And I'd venture to guess the breakdown is the same amongst the military applicants. The PIC and the degree, but no IP, stand eval qual, etc. So they are qualified, but within their peer group they're not as competitve, or "stand a chance".

Not like it all matters, "who you know", or rather how many you know.

 

xjtguy is sort of right...at an increasing # of carriers, who you know (i.e. internal rec) is actually more important than your paper quals, all other things being equal. What I mean is if I have 5000TT, 2000 TPIC, check airman and you have 3000TT, 1000TPIC, check airman and we both have a 4 yr degree but you know someone who will walk your stuff in, your chances are exponentially greater of getting an interview. FWIW, FedEx and SWA both had over 5000 "qualified" applications when their windows were open last yr. Their definitions of qualified may differ slightly but I think it's safe to assume, 1000TPIC, 4 yr degree and ATP (or maybe comm, multi, inst) and first class medical. I would assume anybody actively seeking another job, from a military guy to an RJ capt to maybe even a Jetblue/Spirit type f/o, applied to them so my guess is there are at least 5000 guys seeking a "top" airline job and probably another 5000 qualified guys that would leave their job to go to jetblue, usair, and probably delta and AA if they were hiring. Just my $.02.

To the original poster, the days of only needing 250 hr TT and a comm multi inst to apply at United are long gone. Funny thing is...anybody over 35-40yrd old on this forum probably remembers those days and probably knows someone that got hired at United with around 250TT.

 

And I would say that is "sort of right". "Sort of" to imply a whole slew of subjective/relative factors that come into play. It comes down to the "who they know/knew" to get the interview. After that, it's on the candidate to go into the interview as prepared as they can be and do they best job they can and get the job.

We all saw it during the pre 9/11 hiring "boom" as well as the hyper competitive situation we are in now;

Pilot A: Lots of TT, lots of PIC time. Typed on multiple aircraft, been an LCA on more than one type, well connected through friends and/or family, lots of recs. Flown with the guy when I was an FO, would gladly fly with the guy again.

Pilot B: Not as much TT, not as much PIC, no LCA experience, one type rating, well connected through friends and/or family, lots of recs. Flown with the guy when I was an FO, would gladly fly with the guy again.

Pilot A didn't get the job, Pilot B did. Maybe A just didn't do as well as the other candidates that day, or just simply had a bad day. Pilot B did a really good job, and had a great day.

Seems as if from my military friends that EXACT same situation is playing out. They would have though friend A with an extensive resume got it, yet friend B without quite the same resume got it.

Always been that way, ALWAYS gonna be that way.

Again, "sort of" to imply there's a whole crapton of relative factors. IE; peer demographic, affiliations, etc.

Actually, if we're in that age group, it was 350 fixed wing PIC to apply. The people hired had slightly more than that (not like it matters) when solo and dual given, etc is removed. Around the the mid to late 2000 time frame, it was upped to what's basically ATP required times to apply. The movement then was not unlike DAL had in 2007 when a newhire could hold a widebody quickly and an ATP/type was going to be issued.

 

I've had this discussion with close friends of mine at XJT. Only a small number want to work at one airline, most like myself apply to all and see what happens.

As far as "Not meeting the minimums" only FedEx, if I remember correctly, won't even let you on the application page if you do not meet the minimums. Most airlines just state the minimums and let you apply anyways.

Interestingly enough, a friend of mine at CAL had a discussion with the HR people about applicants and hiring. Turns out that yes, an airline like CAL does recieve a high number of applicants, but a good number can be washed out almost immediately: 3 DUIs, pending FAA certificate action, 59 years old (back when it was Age 60 rule) 5 checkride failures, on probation for drug smuggling charges, 300 hour person hoping their race/gender/good ol' boy status would get them on................and the list goes on and on. When you whittle down the number of reasons you wouldn't hire someone, the number of viable applicants is much less than it seems.

 

True. There's some guys that get VERY lucky. Only target one airline, and are lucky enough to be hired by said airline.

The rest of us apply to multiple places that we'd like to work and hope one of them calls.

Because you NEVER have the any options until you have the job offer in hand.

I thought the SW all had the same thing, especially since they use the same vendor for the app process and have similar questions on the screen before being let into the app section.

 

Mine's about 4 feet across and 12 inches deep.