I guess it's really only been 5.5 years. But it does feel like it was just yesterday that you were saving me from filing ASAPs.

 

Willing to put $$$ on it? I'd be surprised if women/minorities account for 7% of the group. I'd even go double or nothing to say they're not even 10%. If women and minorities are the majority of pilots you're seeing at DAL you may have some personal bias you need to deal with.......

 

Huh? Do you think I'm wrong? I'm lost.

 

Technically, they are asking you how many times you called in sick and not how often do you get sick. Semantics, I know, but I think it's fair enough of a question.

Only advice I have here is to be 100% honest because they will look into it and it'll be in your records. Heard a story when I went through about a newhire being pulled from sim training and sent home because he mislead the interviewers in believing he had much less sick calls then actual. ( 2-3 as opposed to over 15-18 )

I don't think the sick calls are as big an issue as everyone makes out to be. I'm guessing once your calling out more than 10 random times throughout the year you may have to explain yourself a little, but being honest goes a long way.

 

Not that I am worried about sick calls, but how are sick calls going to be in my records?? I did not think attendance was PRIA. Just wondering....

 

How far back would they be asking me about. Am I going to have to call my high school nurse and ask her how many days of school I missed?

 

Okay, previous to Delta I was a corporate pilot. Actually, chief pilot. They absolutely asked me about my attendance and it was a funny conversation. Somewhere I mentioned the job was 6 days a week unless you flew on Sunday then it was 7. Unless we flew I was at the office 9am-5pm and then work from home after the wife went to bed. It was a big plane, big hangar, lots of vendors, lots of demand and a lot of work. My phone usually rang at 9-10am on Saturday to review the numbers and that was more of a pop quiz than anything. And although I didn't mention this in the interview, a sick call on a charter trip only cost the boss around $50-$80K, so get well fast. I had perfect attendance for all of it, I even missed an earlier interview and had to reschedule because the boss wanted to use the plane for a pointless short trip.

So the interviewer was laughing when he said, "so, who do I asked about your attendance record?" Me. "So, how was your attendance?" GREAT. They laughed.

But note, they asked but did not ask about my previous airline job.

There was was a rumor there were some Comair (might be wrong but definitely DCI pilots) who were interviewing at Delta and had called in sick to make the interview. I don't want to screw up how the story goes but the gist was they weren't hired because Delta figured out that day they'd called in sick to be there. Don't quote me, it might not even be true, just a rumor.

Key is to be very very honest about it. That's all I know.

 

I was asked twice by two people in a Southwest interview if I have ever called out sick when I wasn't really sick. I thought about it for a second:

1. I tell them no. They know I'm a liar.
2. I tell them yes. They know I'm a liar.

It's a pretty lousy question in my opinion. I told them I missed a commute once and then told them about my best friends mom that died so I called out to stay with him.

I didn't get an offer (thank god, it was after the AirTran merger).

RK

 

I'd venture to guess that this is probably the most accurate. Assuming of course, it's not some outrageous number.

It's primarily and honesty test. If you called in 5 times that year, and told them 5 times that year, they call and and it's in fact 5 times, well then the honesty check is complete. The candidate DIDN'T lie nor was dishonest about their sick calls.

Again, assuming the number isn't some crazy amount.

Same with the tickets/traffic violations. Just tell the truth on how many, if applicable.

 

Interviewers cannot ask how many times you called in sick. They can ask about being "absent other than sick", etc. but not sick use.

And most defiantly delta cannot ask your employer how many times you called in.