Do Airlines Really Look at Where You Trained?
 

Right now I live in Canada. Theres a few flying clubs around here, one has a nice fleet of DA-20's. I'm going to get my PPL this summer hopefully. At first I thought i'd go on and finish my commercial in 4 years when I get out of University. Then I thought, well might as well get all my hours at that school (PPL/ Night Rating / IFR / Comm / CFI / Multi / Multi IFR) over the next 4 years. Once i'm done, I could possibly get a job right away. Would an airline look at where I got my training and base a decision on that. Ie. RJones got his ratings at PAIFA, good school, good choice. Or, RJones got his school at his little flight school in canada, hmm, never heard of it before, *tosses resume*.

Any Comments?

They could absolutely care less about what flight school you went to unless...

1) The airline has a WRITTEN, published agreement with the school to hire their graduates with less flight experience than is normally required. Note: In the past there have been schools which have "agreements" with airlines which may guarantee an interview, but the reality is that almost no one ever gets hired. Make sure you get HARD STATISTICS in writting for any such program.

2) The flight school was operated by the US military (maybe canadian too?).

Many big "glossy-brochure" flight schools will attempt to sell you a bunch of crap you don't need and charge you more for it. The ideal school is a small one at your local airport so you can live at home and maybe keep your day job while you train. Any school you consider shold have a good local reputation of course. It is ESSENTIAL that you talk to students and CFI's at any school you consider...try to catch them on the ramp so you get a candid response. If you speak with a non-CFI/non-pilot salesman it safe to assume that he is lying to you any time his lips are moving...those people are normally ex-used car salesmen or some other variety of con-artist.

Also a good rule of thumb...the larger the advertisement in Flying magazine, the bigger the lies! Really good flight schools are hard to find, and their reputation usually allows them to thrive by word-of-mouth referrals...WITHOUT gigantic ads.

NO!

Clear enough? Don't believe the hype most of these pilot factories try and sell newbies.

Thanks guys, thats what I was thinking, but wanted to be sure. How hard is it to transfer Canadian Commercial /multi etc licenses to US ones?

It really depends, from what Ive seen in the hiring is they are more lenient in hiring with lower mins, to pilots that trained at accredited universities, vs the local fbo. Of course that is with RA only.

Trying to justify Embry Riddler Two-Face Joker? Regional minimums are already incredibly low.

Not only ERAU, but also UND, Purdue, Academies, etc.

Do it as cheap as possible, they don't care where you train.

It all depends on the interviewer. There are many butt heads out there and many of them end up in some sort of management arena. I got to sit on the interview board at a prior airline and I remember one example of an idiot interviewer.

We were interviewing for ACA in it's earliest days. We needed guys for the Jet Stream and the Brasilia. One guy we interviewed was a retired Navy Captain. His former job was Captain on the boat! He was THE man. He was qualified in the F-14, F-18 and some other aircraft.

When we discussed hiring him, I had no problem putting him in the EMB-120. I was overruled by the base manager pilot. It seemed he thought the Brasilia was too sophisticated for him and that he would be more comfortable in the Jet Stream. Oh brother! That is the kind or moron you can run in to in this industry.

Or did you hear the one about the pilot who got the interview because he had 1000 hours in a C-152. It seems he deserved the interview more than the other guy who had 1000 also except his time was in a C-130. Clearly the 152 is bigger than the 130!

Luck plays an important part in landing a good job. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.