No offense - but it more than likely won't happen. CAL is very big on the "know the guy and I can vouch for him" deal. And I think that's a good thing honestly.

 

I ditto the last one 100 %!! The apple does not fall to far from the tree.

 

Guam seems to be out west. What are the chances of getting that right out of training?

 

When I was hired, two people from every class went to Guam. Guam is so far West, I call it East. It's not Hawaii. Some people love and some hate it. I didn't like the flying there, so I wanted EWR. It's a small base, but there usually some room in it for new guys.

 

Guam is a cool place, love it or not, it is and will always be "the trailer park of the Pacific" Tight knit bunch of folks out there, lots of interesting flying.

 

Why is having to know or flown with a CAL a pilot in order to get an interview a good thing? This may indicate: they don't know how to screen pilots properly themselves; or, they have plenty of applications but are maybe a bit lazy. By the way, IO psychology studies reveal letters of recommendation, when compared with more thorough evaluations, are poor predictors of future performance, in fact, I believe they are the worst. If CAL does a thorough evaluation after a letter of recommendation what does that say? Welcome to the club? Defending this issue is a bit odd, considering there's no "requirement" to have flown with (or even to know) a military pilot prior to UPT. I'm sure CAL hires a few "unknowns" - maybe to avoid lawsuits?

 

Maybe we would be better off if there were. Notice most guard/reserve units hire this way and amazingly (real word?) enough most active duty guys say "I wish our unit was more like that one" about G/R. Just a thought.

 

I certainly can see the merits of having a letter of recommendation, but I would hate to think its a deal breaker.

 

Wow, you're way off line. Not only does CAL do this, but so does DAL, UAL, FDX, UPS, SWA, and even JBL to a certain extent. Essentially every major airline that has a fight in today's market does some kind of "vouching" for. There's obviously a reason for that.

Let's take it a step further. In the "real" world of large corporations, big law firms, and physicians - the same damn thing happens every day. To get your foot in the door on most high level professional jobs, you need to know someone. You've got person A and person B with pretty much equal creditentials. Person A is completely off the street...person B knows multiple folks in management and has a very good repretoire with them. They say person B has a good attitude and is a hard worker. Maybe person A is as well, but no one has a clue where he/she came from. Who are they going to hire? Person B 99.9999 % of the time. That's a fact, Jack. No offense, but that's how life works.

So, are these HR folks lazy? Of course not. Networking is also a sign of initiative. The fact that people are sponsored by other folks means those candidates have gone out of their way to get to know fellow flyers at these majors and have asked for help. Maybe you're the one that's lazy. Let's call a spade a spade. If you want to get on at any major in today's world, you're going to have to know people. And I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

 

and maybe their fathers, brothers, mothers, sisters friends cousins roomate in college knows someone who can write you a letter or recommendation. I'm sure that person can really vouch for someone. Kind of like a guy I know who got a job at a major because he drove his friend to meet someone his parents knew. (an instructor in the training dept) This guy had 0 turbine pic and hadn't even applied but got an interview within a couple weeks and a class date shortly there after.

the fact jack is that it is "who you know and not what you know" and there is absolutely something wrong with that if you can't get hired any other way. Not all recommendations are truely valid and sometimes people should get a chance at a job because they are actually qualified and very competitive, not just because of some random connection.

by the way congratulations on knowing someone....