Great experience! There were too many coincidences

Which Airline did you interview with?	FedEx Express
How many days between invite, interview, and listed availability?	26: 10 Dec Availability; 6 Jan invite; 6 Feb interview.
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?	N/A: however two gentlemen who did not get the CJO were from the F-16 and F-35. I suspect it had something to do with single seat background, but can’t confirm. Both were very squared away.
What is your experience?	Military
Total Flight Time	3,000-4,000
Total Turbine PIC Time	>2,000
General Overview of Experience	Great experience! There were too many coincidences throughout that make me think that the big guy upstairs was pulling strings. Amy McNeil is the very first person you meet on day one. She sets the whole tone! She’s pulling for you, and even praying for you whether you think you need it or not. SHE IS 100% IN YOUR CORNER. If you make it to day 2, you owe her! After a pass call on day 1, you’ll be invited to come in around 0730 or 1100. They do their best to accommodate folks with late flights. I got the 1100 show and received a brief on the interview and the SBI. Mike Mimms sets the tone for Day 2. Fantastic, again in your corner and tells you they want you. They want you to do well, and most of all they want to get to know you. Be prepared for questions that try to look past all the gouge! After that, we were offered lunch. I got to do the SBI first, then I had a 30 minute wait to eat some more cookies. From there, is was on to the HR interview. There’s no HR lady. It’s two retired captains. I had 2 marines. They were AWESOME. Humble, credible and a pretty good combo for good cop/bad cop. Other guys got a different team with two bad cops… yikes. Be prepared. Be humble and no big deal. I find bad cops have a harder time being tough if you genuinely ask them questions before the interview while you stuff your face with a sandwich 😉 After that you’re cleared to leave. I got a call at 1756. Some of the best news in my life!
How long did you have your application in before you received an invite?	1-6 months
Did you attend a job fair?	No
Did you do anything special that triggered the interview invitation?	I had one internal rec. However, I have a feeling that a buddy who was going through training was pushing my name pretty hard. He’ll never admit it, but just saying. Regardless, it had nothing to do with what “I” did special.
How many internal recs did you have?	1-2
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?	Expect a question confirming your availability and be prepared to fess up if has changed. Best to give Kim a heads up when you sign up for the interview.
How did you prepare for the JKT/COG portion of the interview?	I used the RST trainer. It’s VERY good. You do not need anything else. You will not be allowed to take notes for the math stuff. You will not be allowed to have a calculator. Aside from that, don’t get wrapped around the “king COG” scoring system. There’s a mechanic with balancing left and right arrows. You get massive points by going as fast as possible in the Cog trainer. On the actual test you only get points for not hitting the sides. If you hit the arrow twice in the same direction it will accelerate much quicker to the end point. Go slow. LISTEN TO AMY!
Technical Test Questions	The CONTENT in the 15 day checklist fantastic. The sample questions are pretty good too. NONE of them are verbatim, but some are pretty close. The Navy T6 Aero guide, the MACH tuck guide, the engineering guides and the engine guides were most useful. The FAA stuff might have been good for the pictures and one question. The massive day 13 FAA content should be SKIMMED or SKIPPED entirely.
What was the hardest technical question or content you experienced during the job knowledge test?	The only questions that are hard are the ones that you may not have noticed in the prep. They may be covered in the Ground School portion, but I only got through the third topic. 30 days was barely enough for the 15 day checklist if you have a full time job. All that being said, here’s a couple that I remember. If you’ve never flown Jepps it might be worth a quick primer. 1. What’s the biggest problem with an IRU/INU system? The answers are different than the practice test. a. Gyroscopic Wander (Drift is the correct answer in the trainer) b. Gyroscopic Precession (I went with this one. I never once measured “Wander” at the end of a mission in the KC-10) c. Something ridiculous 2. You’re before Hudly on a Jepp approach to a runway at LAX. There’s a picture of the the profile view and picture of the missed approach instructions and you have been cleared the approach. Tower advises that the runway is now closed and you are not cleared to land. What do you do? (point names are not correct, best I could remember) a. Descend from 3600 to FAF altitude (2000). Drive to MAP then execute Missed Approach procedure to CATO and hold as depicted (picture shows 2000 for holding at CATO). >>> I picked this one. b. Level off (3600). Execute MAP at this altitude.>>> this might be safer, but it’s not what you’re cleared. c. Break off approach and go straight to holding pattern at CATO (3600 feet). 3. How are generators rated? Guys coming from little planes will have a hard time here. Volts X Amps = Watts, so the EE geek in me had a hard time too. All I could remember was that my truck had a 60 watt alternator. a. Volts b. Amps c. Kilowatts (I went with this one) d. Kilo Volt-Amps (KVA) 4. After starting the engines you notice that the #1 AC pack has faulted. What happened? a. The #1 N1 Bleed valve stuck open/closed b. The #1 N2 Bleed valve stuck open/closed (I wend with this one as I remember the KC-10 accessory group is off of the N2 section–that was reaching back 6 years though!) c. The crossfeed bleed valve stuck open d. The #2 N1 Bleed valve stuck open/closed
Cog Test	arrows… nice and slow.
Cog Math Questions	I had lots of multiplication. I can only remember one. I’m fairly certain I divided wrong. In all, there are 6 questions. You are given 1 minute 30 seconds. That gives you exactly 15 seconds each (see what I did there?). 1. John washed 3 dishes in 10 minutes. Jane washed 9 dishes in 5 minutes. If Jane washed 6 times as many dishes how long did it take?
