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Old 01-23-2020, 06:32 AM
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rickair7777
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Under the circumstances you may be wise to stop interviewing until you analyze what's going on.

1) Pull ALL of your government records to make sure there's no adverse info mistakenly included in your file. NDR, FBI record, ENTIRE FAA record. You'll need FOIA for the last two, and that will take time, likely weeks or more. Also log into the new Pilot Record Database, but keep in mind that is in Beta mode and may not have complete info (mine does not).

2) Review ALL of your personal documents, look for errors, typos, logbook math, etc. Especially look for anything which might appear fraudulent or intentionally misleading. In this climate they should give you an opportunity to discuss an error, but if they think you're lying intentionally they'll just wash their hands.

3) The mesa thing is strange, for them to reject you that quickly. They wouldn't have had time to pull any federal records (I doubt they'd waste the effort BEFORE an interview) , so that sounds like it had to be something you gave them. Leads to number 4.

4) References. My suspicion is that this is where your problem is... mesa could in fact have made some phone calls in 30 minutes. Coming from entry-level, fewer is better, but you need 2-3. Your entry-level problem is that most of your references are not pilots, and likely not airline pilots. So you never know what they might say, even well-intentioned, that might go against the grain. With regionals you just need 2-3, more is not better but more IS riskier for you. Trim the fat there. When the time comes for majors more references IS better but only if they are pilots from that major (ideally) or another major (they'll want employee numbers to prove it).

The problem is more likely to be your past employment references, vice personal references. The GA/Flight school world is frankly a lot like Junior High School... lots of inter-personal drama. Think carefully about your history with your references. If you have ANY doubts or less-than-solid relationships there, try to find a different reference from the same employer, someone you can trust for sure. It can even be someone who no longer works there, as long as they were in a supervisory position when you were there.

For previous non-flying jobs, if you can direct them to HR that would be best. Nothing a non-aviation boss is going to say will make a positive impact, but they can sure have a negative impact if so inclined for some reason.

Also... you could have a girlfriend make "reference calls" to all of your references and previous employer contacts, identifying herself as an airline HR person. I know a guy who did this, and he found the problem (from where he least expected it).
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