Groundstop,

Having recently interviewed I can tell you what worked for me. I had quite a bit of gouge including some of the previous interview questions. What I did to prepare was formulate my own responses to them and ask several people in the industry (both senior and junior) how they would handle themselves in those certain scenarios. I was surprised in how many different responses I received but took away what I thought I would actually do in that/those situations. Whether it's a dirty airplane, a maintenance gripe, disgruntled flight attendants, someone stealing, drunk passengers, etc. How would you handle yourself in those type of scenarios and still get the flight done?

If you give them a canned/rehearsed response, they are going to dig deeper and see how you would very specifically handle it down to the fine grain, kind of throws the gouge out the window and if you're "living" by the gouge then you may "die or fail" by the gouge.

In the end, I took my coat off (they insisted)...drank lots of water, told a quick joke and just relaxed and answered the questions as I would honestly perform out on the line. They're not looking for robots, just people that can handle themselves in an ever changing environment.

For what it's worth, out of 8 highly qualified pilots, only two of us selected. The six that did not make it did not get selected because of the interview so do not take it lightly. I did not go to AirInc or any other agency but had quite a few folks to talk to on the line that would freely give advice including a couple of line pilots that flew me to John Wayne. But in the end, the advice from everyone was be yourself, be prepared, but be yourself.

Best of luck!