"Wearing the hat" goes way beyond a piece of the uniform. For someone like me, it also means buying into a hiring process and corporate culture that prioritizes things like high school GPA and personal volunteer hours over flying related skills and accomplishments. 40 minutes getting grilled over my high school GPA, disregarding entirely my 3.95 GPA in my masters degree program because it was correspondence, and fixating on a variety of other things like how many books I read a year (a lot) and how many hours I volunteer outside of work (not much due to 2 special needs kids at home), convinced me that "wearing the hat" was never ever going to be a good fit for me. They hated me, and I came away convinced that I didn't want to work for them if they cared more about time at the soup kitchen than taking care of my family and not sucking at stuff like, you know, flying.

That's what "wearing the hat" means, more than just a stupid thing you put on your head. It's the entire corporate attitude behind what they want to see in the hiring process. That's not me, never was, never could be, never will be. I'm honest enough with myself to know that they're simply not looking for someone "like me". I like to think I'm pretty good at what I claim to be good at, which is doing that pilot stuff and taking care of my family. All those other things that they wanted to talk about during the interview, that's someone else who isn't me, and I'm ok with never ever trying to be the person they're looking to hire. I don't think it's dishonest or short-sighted to plainly say I'd never again apply to work there. It's not a good fit. They know it, I know it. No point trying to force the issue so it's just a no. I'm not gonna wear the hat.

 

100% this, and what a great way to summarize "The Hat". This is not against Delta by any means, but rather an acknowledgement that not every place is the right fit for everyone. I didn't even bother applying there as I knew ahead of time I didn't fit the mold they were going for.

 

on wife #1…if it goes south there won’t be a #2. I’m still planning on quitting between 60-65. Don’t want to be the weirdo on the Let Old Farts Fly thread pushing age 80!

 

I’m genuinely curious how many active DL pilots spend their days off volunteering after they get hired vs when they padded their resume to pass the interview. Not gonna lie, I applied in ‘07 and updated until ‘14 when we were 100% sold on moving back to CO. Never got a nibble from them so I guess I wasn’t what they were looking for.

 

The only reason I applied and went through the interview process was because I have friends at Delta who said the place was fine once you got past HR. A lot of people play the "get past HR" game far better than me, but that's been true my whole life so in hindsight as I unpacked what happened, I realized it wasn't really a surprising outcome.

Based on chatting with friends who got hired at United in the last 10 years, I suspect that might have worked out too. I assume I didn't quite cross one or more of their thresholds for an ex F-teener to get a call, and I quit updating my applications when I finished IOE at SWA. It's worked out just fine.

 

I’d imagine the HR hurdle is a pretty big speed bump for most people. It’s tough trying to be yourself when you’ve been told to talk and act a certain way (that may not be how you normally act).

Thankfully here, most of the process was driven by pilots…and there didn’t appear to be any rocking chair tricks.

 

Hey when are these invites going out 😂🤣😂?!?

I wanted to be in class by Sept 22nd...

🤪

 

Just got the invite email. No bs. God is good!

Good luck to all!!!
Dave

 

Big Congrats! We complain because that’s what we’re good at but it’s actually a great place to work! See ya soon!

 

I’m assuming this is hiring for after the first of the year? Or is this current round expected for holiday classes?