Quote:
Originally Posted by PointyEndFwd
Curious as to what you ended up doing. Any updates?
Thanks for asking, it's been quite a journey in a short amount of time
Chronologically:
- SWA: very surprisingly, my first interview invite came from SWA. Sure enough, a couple days later a SWA recruiter at a Meet-n-Greet (TPNx) cautioned me that it was a mistake, and got me signed up with one of their D225 pathways instead (military currency pathway). But after a couple weeks of trying to clarify, the D225 folks advised me to go ahead with the traditional interview and see how it goes. So I went ahead with the interview, for the practice if nothing else. It seemed to go well and they didn't show me the door based on my logbooks. But sure enough, after waiting over a week, I got the TBNT e-mail from SWA followed about 30 minutes later with the congratulations e-mail from their D225 shop that I had been selected to interview with them. Still waiting on that follow-up. It would mean that I pay for 15 flight hours of ME training (Seminole) with a SWA partner flight school that would train "the Southwest Way" (CRM, etc., I assume), followed by a week of B737 sim training at another SWA partner company in Dallas (on my dime as well). Upon successful completion, since I already have ATP and meet their minimums, they would place me in a new-hire class.
- Envoy: on-the-spot HR interview at TPNx. However, I think the HR interviewer assumed that my 121FE experience might qualify towards the 121 flight experience, so he went ahead with an interview there. But I've been ghosted since, presumably since that was not the case. That's the only interest I've garnered from the Regionals. But that's okay, since I've realized I have better options:
- Allegiant: that same Meet-n-Greet (TPNx) got me an on-the-spot initial interview screening with Allegiant, followed by the full (on-line) interview a few weeks later. CJO and class date in October. (I'm not available until end of September). I really like a lot of the Allegiant bases and their home-every-night-(if you live in base) model. But their first year pay never caught up to industry standard before they went into contract negotiations, which is likely going to drag out for a while. They've recently announced a deferred "retention bonus" agreement with their IBT ("I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today"), but it's very little incentive for a new hire. My wife is very not impressed with it.
- iAero (a.k.a. Swift Air): CJO and class date in October. (coincidentally, as a B737 operator, iAero is one of the SWA D225 partners, and the FO on the hiring panel was a D225 cadet with about a year into iAero and about a year left before going to SWA. Presumably).
- Flexjet: just interviewed yesterday, waiting for the decision. But pretty sure I tanked the simulator ride, so just hoping they liked me enough despite that.
Of all the above, it would come down to SWA/D225 vs. Flexjet. While my head leans slightly toward SWA/D225, my heart is leaning heavy towards Flexjet. I liked that type of flying, and the modern high tech airplanes, and seems like a good company to work for. Much easier near term financial transition, and my long-term isn't long enough to make that big of a difference in career earnings potential. How much of a difference depends on how well SWA/SWAPA does in this next contract cycle. Which is another aspect of SWA that makes me nervous. From everything I've read I really don't think the SWA pilot group has the stomach for a strike, but it is a (very?) remote possibility.
Finally, most surprising of all, I interview with American in a couple weeks. I'll be holding my breath during the logbook review to see how they really feel about my large gap in recent flying experience, and if I can present myself well enough to overcome that.
One thing I've learned about this new world of recruiting/hiring scene: getting face-to-face networking touches at these Expos/Job Fairs is the key to getting looked at.