It may seem like a waste of time to someone who already has the job.

To someone on the outside, spending a day or two for the m&g and possibly getting a leg up on thousands of other applicants is huge. When the company is hiring roughly 1000 pilots a year, every month you're on the outside is another ~80 pilots that will forever be above you on the seniority list, and thousands of dollars of missed opportunity.

The meet and greets are not part of the interview process. The job fairs are not part of the interview process. The chief pilots have very little input to the process right now. It's just the opportunists trying to take your money that are pushing these ideas.

What opportunists? Is someone making money off of M&Gs? A chief pilot input may be small, but it's not nothing. UAL is at the job fairs. If they're there, then you're there. Neither is part of the interview process but both can get you an interview--the statistically most difficult part of the entire process.

Wise beyond your years, young atom.

Yea...my bad. Nobody is trying to profit from any of these events.

"Job fairs and M&Gs". Your post, Not the infinite ancillary services out there.

What is the benefit of job fairs and cp m&g's vs allowing UAL's application system to filter and rank the applications from 1 to 10,000?

The benefit is that it allows UAL pilots to get their family and friends interviewed earlier than just letting the computer pick the interviewees.

Let's suppose your application is ranked 4,000. It may take 3-4 years to get an interview. Nobody can say for sure, but it certainly seems like the guys who do the m&g and job fairs get called sooner. If completing those events moves your app up to number 1,000 and you get hired within a year, think about what that will do for you in the long run. You'll be able to get holidays and weekends off quicker, bid larger equipment quicker, and bid Captain quicker. If a Captain makes $100,000 more than an FO, and you're a Captain for 2-3 years more than you would've been had you just "waited your turn", your career earnings will be $300,000 more.

Sure there are lots of variables that will also come in to play, but ask ANY pilot what it would do for them if they could jump the seniority list by 2000 numbers.

The above is spot on. Most of us super senior 8+ yr RJ FOs would fly to the moon and back if it meant increasing our odds. It may sound desperate but it's not. In fact, the Hogan might even call it "ambitious" ;).

Nothing wrong with M&G's. If I were to recommend something to those on the outside looking in I'd recommend:

1. Spend the money on an airline interview prep; it's money well spent.
2. Find someone in the Air Guard reserves and ask them to copy the "United Interview "After Action Report"". I was actually floored by the amount of information contained in that file. ex: I interviewed on 1/1/15 with an HR guy Named Steve R and two UAL line Captains named Ace and slick. I was asked what would I do if......I answered I would do........I don't think Ace like that answer and he asked me to explain ........I should have said this.....

The guys and gals from the military all have access to a file like this in their Guard unit. It definitely gives them a leg up. Military pilots are trained to write very precise After Action Reports; Bombing Assessments, Collateral Damage Reports etc, so you can imagine how well those United Interview After Action reports are written