I was looking at the qualifications for "consideration as a FedEx pilot",
and nowhere can I find where one needs 3 recomendations from within?
What are the chances of someone with no FedEx buddies hiring in?

https://www.pilotcredentials.com/car...qualifications

 

If you're a white male: ZERO To NONE

 

Look at the first line under the word "Qualifications".

That line used to say "Minimum qualifications to be considered..."

That changed to "Typical qualifications..." when they wanted to hire some pilots who didn't quite
meet the "mimimum" qualifications, but who were eminently qualified, shall we say, demographically.
Or so the story goes...

"Personal recommendations" aren't listed so they won't get sued when they want to hire a
demographically qualified pilot who doesn't have a personal recommendation.

 

It also says you need 1000 PIC Turbine, but to be competitive you would need more. I was fortunate to have the Three contacts, but I also had a sponsor that stood in front of the ACP and practically told him that FedEx won't survive without this guy (me)! I'm not quite sure if that was entirely accurate, but you get the point.

Southwest, for example, will interview 250 pilots a month to pick 50. But they don't have the multi-level screening process that FedEx does. FedEx relies on recommendations from their own pilots to reduce the stack of applicants from that 250 potentials to 50 before making it to interview day.

For a Southwest interview, you can go to Higher Power to get the type rating and if you do well you can bet on an interview soon after. Will you get the job? You still need recommendations. You can get an interview without the type rating as well if you have higher PIC time, 4 year degree, etc. I got called without the type, so I know they are calling those without.

At FedEx, by the time you interview it is your job to lose. The sim check is kinda tough but fair, and so is the interview itself. I'm not bagging on Southwest at all, I appreciate that you can at least have a chance to interview without knowing anyone. But once there, you are still competing with those pilots with 3+ internal recommendations.

I got lucky with FedEx. The cards fell into place. I know zero pilots at UPS, Continental. I know a couple pilots at Southwest, and may have had a shot there if I had screwed up the FedEx interview. Who knows.

If you can get a hold of a seniority list at FedEx or other airlines and go through the names you may run across some you actually flew with, or at least knew at some point.

The other options as other threads pointed out are getting an "internal" by driving or tossing boxes, getting into their corporate flying dept., or working in the training center for a year or two. If you know any Senators or Fortune 500 CEO's it might help too.

Good luck.

 

The last I heard we had over 10K applications. Granted, alot of those are guys/gals with the "typical" qualifications. The folks in pilot hiring are not going to reach into that stack of 10K and randomly pull out one app and say "let's call this guy."

That's why you need 3 recommendations and pilot's can only sponsor 1 buddy to a 'meet-and-greet.' At least that's what I remember. As USNFDX said above, unless you're of another persuasion, you need to know someone inside. You'd be surprised of the number of guys you may know on the list, especially if you're ex-military.

 

Thanks for the info guys, where would one find a list of pilots?

 

You got a hundred dollars?

 

"Thanks for the info guys, where would one find a list of pilots?"

You're probably not going to get a list from one of us unless we actually know you. Your best bet is to give out your actual name on this and other boards to see if anybody knows you.

 

It's called a Catch-22. You have to have the list to know if you know anyone on the list.

 

I totally understand... Thanks for the info.