Incredibly professional

rstharold, November 3, 2019, CJO Offered, Delta Ride Reports, Delta Ride Reports, 0

Which Airline did you interview with?	Delta Air Lines
How many days between invite, interview, and listed availability?	6 weeks, 2 days
Did you include volunteer work in your application?	Yes
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?	Received a CJO
What is your experience?	Military,121
Total Flight Time	3,000-4,000
Total Turbine PIC Time	TPIC 121 hours 0 TPIC Military hours 1000-2000 TPIC 91/135 0
General Overview of Experience	Incredibly professional. All the Delta staff I encountered were first rate, even the security guards and the ladies working at the “DMV” for photos and fingerprinting.
How long did you have your application in before you received an invite?	6-12 months
Did you attend a job fair?	No
Did you do anything special that triggered the interview invitation?	Added 3 internal recommendations about 3 months prior to receiving the invite.
How many internal recs did you have?	3-4
How long was it from the time of your invite to the actual interview?	6 weeks
Did you have any issues with logbooks, application or paperwork?	Nope. During the HR interview, the current Captain didn’t know what Other time was, so I had to explain. Otherwise, no issues or questions.
Technical Test Questions	RST was a great foundation, but getting through all the available material, quizzes, tests and the GOLDstandard PowerPoint to a level mastery takes well more than 15 days. Start early! I also pounded through most of AIM, parts of EEEP and Aviation Weather and the highlighted version of ANA. I found the PHAK readings to be the least helpful, except for Chaps 14 & 15. Many of the questions were essentially identical, others were not. You need to understand the concepts, not just memorize the answers. I had 3 holding questions and 2 math questions. Also, make sure you are careful when finishing different portions of testing and don’t accidentally start the next test before you take a break. I didn’t get a chance to relax prior to the JKT because as soon as I finished the Personality Test, the first JKT question came up and the timer started. Not sure what I did wrong, but must’ve clicked something in error.
What was the hardest technical question or content you experienced during the job knowledge test?	I didn’t encounter any questions I didn’t have the conceptual knowledge to handle, but the JKT was the last activity of the day for me and my brain was fried. I misread several questions and talked myself out of a couple correct answers. Best advice: read carefully and always go with your initial gut response. I missed a question straight from RST on starting sequence, because my brain locked on the Starter being the first event in the sequence, when Rotation was an available option.
HR Questions	My panel wasn’t overly relaxed, but they weren’t uptight either. Took my jacket off and drank the water. Started with 2-3 minute professional history, HR rep asked questions about my Air Force Academy experience, what would I have done if I hadn’t gone into flying. Retired Captain asked about my failed check-rides. Own your failures. TMAAT when someone challenged your authority, when you went out of your way to deliver excellent customer service. WWYD, how do you recover when CRM breaks down, 1 hr out and ATIS is calling field closed. I prepped with ECIC, but deviated a little from their standard approach, talked fairly openly about missteps I’ve made, brought in stories during the list questions. Overall, felt like the least difficult part of the interview, but was apparently the stumbling block for the 3 in our interview class who didn’t return for Day 2.
Cog Test	Cog Test is the first of the three tests you’ll take. I did Luminosity and JetBrain Games to prep and read the sheet available through ECIC. A little helpful in understanding what to expect, but the interface is different, light pen feels much different than a mouse button. I found this the most difficult test and didn’t feel I’d done very well, but apparently did well enough to make it through. Not sure there is any additional prep work I could’ve done on this. The practices the Test lets you try are very short. Designed to familiarize you with the mechanics of the game, you can’t really get any better using the practices. Just try to stay calm and focused.
How long prior to the interview did you prepare for the HR portion of the interview?	Did ECIC audio/video and one webinar last winter, 2 webinars and Top Off in the month leading up to the interview.
Which HR Prep service did you use and did it help?	Emerald Coast Interviewing Consultants, yes, very much. I appreciated their approach, very helpful in structuring my prep, stories, etc. Multiple webinars are good, see a lot of different ideas for how to handle WWYD. I also talked with a couple of my friends who are current Delta FOs who’d been hired within the last 5 years.
Any additional information you would like to add.	For the Personality Test and MMPI, I operated under 3 rules. 1) People are basically good, 2) I’m not perfect, 3) What I think about myself. Both tests will be invalid if you don’t have flaws. And nobody wants to hire someone with a pessimistic attitude towards their fellow humans.
Is there anything you wish you could have done different to prepare you for this process?	Start studying for JKT earlier. I didn’t even know about the Ground School courses/quizzes/tests until 5 days out and felt a little panicked that I wouldn’t get through all the material.

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