Emails out from United saying gets apps cleaned up and ready. Invites go out in July for September 10th and 11th expo days.

Don't have to reach that far back. Laz just got his kid hired.

I think in an odd way you made a good point. It's not HOURS. Hopefully those that are doing the interviewing get that. It's a combination of quality experience (which is a factor of time in the seat and years in the profession), and decision-making.

The more time in the left seat equates to more opportunities to make both good and bad decisions. Accountability, responsibility, emergencies, irregular operations, charters, etc. All of that Captain - left seat time adds up to opportunities to succeed and fail. learn and get better.

We truly want CAPTAINS who have been CAPTAINS, and who can relate to and respond to the role of Captain.

No need in hiring FO's from the regionals who haven't upgraded and had an opportunity to better themselves as professional pilots.

Let the process work. Let maturity and matriculation occur. Let them get better. Let them be MORE READY for a major airline when the call comes.

The country club casual people in HR (not only in our HR but others) will never understand this.

Bonus: When it's time for them to upgrade, that process will be much smoother.

Most FO's are better pilots than Captains. Their scan is tighter and reflexes a bit quicker. It's not about hiring better pilots. It's about hiring the experience that only comes from experienced pilots. We could pay X for a new hire regional FO, or we could pay X for a Captain qualified pilot who has paid his/her dues and who is ready for the next logical step in the profession.

Makes sense to hire the Captain qualified pilot who has a proven track record of safe operations and who has passed a few more check rides and who has had to prove themselves competent leaders and qualified airman. Civilian or military equivalent works for me.

Baseball,

Have you contacted any of the managers in the new hire department with your thoughts on how they hire? I’d love to know how they would respond to something like what you wrote above.

Best of luck to anyone attending the September Job Expo. I have a feeling that this process of hiring will evolve over time to a level of professionalism and fairness we’ve all come to expect. I also hope that you’ll all have a chance to actually voice the reasons of why you want to work for United as opposed to listening to your recruiter list the reasons for you.... (for the majority of your 15 minutes of fame)

Seriously, I wish everyone the utmost success.

I actually appreciated their sales pitch to me on why I should choose United. It showed me that they knew we were a valuable commodity and didn't want to waste time me explaining reasons that while may hold true for me don't mean much in the long run in why United. We can all spin a tale why X Y or Z company but in the end hopefully it's not the main reason why we were hired.

The 2002-2012 period created a lot of 10+ year FOs with all kinds of turboprop and jet/CRM experience. Upgrading after 10-15 combined years in the FO seat isn't going to backfire on a United jet any more than it would if it were a military hire with zero transport category, crew time.

Hello,
Do United pilots get to recommend or submit candidates names for consideration for this event?

I’m not exactly in the know but from my understanding there is no recommendation system at United other than sending someone a rec on airlineapps.

Look, I'm not involved in hiring at United in any way. But if you talk to anybody that is and press for details you will quickly find there's a limit to what they will tell you. Generic information like upgrading, becoming a LCA/IP/evaluator, sure. Anybody can figure out that it helps. But how they weigh certain qualifications over others? That's absolutely proprietary and should be in my opinion. Otherwise you'd see pilots just doing whatever it took to get the highest point totals.

United wants to hire future leaders of the company. It's pretty obvious that you can have the right leadership abilities and qualifications WITHOUT having had a chance to upgrade. There are plenty of FOs that are in the right seat that are absolutely going to be great Captains when they get the chance. I'm glad that United is spending the effort to find them.