Figured I’d give a summary of the one day event since I hadn’t seen one.
We were about 30 in total, split into two groups, one early sim and interview group and one later (615am and something like 830am sims). We were placed in the TownPlace Suites rather than the Hilton. Company ensured that breakfast was opened early for us early sim folks and advised us the night prior—very nice touch.
in the morning we were all waiting on the shuttle for about 25 minutes when we opted to take ubers. Not sure what the snafu ended up being there with the shuttle not ready for us, but the folks at FSI were incredibly apologetic—another good look.
Sim was as advertised and I was able to go over the packet of callouts and the profile with my partner the night before. No surprises, except that we all landed vs the reports I read of one lands, one goes around.
We then piled into a shuttle to HQ and were greeted by HR folks and a program mgr. We settled in briefly in a conference room with name cards for all of us laid out and some swag, reviewed the anticipated schedule and then went for a tour of the HQ. Operation was impressive and seemed about the same level as any major airline from my experience visiting HQs of the legacies in a former life.
After the tour, we settled into the same large conference room, joined by the late sim folks and had a good Q&A session and lunch with some line pilots/union volunteers. Thereafter, some senior leadership came in and presented and opened up for questions.
After the management info session, they broke people out into their interview rooms for the early group and sent the late group on their tour. Interviews were two 30-minute blocks, two on one (my case a mgmt pilot and a line pilot) and one on one (a senior mgmt person in my case). Interviews were very comfortable and conversational and overall enjoyable (a surprise to me with just how enjoyable the conversations were).
In between interview sessions there was a logbook review station set up which was very staight-forward. After we finished our second session, we said farewells and headed to the airport via shuttle at 3pm.
All-in-all it was a great experience, very professional and comfortable. Two things that really stood out to me were 1) the mgmt’s direct acknowledgment that circa-2008 NJ was an irresponsible and poorly run company and that they have learned and changed directly as a result of that experience and 2) the directly clear and cooperative relationship between mgmt and union at the moment as evidenced by the union folks and mgmt presenting simultaneously and being completely on the same page with what was being said—very good to see that culture at work.
I got the call today, one week later, with an offer and accepted a class date of May 16. Can’t wait to join the team.