captfred

My guess is that regard you as a prime candidate for a major airline position.

TurboDog

It's a tough deal to get through. You are a prime candidate for the Majors, so a light bulb may have gone off there. Typically you interview with 5 or 6 groups of people, and at the end of the day when they sit around to discuss, if one person says no, then the answer is no. All must be 100% in agreement.

fishforfun

I was in a similar situation. I was asked if I could interview there as well and the last person I met with was the VP of HR. She went into all the benefits and then mentioned the training contract. I think I noticeably balked at it and I'm pretty sure that was it for me. They seemed to want qualified but not overly qualified that will just be doing a touch and go there.

Jetlife

The industry is doing so well right now. It creates a funny situation where companies want good people who will stick around forever but they turn down applicants who would more than likely give faithful service for small reasons. Then they complain about being short pilots. I have seen a few companies do this.

AncientAliens

In most cases upgrades are seniority based. That being said the company is still small enough that it's best to keep your head down in most cases. Those who didn't upgrade quickly in the past were usually either jerks, incompetent, or didn't put in the effort required to keep a high tempo 135 operation running smoothly. That being said there were instances where good people got on management's naughty list for airing legitimate gripes concerning questionable operational practices that will arise when working for a company that uses rolling rest and flies their airplanes to the limit. If you want to go to work and just be a number a la most airlines XO is probably not the place for you. The company is big on extracurricular activity in order to earn your upgrade and is very sensitive toward any disloyalty in the ranks. If you don't think the airlines will be your cup of tea XO isn't a bad place to get your feet wet in the 135/91 world but be warned it isn't a career destination for most people.

captfred

I have some close friends at XOJ but you have me stumped at the extracurricular activity Ancient. What do you mean by that? If you live in SMF you could do interviews but all the hiring is for the east coast now. Other than being a duty officer what else is there?

Smooth at FL450

That's all there really is...and that doesn't make a difference anymore. 2 of the last 4 challenger upgrades were not duty officers and never picked up overtime. They flew their lines and went home and turned their phones off, and are now captains. We now have the most pilot friendly Chief Pilot we've ever had and I expect most of these questionable past practices to fall by the wayside. A bad attitude will still be a deal breaker though...

Clouddodger

Hi all,

So with things seemingly changing for the good at home, and a pilot friendly Chief Pilot, do you still need the internal rec. to get the hopeful call??

Smooth at FL450

Not sure, but my guess would be yes unless you have the opportunity to meet with recruiters at events like Women In Aviation. They held on-site interviews and I believe 8 were offered jobs as a result. The lead recruiter has accepted his 121 class date offer next month so there will be a changing of the guard, so to speak.

Good luck!

thepointyend

Job fairs are probably your best bet right now if you want a shot at XOJET but have no internal connections. I believe we'll be at OBAP in LAS so that would be my next stop If I were on the outside looking in. Just make sure you go in ready as you could very well interview with them later that day or the very next.