To all who take the bait and accept the offer (if the Mesa rumor is true), the sheer fact that these tactics are unethical should tell you a lot about who you are working for. What a bottom feeding, sleazy outfit.

 

What Mesa is doing works because Skywest isn't changing the way they do business. When I was hired it took me until I could make it to a career fair to get an interview, then after the interview I heard nothing back from them for two weeks. I called them after two weeks of not hearing anything and they told me I had the job. I'm not sure why they couldn't have called me to tell me that instead of waiting for me to call them. That way of doing business probably worked in the past because they ended up with a good pool of people who really wanted to be at Skywest.

I've talked to some current CFIs, and now especially after the ATP rule the SJS is strong. People have been building time for so long that they're willing to take any offer that comes their way. If Mesa offers to put them in class next week, and they aren't hearing back from Skywest for months most of them are going to take the Mesa class date. Almost all of my former students ended up at Republic because Skywest wasn't calling them back despite having my recommendation and ATP mins and Republic offered them an immediate interview.

I'm not sure what kind of game they're trying to play in SGU, or if they're just understaffed and don't have time to look through the applications or get back to people who have interviewed, but it's going to cost them a lot of pilots in the long run.

A lot of CFIs don't know much about the regional industry and are sick of instructing waiting for ATP mins. Of course it's sleezy but when a regional offers you a class date on the spot vs applying and waiting months for all of the others like Skywest it looks attractive to a new CFI to take the offer.

I was in the same boat at one point. I had done some research and really wanted to go to Skywest, but at the time I just wanted to get out and I felt like I would be willing to take a class date at a few other airlines (Mesa didn't make my list luckily).

 

Right?

Just when you thought it couldn't get more bizarre.

 

OK, I can see how if you came out of the OO interview having busted it, and Mesa offered you a class date on the spot, you'd take it.

And here in San Francisco, if you go to certain tech bus stops (Google, Facebook etc), you'll find recruiters from smaller tech companies literally standing at the stops trying to poach tech talent. Seen it firsthand myself.

 

Even if you don't bust it, a class date on the spot might sound more appealing to some people than waiting months for one at Skywest. That's probably one thing the Mesa recruiters are banking on. I originally interviewed in November, it took me until December to hear back and they assigned me a class date in April. Someone who doesn't want to wait 5 months to go to class may just take the Mesa class date the following week.

 

Better yet, show up at the OO parking lot with a suitcase and get a job.
Why waste time on an application/interview? Highly doubt MAG knows who is actually scheduled to interview.

 

Jaysus, sitting behind 3000 oO pilots to flow would be horribly unattractive. Sitting behind all of uax is not even worth wasting breath on.

 

Nice! I think I might try this on my next 3 hour sit in SLC. And if they give me a class what should I do? Accept the Mesa class, keep my line-holding left seat on the RJ or take my Airways class date? Damn, I'll lose some sleep over this one.......

 

Congrats on your Airways gig. It would be worth a laugh to get hired just by showing up in a parking lot with a suitcase.

 

And a hidden camera & microphone!