Airline Apps Military Equivalencies
 

Maybe a stupid question but here goes:
-On airline apps there is a question about director of safety and director of operations. Are those specific to civilian aviation or would time as an ASO or OPSO count? Thanks.

I would answer them at face value...my interpretation is Director of Safety=Chief of Safety, not the extra ground or aircraft safety guy. Director of Operations=Operations Officer, not the Ass't Operations Officer (ADO).

My theory/opinion: This question will be worth one point in a hundred point scale...it's worth something but not going to put you over the line if you aren't highly competitive otherwise. Don't over think it.

I've been both chief of safety and flight safety. From doing both, the only one that really has any safety knowledge, training, and activities is flight safety. The guy in charge (at least where I was at) had to write the OPRs, oversee the office, and attend all the meetings. Ground and Weapons safety took up huge amounts of my time as the overall chief, and had absolutely nothing to do with flying safety. Meanwhile, as the flight safety guy I got really smart on a lot of things that had a direct effect on flying safety plus I went to flight safety school. If you can justify, I'd recommend checking those containers.

Just FYI, I am in the military and have not done any interviews so my perspective could be skewed. Take any advice here with a grain of salt.

Correct, most military CoS's have very little if any safety experience. 9 times out of 10, that position is a holding pattern for O-5s headed for command positions. The Chief of Flight Safety is the one who actually runs the program.

The chief of safety isn't even required to have the actual accident investigation course.....they go through a different course for being chief.......

Touches on something I've been wondering about as I fill out my apps.... Is there any publicly available info on just how much each question "counts"? I assume it's different for every airline (i.e., each one decides how much they care/don't care about a particular attribute), but it would be nice to have some idea of who important or unimportant a particular item is....

I am a squadron Safety Officer in the Navy, which covers aviation and ground safety and I checked yes on that question. The reason being is that they specifically spell out Chief Pilot has to be a civilian position...I assume that means the others can be military positions since it does not specifically delineate. I was also the squadron NATOPS instructor in the past (equivalent of a chief pilot) but I didn't check yes to that one since it specifically says non mil.
Sadly, I haven't been to ASO school or had any formal schooling to prepare me, but I have definitely done a lot in my time, to include a mishap investigation and lots of aviation safety related stuff plus I manage all the safety programs for my squadron. I feel that qualifies me, or at least I could intelligently explain it in an interview.

That is closely guarded information.

I'm a unit level Flight Safety Officer and an ADO. I decided not to check the boxes FWIW.

I've been a chief of flight safety, chief of wing safety, and director of operations and checked both boxes. In my opinion; just as in your log book, you need to be able to clearly explain yourself if questioned in an interview. The airlines aren't trying to ask trick questions to catch you in a lie, they just want to know your experience. Answer truthfully and sleep well.