Originally Posted by
IFlyHeavies
Nah I just heard from several bros that were hired pre-Covid that they were all challenged by a panel member about something in their history, even called one guy a liar because he’d made a minor mistake on his GPA. They were all hired btw, and reflecting on the experience they were pretty sure the interviewer was just trying to get them agitated to see how they reacted. From recent interview feedback, seems like they aren’t doing that anymore. If indeed they ever were, small sample size could just be a coincidence that it happened to several of my friends.
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I can’t comment on current practice, but I will say for certain this was done in the past, at least sometimes. They would find
something to push your buttons on, just to see how you respond.
I got pushed on my total time. As a Mil fighter guy, though I had thousands of hours, I was thousands of hours lower than many, especially civ-only pilots. One interviewer pushed in the middle of the interview. I calmly and rationally answered his question, and we moved on.
At the end of the interview, the HR rep asked if anyone else had any more questions. This same interviewer came back to my total time, and with an almost incredulous and decidedly pointed tone, adding some of his own “experience” in the Navy, proceeded to challenge why I had “so little time for a 20 year military guy“. I again very calmly explained why my total time was fairly typical for an AF fighter guy, especially one who had a lot of time in the AT-38, where I had more sorties than hours.
He looked left and right, everybody nodded and began to stand up. He immediately broke into a giant grin, extended his hand, and seem to indicate that I had responded appropriately.
The point being, if you
do get a “bad cop”, be honest, but also
don’t get rattled. Be able to calmly explain, and even turn the “issue” into a reason that it’s a positive, and you’ll be fine. Good luck.