Being a pilot is one of the professions where background, race, ethnicity, religion, etc should have absolutely NOTHING to do with selection. It shouldn't be asked, HR shouldn't be involved, and there should be an exception from all that equal opportunity stuff. It should be completely based on skill and experience as a pilot.

When I'm riding in the back of an airplane that has a serious emergency, I don't care what the pilots look like, I care that they're good pilots. I don't care if the airline's pilots are 100% white males or 100% black females, as long as they're good pilots. And neither should anyone else.

 

Sounds great in theory, but what measure do you use for "qualified good pilots"? Flighttime? Landings? Aircraft types flown? And evenso, we all know pilots that would do well on any of those metrics, but one would not consider them "good pilots". Should an HR consider if an applicant comes across rude, or arrogant? Should they consider if they percieve the person as a team player or selfish? Are those important things for consideration? How about if the person has unique experience in the avaition industry, should that be considered? Finally, if the airline's customers are of a varied ethnic and racial backgrounds, should the company make an effort to make sure their employees also have a similar diverse backgrounds? To consider any of the above in selection, would that be discriminatory or sound business practices?

Onfinal

 

Man this thread sounds eerily familiar to a thread from a few years back. Hell, at any rate, I'll chime in.

For years the white male was at the top of the "food chain" so to speak and still is here in America, Europe and Austrailia. Minorities and women were passed over despite their meeting and in most cases exceeding qualifications.

The percentages of blacks and other minorities among U.S. pilots are so low it's hard to find meaningful statistics. A 1997 National Academies report, "Taking Flight: Education and Training for Aviation Careers" found 92 percent of U.S. airline pilots in 1990 were white men, compared with 43 percent in the civilian labor force. Less than 2 percent were black and less than 3 percent hispanic.

Times have changed and are still changing, however, do you really think the aforementioned statistics have changed that much. IMHO, it's probably the same. All human and intellectual capital (regardless of race and/or gender) must be tapped into and used to OUR nation's advantage. I firmly believe that the mindset of "you guys" (LMAO....sorry couldn't help that one - ) has and is changing.



atp

 

I'm willing to bet that there are more unqualified/not as qualified children of management working mainline jobs than unqualified/uncompetitive minorities. Why isn't there a thread about that?

 

Not even close.

 

Yeah, you're probably right!

He should have said, unqualified children of senior airline pilots, management, and their cronies. For every guy I've heard complain about "unqualified minorities", I also heard from the same person, a story about how his dad, uncle, cousin, next door neighbor's brother, etc., etc., etc is an airline pilot and is going to walk a resume for him...maybe, how he got his first flying job through connections, or how he's going flying in his uncle's cessna this weekend. I can only roll my eyes!

Unfortunately, 99.9% of minority pilots in the U.S. don't have this kind of accumulated access, for historical reasons that I shouldn't have to explain. The history, and results of being entitled is the affirmative action that so many, convienently, don't want to talk about!

Onfinal

 

that's what I meant to convey...

 

You must have the birth certificate of the original signer of tribal roles in your family. An ancestry search alone will not grant you tribal membership. At least thats what the Choctaws require.

 

Having just gone through a regional "hiring spree", I have seen no evidence of affirmative action hiring discussed here. All my former colleagues, minority or not, went through the same process to get the regional interview. When I finally made it to indoc, there weren't any women or minorities saying that they got hired below the competitive mins at the time. Matter of fact, all the people in my class below competitive mins were all white males.

IMO, the people who believe in unqualified women and minoritiy pilots being hired probably also believe in a pilot shortage and unicorns.

 

So the vast majority of those posting agree that the vast majority of classes at groundschool is made up of white-caucasian males from what I'm reading. Heck mine had 20 out of 27 that were white males. The other 7 were minorities and women. Not all of them made it to IOE either. So there is no free handout.

With that being said a quick check shows that in 2011 that 78.1% of the USA is caucasian. Sure looks like white-caucasian males are still getting hired at a rate equal to or better than the demographics of the nation. hmm, where's the bias there???

In my opinion instead of sitting there whining about not getting hired because you see some female or minority riding up front while you jumpseat why not figure out how to make your app stand out from everyone elses. Ever heard of volunteering, getting additional certification, or more education( masters, or another degree). If your not getting hired I'd venture to guess either you aren't trying hard enough(and yes just sending a resume in my opinion isn't trying hard enough) or your just the type of person the airline doesn't want. Someone who wants to accept things as they are and instead of going out there and pounding the pavement you'd rather whine about it. Sorry if it hurts to hear that. Plenty of others are successful for a reason... and they look just like you! I bet they aren't saying they got hired because of how they look(white-caucasian males therefore resembling management). Why should they, they probably spent more time working on their resumes than whining on a forum. What you should be doing if you want to get hired!