The Southwest interview experience was exactly

Which Airline did you interview with?	Southwest
How many days between invite, interview, and listed availability?	3 weeks between invite to interview however i coul have picked a date one week out
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?	Military and 121
Total Flight Time	1,000-2,000
Total Turbine PIC Time	1,000-2,000
General Overview of Experience	The Southwest interview experience was exactly as advertised by others. I chose the morning slot since I figured I would not be doing much sleeping the night before anyways. I also gave myself three weeks for preparation. The first week I focused mainly on paperwork and recommendations. Once this was about 90% complete I moved on to the interview prep. I collected my thoughts and made rough drafts of the points I wanted to articulate. Once I had gathered my core stories and felt like my “toolbox” had enough depth to cover multiple question I had my wife ask me question. I mainly practiced with family members and used Corporate and Career Takeoff to help fine tune my answers. I stayed at the Doubletree the night before the interview. I rented a car so I could do my in-person prep session at Rebekah’s office the day before. Having a car added a little more freedom to make any last minute runs if I had forgotten anything and an added level of comfort. I did as much as possible to remove any stress from the day of the interview. I per-ordered room service for breakfast the night before so I would be able to eat before getting ready (my luck I would spill something on my suit). I left the hotel around 0630 for the 10 min drive to headquarters. I checked in at the guard shack and they had my name on a list and pointed me in the direction to the parking lot. I walked in the front doors at 0640 and met the group I would be interviewing with. Around 0655 we began the check-in process and turned in our stacks with our logbooks. The interview experience was advertised. After the introductions and welcoming talk we walked over to the interview building where we would spend the day. The gave a brief overview of the LOI and showed us the paper tiger and how the timer worked. We were then taken to the holding room. My sequence of events was the HR panel first. This consisted of a retired captain, a person from the people department, and a college intern. They did a good job making this conversational a warn environment. The HR rep was more engaging throughout and added remarks/follow up questions. The retired captain was more stoic and seemed more like the business person following a timeline. During my question they were busy writing most of the time which offered little time for eye contact. I tried to treat the intern as one of the interviews by making eye contact and involving him in my stories as well. At the end of the HR panel they asked if I had any question for them. I asked them each a question as well as the intern. Next I went to the LOI. Man does the 7 minutes fly-by. My scenario was one of the aft flight attendants smelled something like smoke. Which ironically was the same scenario I practiced the day before with Corporate and Career Takeoff. I involved the whole crew and made a decision before time expired. I feel like your chance to shine is during the debrief. They are trying to see how you interact with your teammates under stress. Be polite and respect their opinions but at the end of the day it is up to you to make the decision. Last was my Logbook review. I used an excel spreadsheet Corporate and Career Takeoff provides their clients. My logbook was 100% electric and I did not bring my original private pilot logbook that contained my first 60hrs. I did bring my green HARM folder and FEF. The person doing my logbook did ask if I had by chance brought these items. He was excited to see that I had. The logbook portion went really quick and my hours break down by years was exactly what they were looking for. The last part of the logbook review was just asking question about my flying career. The most stressful emergency I have had, what job I liked the most, and then we talked about our families. After the 3 sessions I went back to the holding room and waited for the rest of my group to finish up. We then met up with the afternoon group and received the company overview powerpoint and a Q&A session with Rocky. I left the headquarters campus at 1330. This was an extremely long and mentally tiring day. The Southwest employees were great and the day ran like a well oiled machine. I believe 7 out of 11 from my morning group received the invite. I truly believe they want to hire everyone they invite. Just be yourself and try to avoid sounding like a robot
How long did you have your application in before you received an invite?	6-12 months
Did you attend a job fair?	Yes
Did you do anything special that triggered the interview invitation?	I attended the September job fair. I do not believe this triggered the invite but it did help me accurately answer the “Pilot Questionnaire” portion on pilot credentials. I had been a Assistant Flight Commander (more than 10 pilots) and an acting Flight Commander due to a deployment. During the military breakout session these questions were asked and I felt confident I could check the boxes and back them up. I also was able to check the flight safety officer box as well. I had not done this during previous windows. I updated these boxes at the career fair and received the invite shortly after.
How many internal recs did you have?	3-4
How long was it from the time of your invite to the actual interview?	3 weeks
Did you have any issues with logbooks, application or paperwork?	No. I used Rebekah Krone for prep. The in-person interview prep the day before is well worth the money. Knowing your paperwork has had another set of eyes to verify everything and ensure that it is 100% accurate is worth the piece of mind and added confidence.
How did you prepare for the JKT/COG portion of the interview?	N/A
Technical Test Questions	N/A
What was the hardest technical question or content you experienced during the job knowledge test?	N/A
Cog Test	N/A
Cog Math Questions	N/A
HR Questions	Why Southwest (multiple times)… Tell us about yourself… Tell me about you most challenging flight… Tell me about a time you disagreed with a superior… Tell me about a time you were critiqued on your performance… What will be the most challenging thing when joining Southwest… Fill in the blank “If I receive a phone call from the Chief Pilot with a job offer I will ______”…
How long prior to the interview did you prepare for the HR portion of the interview?	3 weeks
Which HR Prep service did you use and did it help?	I used Corporate and Career Takeoff. It was well worth the money and time. Rebekah and her team are extremely knowledgeable and easy to work with through out the entire process. They do not teach canned answers. Instead they teach you how to gather your stories, deliver them in a clear and concise manner, and articulate the important aspects of the story.
Any additional information you would like to add.	At every point in the interview, if it’s a high point of your resume or a great decision made or whatever, be sure to acknowledge the people in your life/teammates/etc that helped get you there. And of course, own and demonstrate learning from failures. And for all the conspiracy theorist out there……I did have a cover letter with my resume.
Is their anything you wish you could have done different to prepare you for this process?	No

Great Experience

Great experience overall

RST made the difference, I worked with others

They want you to succeed and help you

Very nerve racking throughout the day

Very relaxed and congenial

RST does a great job of preparing for this test

121 and 135

The Southwest interview experience was exactly

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