Originally Posted by Reactivity

Been there, done all of that. Even had an internal recommendation from someone who was once featured in the "Why I love Alaska" section of the web site years ago.

In 2002, a single meeting with the Seattle base assistant chief pilot was enough to get me an interview. Not now.

I did all of that stuff for a while (starting in 2012), then stopped throwing money and time at them after a few years of absolutely no return on the investment. When I got the call for the meet & greet last year, I hadn't been to a single event in almost two full years. Figure that one out.

Honestly, though, the whole "job fair circuit" bugs me. Airlines expect you to drop a couple hundred dollars a couple of times a year to chase them around the country and stand in line for hours at the annual meeting of an organization in which you have no interest whatsoever so that you can get your face in front of them for ten minutes? Especially if you're working in part 135 like I was for a long time and you have no jumpseat capability, it's just nuts.

NWAC was easy because it's local to me and inexpensive, so I did that regularly for a while. A couple of times at NWAC, the first person I talked to took me to talk to a second recruiter. I figured I must be getting close, but still nothing. As noted, it wasn't until two years after I stopped doing anything beyond the annual-ish application that I finally got any attention at all from Alaska. That's why I say they call whom they call when the mood strikes them.