Hello,from the perspective of an applicant, Does anyone know if sick calls are frowned upon while trying to get an interview?
I currently have a perfect attendance record at my current job as well as the one before it.
I am just trying to see if a perfect attendance record is something hiring like to see while reviewing apps? And if a sick call could count against someone?

 

Well, I know the safe answer to that question is intuitive. But the counter question would be, "what method does DL have available to ascertain your attendance record?" Honesty is huge with Delta, so it's hard to go wrong giving a straight answer if your track record is in the realm of reason. Revealing that you called in sick at your current carrier in order to attend your interview improbably not a truth you would wan to promote.

 

The only questions I got during my interview over 2 years ago were, how many times have I called in sick in the last 12 months and how many times in the last 5 years have I called in sick on a major holiday. Fortunately, both answers were "none" in my case.

Personally, if I were interviewing candidates, I'd have sincere doubts an applicant were telling the truth if they've never called in sick. The odds are too high that person has flown sick which in turn could lead to questioning their decision making. Now, if you've been in the industry only a handful of years then it's believable. But if you're pushing over 5 years or more without a sick call then you are either the perfect specimen or just don't know when to remove yourself from duty. Just my opinions.

Having said all this, like everything else in the application/interview process, Delta takes a wholistic approach to sizing up a candidate. A few sick calls here and there are a reasonable expectation. Like the above poster said, honesty is the best policy regardless if you know Delta will or will not see your attendance records from previous employers.

 

Special aside for Atlas applicants to Delta. The VP of Flight Ops, JC and the chief Pilot, RD are both previous Delta people. There may be informal channels that DL has on check the validity of claims in an interview. As always, honesty is probably the best policy.

 

They absolutely aren't looking for candidates who answer "none sir, I've never called in sick!"

Even assuming they can officially (or even unofficially) find out your sick calls, there's a lot of holidays in the year, especially when you add in big sporting events and such. Reasonable sick use by any measure will naturally fall over these some of the time.

What they are looking for IMO is that you don't call in sick when you are not sick, and you don't fly sick when you are sick.

Its really not more complicated than that.

 

Now that's funny right there and you probably don't even realize it. The company likes to point to one of our recently retired Captains as the model for the Delta pilot and he never used a day of sick time in 30+ years.

 

OTOH, does anyone really think we could even find 1300+ pilots a year who would fall into the goody two shoes category to even a small fraction of that extent?

Since the latest emphasis on sick use began a few years ago, they have hired thousands and thousands of pilots, and will hire 10,000 more in the blink of an eye. There is no way they're pulling from the "I never called in sick" pool LOL!