MysteriousMrX

Whether electronic or old-fashioned handwritten, do majors want to see a logbook at an interview?
Of course, I have very detailed logs of my early days of training for private and commercial, instrument, etc.. and accurate logs of my part 91 days, as far as actual/x-c, etc.
However at the 121 level, (like most I think) I'm pretty (very) lax as far as logging. Just total time. I do notate night, for some reason.
At an interview, will a major really want to see these logs and verify I have 794.5 part 121 hours and not 796.3?
Would they care I don't keep track of how much actual instrument I get?
Some captains are literally years behind (like 15) but don't seem concerned about going to an interview with no logs, which seems strange.
Or do majors call your employer and ask for verification of employment and leave it at that?
Thx... never interviewed for a "big time" job before!

Al Czervik

Yes. It’s important.

teddy3412

Also curious on this subject. Not interviewing anytime soon but one of my original logbooks is .2 off on my single engine time. My current logbook is very clean and has barely any scratch outs and I'd hate to go and tear apart my logbooks more for .2 hours. Will this make any difference?

Xdashdriver

No, it won't make any difference at all.

jcountry

Logbooks are looked at this way: The level of preparation you devote to them will probably be the same level of preparation you bring to a new job..... Be serious, be prepared.... This ain’t Mickey D’s.

Lives depend on our attention to detail and preparation. Interviewers like to see that we understand that.

Remember that all these companies have tens of thousands of applicants to sort through, and interviewers don’t need to worry about sorting though why someone’s **** isn’t wired tight, they will just move on to the guy who has his stuff prepared well.

flensr

Know your hours, and if you have multiple logbooks, keep a summary sheet handy to show how you added it all up especially if you are mil and had to do conversions.

At the interview, expect to bring originals and copies of the summary sheets. If it all looks ok they won't even look at the originals, but you still need to bring them.

Regarding details beyond date and flight time... I don't think they care one bit unless they think you're lying about something, in which case they might take a hard look at your original logbooks and then details in the entries might help them decide if your story and hours add up. A dozen consecutive logbook entries in the same ink with zero details could be someone trying to add fictional hours to their total, or it could be someone who did a lot of busy flying and had to catch up their logbook after they were done. A couple of notes in the comment section might help explain anything that looks weird.

Again, do they care? Most likely nope. But do put in enough details that you can back it up if its questioned.

It takes only a few seconds to put in date, origin and destination, flight time, night/inst flight conditions, landing, and inst approach. Most of the applications actually do want your night and inst totals, as well as how many approaches and/or landings you've flown in the last year. If they ask for it on the application, then yes they care about it in some way. Maybe its points in an application scoring system that determines how soon you get an interview and/or training dates? If you don't give them the info they ask for and you don't get called for an interview, the company will never tell you why you're not getting a call.

Crown

if your time is a LITTLE BIT off, no big deal (I'm talking about roughly 10 hours). Anything more than that, find the errors.

Here's the bottom line on your logbook - it won't help you that much if they are good. But they can easily be the reason you don't get the job. Want to put your dream job on it?

rickair7777

What those guys said. It goes a long way that you know you about your small error.

Know your book, be able to answer questions about anything unusual.

kingairfun

Whenever I had an interview coming up, I always tabbed or sticky noted the pages of each checkride ( pvt, instr, comm. Etc)

With multiple logbooks it helps the interveiwer/ HR person locate the important flights..

Does it help? Can't hurt...... and I have had more than one interviewer thank me for it...

Also, go to an interview with color copies already in hand, of your DL, passport, radio license, pilot licenses.... they may need to make their own copies for legality reasons, but anything you can do to lessen their paperwork and make it look like you're prepared will certainly help...

Again I've had HR types thank me for it.

Everyone has their canned answers, suit and tie, fresh haircut etc..be the one who goes further and comes really prepared.

ysslah

Speaking of logbooks, my first logbook is a disaster. White outs, weird color pens, crossed out entries. You name it. I feel like buying a new logbook just to copy entries is a bit weird, especially for the first logbook. Mostly because the new one wouldn't have the instructor's signatures and endorsements in it. But also it's potentially negative and certainly embarrassing to show such an abomination. I have brought the originals and also a printout of an electronic logbook to interviews in the past. What did you guys do?