Originally Posted by Pakagecheck

I can tell you some of the things that I wouldn't count against an applicant. (These have 0 bearing mil or civ)
The degree not being from a private university or service academy.
Taking more than 4 years to accomplish a degree.
Grade point average.
Too many recommendations.
Too many flight hours.
Nepotism should be encouraged not frowned upon.

Many are trying to make this a military/civilian thing. I totally disagree. This is a pilot/non pilot screening thing. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, this profession had always had some input from pilots. It is different than your run of the mill job working 9 to 5 downtown. There is a lot about a person that is important in this profession that can't be determined on an application. This is where an endorsement plays the part. That doesn't mean someone without an endorsement shouldn't be vetted/interviewed/hired. We have all had that one person that you worked with in the past that is dangerous to fly with yet every year seems to pass all their rides. We now have no avenue to convey this information to the company. One thing most don't want to admit is there is a big difference between flight time and flight experience. Pilots know that but bean counters don't.

We have hired some great individuals in the past few years. However, this is the first time since many of us have been at the company that there is a perceived problem with attitudes from some new hires, not all but enough to have notice taken. So much so that the chief pilot sent a letter to all the captains making sure they did evaluations on all of the new pilots. Who would ever think that would be an issue with winning the preverbal airline lottery IMHO? In this case, personal endorsements can help eliminate this from happening or fix the problem.

A lot of these "clowns" you speak have some of our most experienced Instructors and Standards pilots willing to play their "one in 10 year trump card" just for them to be taken a look at. I am sorry but take a 25 year standards captain that can type a pilot in the sim, then take them on a 10 day trip around the world when they haven't been west of the Mississippi and sign them off, should be able to make an input on who would make a good pilot here and in my humble opinion, people should listen. That standards pilot can be a from a mil or civilian background which is totally irrelevant to this conversation.

Package