HR Questions	I had Bud and Mike. Two marines. I talked slow… ha! They set you at ease but don’t be surprised if you end up getting double bad cop. Up front, they tell you that they need to get to know you. They need to make sure you’re the guy that will keep the company running so they can collect their pension! 1. Tell us about yourself. 5 minutes is a long time! Amy said to keep it to 1.5 minutes on day one. That being said, I’m not a talker… 2. What do you know about FedEx? Why do you want to work here? I mentioned stuff from the “about page” at fedex.com then told them how I respected the guys that I knew that work here with 2 name drops. Then I told them about the coolest flyover ever at a homecoming game. Surprise, it was a FEDEX DC-10 after multiple F-15s, F-16s… 3. Tell me about a time (TMAAT) you messed something up in the aircraft that impacted your career. Have an airplane story ready. I went with a human factors story that was light on the details, but big on Crew Resource Management (CRM) and dealing with an aircraft commander (AC) who was a “real hardcase”. Mike pressed about what I really messed up. I could tell he wanted more details. If I had to do it over again, I would have brought more of the scenario details than the human factors side, but I ended up giving him something so he didn’t think I was hiding a horrible issue. 4. This was a hypothetical about me being the Captain and being overly directive and shutting an FO down. It was the exact flip side of the story I just told about the AC in the last story. How do you bring them back into the fold? How do you continue to develop them and make them better? I went with respect goes both ways. Take time to debrief. Show you care, and explain your decisions at the appropriate time. 5. Tell us what you know about fatigue. I went with a deployment story where my AC had to turn down an alert because no one on the crew had the proper sleep. I used this as a time to talk about recognizing fatigue and making the safe choice. Other than that, it’s all preparation and keeping yourself ready. 6. Hypothetical>You’re flying a 9 hour leg from MEM to Campinas, South America. The lavatory hasn’t been serviced and it stinks to high heaven, but it is serviceable. Maintenance says it will take 30 minutes, but you’ve got push back in 5. What do you do? Coordinate… tell everyone. Duty officer will get it done in 15 minutes and “fully supports your decision”. Stop here! I went ahead and pressed. We had a fun discussion on how all of your divert options are terrible and your first officer (FO) just had a med emergency. Oh, and the Portuguese don’t understand your terrible Spanish. Think safety first. Stop taking the hill! 7. You’re a little older and a Lt Col?! Wow. How are you going to be able to take orders from a 32 year old Captain? I told them I do it all the time when I fly with other instructor pilots (IP)s. I ask them if they would like to be the AC and then tell them I will absolutely honor that. We had a discussion on “assertive follower-ship” while still backing up the Captain in every way… especially after their final decision. 8. Any questions for us? They were giving me the all done signal, but I told them I had to ask one! After everything you’ve been through at FedEx, what’s the one thing you would tell yourself if you could go back to your own interview day? One of my interviewers gave me a really cool story about slowing down and not shutting down an engine in the 727 before coordinating with the Captain! I would have loved to have been a fly on the bulkhead there! The other said to slow down and use your crew. Be Safe.
How long prior to the interview did you prepare for the HR portion of the interview?	2 Months with audio and video from Emerald Coast. 1 month in earnest when I got the invite.
Which HR Prep service did you use and did it help?	Emerald Coast! Absolutely. Scott and Jack gave a fantastic seminar. Joe for the top-off is a must!
Any additional information you would like to add.	Yep. Everyone at the interview is gouged up. FedEx seemed a little tired of it, but understood that pilots always want to be prepared. Add in things that you do and let FedEx actually meet YOU. This was most important during the SBI. You’ll have the formula for the 8 minutes, but BE YOU in the 6 minutes they give you to study the scenario. I got a typical divert for weather scenario with 4 clown-shoes options. What did I do different? I made sure to ask thoughtful set-up questions. Some were deflected for later, but I could tell that Ron and Gary liked seeing me ask about more information. The next part you’re not gouged up for is the debrief! You can go with the “Things we did well” and “Things I could do better” standard, but add in your own experience. I threw up a CRM table of 5 different topics. As I went through the debrief, I tied the action points to different CRM buzzwords and what they meant in the scenario. I think they really liked… probably because it wasn’t formulaic. That’s just one example of being yourself. Get past the Emerald Coast green tint!
Is their anything you wish you could have done different to prepare you for this process?	NO! In fact, the weekend prior was a big relief. I had got all the gouge I needed and knew it was time to relax, watch the Superbowl and get a good lift in at the hotel.
What can we do to improve our services?	Tighten up day 13. It was a bit much. Some of the questions have spelling errors. I didn’t see a single misspelled question on my actual test.
Concepts not covered by RST	SBI, but Emerald Coast had my back.

Make sure your paperwork is rock solid

I didnt have any issues

Overall it was a great interview experienced

RST Made it happen!

RST is a great product

Great!!!

It was more engineering heavy than I thought it was going to be.

Overall experience was minimal

Great experience! There were too many coincidences

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