That's a great way to put it. It's an oral. Be prepared. The folks interviewing you will notice you prepared. It won't be for nothing.

I guess I have been SMACKED in the head that this stuff is important. Nobody in my interviewed group was asked that much detail about the business side of it. IMHO, you are wasting brain cells if you study that. I believe it's about 2% of the interview. I know 12 guys who have been hired after me who told me they were not asked a lot of detail about who you are flying for when you go from airport a to airport b. Just the basics. Who started the company, what is ACMI, wet leasing, etc. Not the headache of details that is being portrayed here.

Study the technical PILOT stuff. Not the business details. I gaurantee you that it is only about 2% of the whole interview if even that. Im not making this up.

Sorry to have offended anyone who likes to dig into this stuff but this being a site to help guys get hired, I think WAY too much is being focused on the "Business" side of it. It's only a small(very small) part of the interview. Yes it's a huge part once you get hired, but hardly mentioned in the interview and won't be a show stopper if you aren't boned up on it. Stick to the things they look for in a pilot. Maybe our interview day was the one that was different than all others,but nobody was asked any details about the industry and how much we knew about it. It focused on flying airplanes.

A basic part of any interview prep is to make sure that you understand the company that you are being interviewed by. This is not just aviation, it is universal. And it must be especially important from the standpoint of Atlas management, since the well worn path to anger and frustration is to hire people who think that this place can be turned into a traditional scheduled airline.

And just like type rating orals, every interview is different.

There is a reason the interview sometimes focusses on the business side of things. Obviously, one is called because someone in HR thinks you're qualified enough to fly for Atlas as a PILOT. The PILOT part is easy for them, they know your qualifications and can see if you have a poor training record. Its also super easy to ask you PILOT questions, and one should answer those questions fairly easily because you are a PILOT. What they don't know is if you understand who Atlas is and what they do. They don't want to hire someone who fails understand the nature of the business. The better you show knowledge on who Atlas is and what they do (basically if you understand the business) the better you answer their questions. They determine you "trainable" with a lot of these questions. They can train a monkey you know...


FYI, the technical part of my interview lasted 5-10 minutes and just reviewed what I missed on the online test. I was literally asked 3-5 technical questions in the course of a 7 hour day.

The written exam was hardly pilot related. One applicant eloquently wrote about how he didnt understand the topic and explained how he would research such a thing. He still got the job. Again, not "pilot related"

Hours were devoted to how Atlas operated, who their contracts were, what type of contracts they were after, how long pilots work for, etc...

Long-time reader, first-time poster...just got the call for interview 15 Jan. Whoohoo!

Congrats!! Hopefully that means calls for classes soon!

Ok, you are off and running, AlohaC-17. Congrats.

I guess they are making phone calls this week for interviews, and hopefully to the poolies for classes starting after the new year.

Hey JT, I think there may be a difference in the line of questions asked of military only and civilian only in the interviews. Just an opinion only.

Classes offered for the 747 Jan 7th.

Any other swimmers get the Jan 7 call? I have not, but a buddy of mine did. Just hoping they are spreading the calls out over 2 days.