the exception, Without specifics, my experience has shown the vast majority serve with integrity.
No one seems to complain or claim gaming when a Captain drops 10-15K of UAL/DAL/AA/WN/FedEX/UPS money to serve and make only 3-4K DOD money.
Just my experience advocating for service members.
SD