USMCFLYR

Flyn -

You hit the nail on the head when you said " will, shall, should, etc..."
Depending on how your SOP is written, SOPs are how operations are conducted IN LIEU OF a brief. If we don't brief something different or it is an opportunity rendezvous for example then the airspeed will be 300 kts. That doesn't stop me from briefing 250 kt join.

The answer to the 89th interview question is too ask them how did that pressing below mins weather go from the Polish President? Did you hear that Marine One just landed halfway on a trip to Camp David this weekend dye to weather. The President had to motorcade the rest of the way. That sounds o me like one of the simplest interview question ever.

USMCFLYR

Edit : FlyerJosh you stole my thunder with the Polish President!
Guess I could read all the posts before I decide to answer next time.

flyn2001

What would give you that impression? ;-)

Actually, no worries...i've got thick skin, I was just caught off guard by being informed that if I tell an interviewer how I abide by my SOPs that I would not get hired....and also how "we" deviate from our SOPs every day. As an Evaluator Pilot, I not only write, teach and abide by my SOPs, but I also evaluate how others stick to them, to include very senior pilots in the Air Force.

I think we are talking the same talk USMCFLYR...but I still can't believe you compared me to a lawyer!! Now that's just plain rude! j/k!

FlyerJosh

Flyn- It was the "I have not" part that kind of struck a nerve. Sorry if I came across as blunt. But I can tell you first hand that at least one company has turned away folks that refuse to admit that they have deviated from SOPs or broken a reg.

There's no problem with telling an interview that you live and breathe the regs/SOP and do everything you can to abide by them. That's expected...

What I was trying to convey is that if you're ever asked the question "Have you ever intentionally/unintentionally deviated from SOP?" and you can't think of a time you might have done so (and fairly quickly), then I'd say you're either trying to BS me or you simply have a poor self-awareness of your own mistakes and short comings.

At some point in one's career you'll end up landing long or coming in a bit off the profile or doing something else that in the whole scheme of things wasn't a big deal, but it was a deviation from SOP or the regs.

The trick is finding the error you made and showing that you too are human and that you learned something from it and do the best you can to prevent reoccurrence.

ARL120384

Sorry to bring this thread back to life, but I was wondering...

with these TMATT style questions, does an HR interviewer want to hear all work related stories, or should life outside of flying experiences be part of the answer as well?

Thanks

BenS

In response to the original post; in both questions the interviewer is giving you a loaded gun and seeing if you're going to shoot your foot with it.. in both answers, I kind of think you did.

Question one is obviously a set up to see how you handle adversity. We all have faced it, and we all have flown with captains that can be "difficult". I was surprised by your first sentence "I have and tolerated it". Then honestly you sound quite angry that this captain pressed the issue after the flight when his issue was that the rules were made to be followed. The last sentence that the captain is somehow inferior because he doesn't have a degree was extremely surprising. You might as well played a race card or something. You finished by saying how you could word that better? Personally I'd throw that whole story out and find something more simple, like a captain who talks during sterile cockpit and how "in the interest of safety" you had to ask him to wait until you finish landing or something. If your answer is about "safety" how can the interviewer call you wrong?

Question two is again, another fully loaded question. In this case, the interviewer is tricking you into admitting that you violated a rule. Yes, it happens, but don't take his bait and say that you knew you violated a rule, and didn't care. Then to prove you were right, you say essentially "well, I didn't even get in trouble for it". An interviewer must be thinking, "So not getting in trouble makes knowingly violating a rule okay?" This story is one to leave at home, in the closet safe, securly locked and never to come out again. If you're going to admit that you knowingly violated a rule, at least make a case that it was "in the interest of safety for my crew and passengers". Otherwise you're probably better off naming a time you accidentaly violated a SOP/FAR and when it was pointed out to you, you immediately corrected your mistake and made sure to never do it again. The fact that the second part of the question says "to help the company" is something that should be as secondary in your answer as it is in your day to day thinking. If a wing was missing and you're about to write it up, I doubt your biggest worry is "but taking a delay would hurt my company". That is part of the setup in this question. Don't show that you knowingly violate rules and FARs because you want to help your company.

