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Interview experience:
Prior to interviewing, I read the more current gouges. They were pretty much spot on.

I stayed overnight at the Best Western, $80 total (make sure you mention you're a Mesaba interviewee). My hotel room was adjacent to the highway. If that is something that would bother you, look elsewhere.

Our day began slightly earlier than the expected 7:30AM. We were all there by 7:15AM, so we began a little bit earlier. We got a presentation from one of the HR guys. They broke down some of the more generic stuff, company info, etc...They were clear to state they were unsure as to why they were hiring. The HR person mentioned they were just told to hire without any specific reason.

After the brief presentation, we took the Wonderlic test. It is almost like a pamphlet. It made me feel as if I was taking one of those city-wide elementary school tests, hehe. There were 50 questions, 12 minutes given. Most people only got around 20-25 questions done. They were very very simple questions. If you can do some mental math, you should be just fine.

At the completion of the Wonderlic, the HR person had us take an IFR knowledge test. There are no surprises in it. If you review the Gleim, you will most definitely be just fine. There were NO ATP WRITTEN questions. Many of the questions involved holding entry scenarios, holding speeds, approach minimums...very basic info. One of the questions which stomped some of us, not because it was difficult, but because of carelessness, was a descent planning question. (e.g. "You are 25 miles away, altitude,18000' from X VOR. If ATC requests you to cross a 10DME fix by 10000', and your descent rate is 2000 ft/min, would you be able to make it?") <--It wasn't EXACTLY like that, but you get the point. Everything else in the written involved speed restrictions, airspace dimensions (I think), and very basic IFR stuff.

It was around 9:00AM after we got done with the test. We then went to the cafeteria and stayed there until we were called for fingerprinting. There were 8 of us interviewing this day. After everyone was done fingerprinting, we were given the schedule for the day at around 10AM. The schedule was divided into two groups of four. An HR representative and a line captain for each group.

I was the last one scheduled to interview in the list, interview time scheduled for 2:00PM.

It was a long wait in the cafeteria. The cafeteria is tiny and has only vending machines. Luckily for us, on Wednesdays, they have people bring some pots and sell some home-made style food for $5 or so. Make sure you bring something to munch on. I was starving throughout the day.

At around 2:30PM, I finally had a chance to interview. (they were running behind)
I was very relaxed meeting the two gentlemen. However, as soon as I sat and heard the silence, I started getting nervous. They introduced themselves, and began talking a little bit more about the interview. It was a 2-on-1 interview.

The HR portion of the interview asked the following:
-Are you aware of the pay rates and the earnings you would have as a first year FO? Is that something you would feel comfortable with? Are you willing to take this job for such low pay? (yes, I was asked this question)
-Do you have any moving violations? (I mentioned my exhibition driving ticket in my record)
-Have you failed any FAA checkrides? (You need not mention stage checks, though I did. They did not care about them and said those do not apply to the question)
-Tell me more about a time when you regretted going up flying.
-Tell me more about a time when you were concerned as to the outcome of the flight.
-You are ready to push back and a really good buddy of your captain wants to jump-seat. You are already at your weight limit. The captain tells you to fudge the numbers. How would you deal with the situation?
-Define Crew Resource Management. Does it only involve the captain and FO? (they probably want to hear you mention ground facilities, e.g. dispatchers, etc.)
-In your opinion, name two things that you believe are the MOST important to the safe flying. (I really don't know what they wanted to hear, it was very open-ended. To this day, I'm still scratching my head. I recall telling them "knowing your limits, whether environmental or personal," and "following policies/procedures as they were developed for a reason, usually after incidents or accidents have occurred." The captain was pushy and asked, "so you REALLY think those are important??" I stuck with my answer.)

That was about it for the HR questions.

The technical part of the interview went over enroute charts. I don't think there was anything specific they were looking for. The captain asked me random stuff he would find in the chart. (e.g. MOCAs, MEAs, MORAs, etc.) He pointed to a Class G area (outside of the victor airways). He asked me the dimensions of it (i.e. up to 14500). I answered it correctly and he was surprised, which was odd. He mentioned a lot of people get that wrong.

He asked me about holding speed at 6000. Don't let this confuse you as the max is still 200. He said that was something else that many people got wrong....odd...

He had me walk him through a full procedure approach. He tried pushing me into answering incorrectly. His question pertained to our flight being outside a published portion (he pointed at it in the app. plate) at 6000 ft and being cleared for the approach. He said, "so you're telling me you can't descend to 3000ft over here?" (pointing to an area no part of the published approach.) Stick to your answers. Don't let anyone trick you.

He also asked me CRJ questions (since I took one of those generic courses our University forced us to take). Too bad for me, I had NOT reviewed anything at all. I was honest and told him I wasn't prepared to answer CRJ questions. He made a remark, "I fly the Saab and EVEN I know the answer to those questions!" (kind of a rude thing to say, but I didn't react to it.) He didn't ask me about my last twin, so no system questions for me.

After that, they had me step out of the room, then came back and asked me to join them again and offered me a conditional offer of employment. Phew! (ok, the letter is VERY conditional. There's nothing to be happy about it as it is very generic.)

I then did the simulator portion. It was an OLD sim. No sound, no display, just a tabletop. DME had no digital representation, it was an analog needle with a limit of 25DME. ADF on the UPPER left side of the panel. Anyway, the sim evaluator was really cool. He briefed me on the sim, telling me tricks to it, etc, briefed me on the max speeds, etc.

He had me do steep turns. Then vectors to an ILS, went missed. After going missed, he moved me to disorient me...asked me to proceed to X VOR, gave me holding instructions. He had me brief the holding, and didn't even have to fly it. That was it. Very straight forward. I made sure to verbally announce everything I was doing. While some may think it's overkill, from an evaluator's standpoint, it makes the job so much easier when you know what the other person is thinking. Besides, it helped me keep a good flow throughout the sim session.

At the completion of the sim, we took a cab (at their expense, of course) to get drug tested. It was nearby the Mall of America. The drug test took 15 minutes, max, but that was because there were three of us from the group getting tested.

Side note: One thing to note was only 7 of the 8 interviewees made it to the sim portion of the day. One was sent back home for whatever reason, after the 2-on-1 interview.

Overall, a painless process. It was long but well worth it. I begin class on Nov. 3rd, CRJ-900. Good luck to all who interview! Hope this helps.

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