RST practice cog tests very much mirror what you do at the interview

rstharold, January 24, 2020, CJO Offered, Delta Ride Reports, Delta Ride Reports, 0

Which Airline did you interview with?	Delta
How many days between invite, interview, and listed availability?	6 weeks to interview, 2 weeks listed availability
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?	N/A
What is your experience?	121
Total Flight Time	4,000-5,000
Total Turbine PIC Time	TPIC 121 hours 1-500 TPIC Military hours 0 TPIC 91/135 0
General Overview of Experience	Day 1: Group of 13, split up in to two groups. One did computer tests in AM, interview in PM and vice versa. You start with check-in and get an opportunity to view the schedule of when you’re computer testing and interview is set up for. After a few minutes CA Barry Holmes met with everybody in a conference room and set out some expectations for the day. Tried to make people feel welcomed. Computer test is 3 parts. Cog test takes about 45 minutes (rough guess). Personality profile is 200-250 questions of “strongly agree-strongly disagree” type questions, also takes about 45 minutes. Knowledge test is 60 questions, with a 60 minute time limit. ATP type knowledge that RST is good prep for. Many people come away from that test feeling pretty beat up by it. I personally noted about 10 questions that I went back to look at a second time and changed one of my answers. Break for lunch, not provided but the Delta cafeteria has several options. Interview lasts about 45 minutes with a 3 person panel interviewing you. Panel consists of a retired pilot, a current pilot, and an HR rep. They go around and introduce themselves and then ask you something like “In 5 minutes tell us about your aviation background and how you got started flying?” Other questions I remember: -They asked about my education history (running start program, doing junior college while in high school) -They asked about my boat racing. -They asked about an intro lesson I did in a helicopter earlier this year (I think just as a soft-ball question). -How do you feel about commuting and what would your strategy be? -How would you feel about extended amount of time as an FO? -Asked about my volunteer role with CIRP and how/why I got started with that? -You’re a captain and an hour from your destination they close the airport. Walk us through what steps you would take? -You’re an FO and you’re captain is going to be high and fast at an arrival fix, what would you do? (This is the question where they keep pushing/digging to see how you react) You’re first attempt to communicate with him to correct the issue falls on deaf ears, now what? 3 days of flying and he’s sloppy the whole trip, what now? Would you get the chief pilot involved, under what circumstances? There was a bit of down time after my interview waiting for everyone else to finish up, myself and another guy went to the Delta museum. At the end of day 1 Barry does a couple “drive by” passed down the hall calling people’s names, that’s bad. If you don’t get your name called then congrats. You sit down in the conference room again and go over some paperwork related to your CJO. Day 2: The psych eval is no threat I don’t think. Just answer honestly. There’s one on day 1 as part of the computer test battery. On day two there’s a much longer one, about 600 questions. One of the things the psychologists look for is if there’s a large difference between the day one and two results, which could cause you to get kicked to the pilot applicant review board. Apparently the day two test also is programmed to be able to tell if you’re answering questions based on what you think you should say, and will invalidate the results. Causing you to have to do the 600 question monster again. You sit down with the psychologist for about 40 minutes. They ask a bit about your youth, your leadership style, a stress you faced at work, a stress you faced at home, a conflict you faced at work. You also do drug test and fingerprints, then you’re on the way home.
How long did you have your application in before you received an invite?	12 months +
Did you attend a job fair?	Yes
Did you do anything special that triggered the interview invitation?	I had recently put “Selected for Line Check Airmen position, awaiting training” I also put in a fair bit more about my non-flying activities. Maybe that’s what did it?
How many internal recs did you have?	1-2
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?	No, although the HR rep seemed to have some confusion about my education history with a “running start” program. (attending the local community college while in high school)
Technical Test Questions	RST did a really good job preparing you. My only advice is don’t feel beholden to the “15 day course” It’s a great guideline, but at this point in your career you know what study methods work for you. For instance I did a bunch of practice tests to find area of lacking knowledge, and then went back and studied that stuff more.
What was the hardest technical question or content you experienced during the job knowledge test?	I don’t remember anything from the actual test being all that hard after the RST prep. I think there were about 8-10 question numbers I wrote down and went back to look at, only changed one answer.
HR Questions
Cog Test	RST practice cog tests very much mirror what you do at the interview.
How long prior to the interview did you prepare for the HR portion of the interview?	1 month+
Which HR Prep service did you use and did it help?	Cage Marshall, it was good!
Any additional information you would like to add.
Is there anything you wish you could have done different to prepare you for this process?

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