Originally Posted by
dodsqubam
I keep hearing about the preferential hiring of females and minorities. Personally, as a female, I’ve not experienced it. Regardless of my chromosomes, I worked my ass off and passed my checkrides. I have a college degree. I was a damn good CFI and I studied for my airline interviews. I dressed professionally and interviewed well. I have only applied to the regionals and felt like I was as competitive as a CFI candidate could get. Maybe the majors are different?
Yes
Originally Posted by
dodsqubam
guess I don’t understand at what point being a woman is going to be that much of an advantage. Honestly, if they are handing out jobs at the majors based on being female, I’m not going to say no. “You want to hand me a job for something completely out of my control? Ok.” It just seems like the female/minority thing is such a rumor to me. Does anyone have any hard facts that being female or a minority really boosts the resume that much?
When you get competitive
within your demographic, make sure your apps are filled out.
See what happens relative to your peers with the other chromosomes with similar/same flight experience.
Read the other posts, especially Rickair's, he's pretty much nailed it in various discussions. Here, I'll make it easier;
Originally Posted by
rickair7777
But the problem with affirmative action in airline hiring is that it's ONLY available to people who have already acquired the foundation...
A non-white/non-male junior regional CA or senior regional FO with a college degree and 5000 hours is not at any sort of disadvantage whatsoever, even though they may have climbed out of a pretty deep hole to get where they are. At the point where you are even remotely competitive for a major, the disadvantage is all behind you.
At that point it's just a very cynical effort on the part of the majors to put numbers on the board and have faces they can put on posters.
With women it's even worse... there's only a "shortage" in aviation because most young girls are not interested in airplanes, and many that are might not be interested in the lifestyle (most of the ones I started out with dropped out over the years to be home for their kids, either left completely or delayed career progression to retain seniority in seat). If there really is some sort of shortage crisis of women (maybe just because they need every new pilot they can get), they need to do outreach in JH, HS, and college. As it is now it's just all the bigs scrambling to scoop up the limited number available. Even a legit early outreach program may be pounding a square peg into a round hole, but I'll leave that choice up to the pegs in question.