Don't be surprised if a few people try to prank you on the way

Jet Brain, April 6, 2017, CJO Offered, SWA Ride Reports, 0

Which Airline did you interview with?	Southwest Airlines
How many days between invite, interview, and listed availability?	Invite to interview 6 weeks; listed avail Aug17
Did you receive a job offer?	Yes
If you did not receive the CJO why do you think you weren’t chosen to continue in the process?	NA
What is your experience?	Military
Total Flight Time	3,000-4,000
Total Turbine PIC Time	>2,000
General Overview of Experience	Very welcoming. Don’t be surprised if a few people try to prank you on the way. The security guard tried to fake me out by saying that “all interviews were cancelled today”. You can verify by looking over to the left and the people department is on the left of the lobby as I saw someone walking out of the People Department. I said that’s strange that people are walking in/out of there for them to be closed. Bottom line, most of the pressure is self induced for the entire process. It was overall a lighthearted and fun experience. They truly want to put you at ease and have you succeed. Met in people department for introductions to other interviewees, paperwork turn in and fingerprinting followed by company briefing by chief of pilot hiring who is Rocky. After that is done they walk you over to another building for the three parts of the interview. HR, LOI and Logbook review.
How long did you have your application in before you received an invite?	<60 days
Did you attend a job fair?	No
Did you do anything special that triggered the interview invitation?	Not that I am aware. I did have 6 internal recommendation, and 4 external recommendations of which I posted the 4 external recommendations on the pilot credentials profile.
How many internal recs did you have?	5+
How long was it from the time of your invite to the actual interview?	4 weeks
Did you have any issues with logbooks, application or paperwork?	My logbooks session was easy but I felt extremely prepared. MILITARY WARNING: The directions that SWA sends says that you are exempt from tabbing 2500 total, 1000 PIC are NOT true. Tab not only these things but also have the dates recorded as they write that down. Additionally have 12, 13-24, 24, 25-36, 36, 37-48, 48, 49-60, 60 all recorded. I broke this down on an excel spreadsheet along with all the other requests they have, PIC, SIC, turbine, etc. I created a notes section on how I calculated all of my time including primary, secondary, instructor, evaluator, student, etc. I also vastly underestimated my PIC time by not counting other time (even though I was the A-code). I also subtracted 5% for times when I potentially flew with another IP (again overestimating the PIC subtraction, but since I had 2000+ PIC turbine I wasn’t too worried). Finally on a third spreadsheet I broke down each months flying totals including sorties for each month with the .3 conversion. I must have been lucky or the interviewer a little overwhelmed, because I did not get a single question about my logbook. After about 10 minutes of logging all the times and dates, he asked me 5-6 TMAAT stories. Why SWA? Flying with a difficult Capt? Difficult decision? Best flight and why? Tell me about how living overseas is? Last note, the application they print about 3 weeks prior to the interview. I had updated my hours 2 weeks prior and matched my resume, logbook, and I had printed a copy of my application that I updated showing the new times. I showed him all three. It didn’t seem to matter since the difference was <20hrs.
How did you prepare for the JKT/COG portion of the interview?	NA
Technical Test Questions	NA
What was the hardest technical question or content you experienced during the job knowledge test?	NA
Cog Test	NA
Cog Math Questions	NA
HR Questions	I had the LOI first and was the first person called out of the group. What a way to start! It is the fastest 7 minutes of your life. Three takeaways: Use good CRM (they say in the pre-briefing this is what they are looking for), make a decision (all of the choices will not be good, I picked the “least bad”), a good debriefing of what happened (Good, Bad, Ugly). I screwed up a few things and hopefully got some points back during the debriefing. You aren’t going to be perfect and that’s OK. Next was the logbook review and paperwork (application review), as briefed before. HR was last for me. It was late in the afternoon and I brought some snacks with me for a little pick-me-up which I was glad I did to give a little energy(our interview ran 1000-1730). Started out with a resume review and a breakdown of every flying assignment. Why SWA? How do you feel about a 10-15 yr upgrade? I see your an evaluator/check airmen, how do you feel about pulling gear as an FO with someone junior to you? Asked me the mission, vision statement and core values. Asked me about how I embodied all 3 separately. The one part I didn’t feel I had an answer that was strong was “Fun-loving attitude”, but I got the job so I guess it was OK. 3 TMAAT stories. They finished with what questions do you have. I had a few ready (deployment of the MAX, new routes, aircraft/personnel expansion plans).
How long prior to the interview did you prepare for the HR portion of the interview?	I started about 2 weeks prior.
Which HR Prep service did you use and did it help?	I think I am the only one out of my group that did not use a prep-service and I still got hired so there is hope if you go that route. I was just myself and swapped stories with other pilots and did mock questions sitting in the cockpit flying with other pilots.
Any additional information you would like to add.	I would say also say the interview definitely starts when you call to make your reservation for your ticket to Dallas. I had two stories already lined up in my why SWA, when reserving my ticket, and meeting the ticket agent at the counter due to the fact that both took 30+ minutes for different reasons and they were apologetic and friendly. I think its part of the interaction they want to see along with gate agents, MX, Flight attendants, Pilots, etc. Both of my flights the pilots were running behind but I did talk to the Flight Attendants for a bit. Very positive interaction. Make sure your availability date is spot on. Since I was 6 months prior I did get asked when I could physically be in training.
Is their anything you wish you could have done different to prepare you for this process?	No

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