Originally Posted by Redtails4U

So, I just finished my Delta interview at Atlanta and wanted to pass on what I experienced. I am a 40-50 year old African American Pilot with 25 plus years in the Service. BS with advance studies degree, 10,000+FW hours, 2200+Turb, 6000 +PIC, 7+ years Vol work, 1 Check ride downer 5 years pasted. No other issues.
The interview begins with the Basic, you're all great, relax and all we want to do is get to know you speech from Management. I did use Cage and an Application Prep/Review.
You will be taken to a small room (5x8) where you will wear a mask. The interviewers will introduce themselves (Two Captains and one HR) HR will tell you to, “Very, Very, Very briefly” tell us about yourself, this is where the fun begins. During my intro, I noticed one Captain looking at the floor the other looking at the wall and the HR person looking at me like I just boiled out of a test tube, all with dead pan faces During my intro I mentioned how when I was young, delivering Newspapers, I would pass an airport and watch airplanes. At the conclusion of my 2 min intro the only question came from HR as to why I did not list the Delivery of Newspapers on my Application under employment. I apologized and stated that it was over 38 years ago, and I did not realize the relevances. One of the Captains then showed me on the applications how it states “All employment”, and then asked if I understood the meaning of the word, “ALL”. Next came the questions on the log books which centered on training and flights from 25-30 years ago and a brief touch on my current position. (Why is this flight only 0.7, why did this flight take you 1.9 when the distance is only 100NM, at your current position why did you fly as PIC every other flight for these weeks and on this week you flew every other day. ect….) I explained as best I could remember, and many of my explanations were met with skepticism. This took about 30/40 mins. Then came the three TMAT questions. All were Negative based, When did you fail as a leader, When did you make a mistake and had to be corrected, How would you handle flying with someone who just does not like you.

In my opinion the interview was confrontational, leading to adversarial and ended with a general interrogation feel. In my opinion, Delta cared nothing about any positive elements and instead set a goal to find a chink in the armor, drill deep into the hole like a tick and hope to drag you in. I was unable to ask the other 15 or so non-minority applicants what they had experienced, as i was told within 30 mins that I did not meet the matrix and could reapply in 6 months.
This was my first interview with a Major and I write this because with all the prep and research the general tone of the interview/interrogation did catch me by surprise, and I believe contributed to the negative results.

Good luck to all and in the words of Mike Tyson, “ Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the mouth”

Stay strong,
Snowman