Nothing to be sorry about.. as you can see, I personally love TMAAT style questions. There really are two types of these questions as far as I see them. First type, as described above, are completely loaded set up questions. And in both of the above referenced questions they were specifically about flying and aviation experiences. When faced with these type of loaded questions your best options are to show where you're interests lie, and "safety" should be the word used almost all of the time. ie-"why did you violate a FAR?" "in the interest of safety", "Why did you get into a disagreement with a captain" "for the safety of the flight" etc..

Now the other type of TMAAT questions are more general and perhaps a great chance for story telling. These are frequently were you can, and maybe should once or twice, step out of your box of aviation. This is a great chance to show the interviewer who you are and answer the all important "do I want to sit with this guy for a 6 day trip?" that the interviewer is definitely asking himself. Some examples "tmaat where you were scared in an airplane" "my first solo I bounced the landing so bad, thought a gear strut was going to fall off, [other jokes or funny story stuff].", "tmaat where you had to get someone to do something they did not want to do" "well there once was this time where I was babysitting a two year old who did not want to eat his vegetables".

Hopefully you get the idea. There really needs to be a book written about TMAAT questions. But long and short, there are trap questions to avoid, and story telling questions where you should let your personality come out. There are times to be serious about your aviation experiences, and there are questions where you can be a little personable and maybe should step out of the aviation box a time or two. Hope this helps everyone, hopefully all will land their next big job interview.

ZapBrannigan

How come every time I try to think of an answer to "tell me about a time you saw a coworker doing something unsafe" or "tell me about a time you didn't get along with a coworker" my answer ends with , "...so then I went home and *****ed about it on Facebook."

In all seriousness, I'm good with situation and action ... Not so much with result. Lol

greenergrass

Hilarious and unfortunately true for too many people, including me!

squall line

Any good TMAAT questions worth sharing? I always have a hard time dwelling on one or two bad things that have happened in the past, and they seem to really screw up interviews. I am proactively coming up with new stories now for an upcoming interview.

Adlerdriver

Squall,
I found that putting my experiences in applicable categories worked far better than trying to come up with specific answers to a huge list of questions. I tried that at first with all the "gouge" that was floating around my squadron. You end up with a list of dozens of questions to answer, but many are asking the same questions - just in a slightly different way.

Most of the interview questions fall into general, broad categories:
Decision Making (what process do you use, decisions made with little time, hardest, etc.)
Communication (conflicts with co-workers, were you ever the cause, resolving disputes between two others, unresolved conflicts, etc.)
Leadership (what types, problems encountered as a leader, success/failures, your style, unexpectedly put in leadership role)
Learning Ability (college performance, early/late upgrade, how do you study)
Team Dynamics/Orientation (when part of team, team problem solving experiences, emergencies, disagreements w/ Captains and F/Os)
Attitude (failed checkrides, fired from jobs, grades, like/dislike previous jobs, etc.)

If you go through your logbook, journal, memories or whatever you have to jog your memory and think of significant events and experiences that fall into these categories you can start to catalog your stories. Some experiences may fit for more than one category. Once you have a pretty good list of events/experiences, you can jot down some details for each one, refamiliarize yourself with them and get the main points straight in your head. Even with bad experiences, you can always turn them around to create valuable lessons and put a positive spin on them (that really needs to be your goal when discussing negatives).

When you're practicing telling your stories/experiences, use the When/What/Lesson or Ending format.
When did the event occur in your life/career. Set the stage.
What happened - give only the important, relevant details in chronological order.
Finally, wrap it up with the resolution to the story. The outcome, what lessons did you learn, what will you change in the future, etc.

I really found this method to be much more effective than trying to make a list of every specific question that my buddies were asked or I could find from various sources and then trying to answer each one.

I would also recommend some professional interview prep/coaching if you haven't already. I really found it beneficial to deliver my stories to someone who could provide critique and feedback. At the very least, I would recommend a book like "Checklist for Success" by Cheryl Cage. It specifically targets airline pilot interviews and goes over much of what I gave you here in better detail.

Good Luck (and if you know all this already, just disregard)

squall line

Good stuff Adler. Thanks