I met mine in the Delta Lounge... no joke. Recognized the brown paints and walked up and said hi. I will never be able to repay him for helping me out. All he asked was that when I was close to retirement to pay it forward as he did.

UPS has some quality pilots, period.

They do hire guys without internal recs so there is hope. It's just not very commonplace. Maybe some of the newer guys could chime in with trends on this over the last few classes?

Someone was telling me the way to update when you can't update the application is to upload a new resume and include a new info section or something along those lines. I have no idea if that works, is even possible, but thought it worthy of being passed along.

Re: failing the hogan and/or interview, I've found retakes of the hogan have occurred after a time gap of several months (6?). I've not found nor heard of any instances of someone getting a second interview after an unsuccessful first attempt.

I knew a guy that interviewed waaaaaaaaaaay back in late 2004 and didn't got hired that interviewed again in very early 2016 and was hired mid-year.

Thinking about it I guess it is a rare thing anywhere. Delta and others will allow a retest of certain things but I don't recall hearing a provision for guys being able to take a second shot at the HR portion anywhere.

It's so hard to run into any UPS pilots while doing pax 121, in 10 years I probably ran into 4. I ran into a 747 Capt from ANC in FLL going to see his wife and Colombia I help with customs since his Spanish was weak, he grab my info and told he will hit me up when he gets back for a rec or just to talk but he never did I can't believe I didn't grab his info. Anyways lesson learn don't let it happen to you.

Wow, that delay must have cost him 20 or 30 numbers !

...just a couple.

Still thrilled to be here, though!

In all likelihood his recommendation wouldn't have helped you very much.
Our referral is basically essay style questions with emphasis on you having flown with the candidate you're recommending.

Thanks whalesurfer;

I figured that would be the case, I'm an ax UPSers worked in the hubs and Gateway I have tons of people that would recommend me but none pilots, and in 10years of regional flying not one pilot I flown with has gone to UPS, Fedex yes and the others but no UPS.... should I jumpseat just to network?

I might sound repetitious but personally I think attending job fairs might be your best bet. Jumpseating won't help you much since you aren't really flying but merely riding as a passenger. Even if you were to hit it off with the crew no one would ever take a recommendation written for a "great jumpseater" seriously.

However, the fact you worked here in the past is huge. Hopefully you left on good terms and maybe you still have contact info for some of your previous supervisor(s)? I'd ask them all to write you short, one-page long recommendation letters explaining why they think you'd be a great pilot for ups and then take those recommendations with you to a job fair (make copies for later). The HR reps you'll meet there have all done the same type of jobs you did back then and they do love "people who threw boxes" in the past.

Go to a job fair and basically say what you said here, "I live in an area where most pilots end up flying for passenger/other airlines and I haven't had a chance to network with UPS pilots BUT I'm a former upser and this is why you'd love to hire me as a pilot."
Then give them the stack of your letters. HR reps are humans and hopefully they'll connect with you.

In the meantime, keep networking because nowadays with all the social media available to us you might finally find someone you flew with in the past who actually works here. Ask your Facebook friends if they know any ups pilots and if not if they could check with their friends? It might be someone you lost contact with who you think flies for brand yxz who's actually working for us now?

So don't give up, this is a great time for brownie wannabes because it looks like we'll be hiring for a while. If I think of something else I'll post it here.
I sincerely wish you the best.

Maybe someone else here has other suggestions?