Hello,
First of all good luck on your interview!! Any advise,...be yourself..if they cant take that, they dont deserve you!!.
I am a west coast commuter myself and commute from sea to jfk. This is a long commute. You cannot put lipstick on this pig and make it look pretty. There are some hard realities assosiated with it,and many variables as well.
I will tell you what I think and how I deal with the west coast commute.
1. I love Seattle and I am not moving. I can only whip out the violin for myself because I'm the one that chooses to commute.
2. Out of seattle including all airlines there are 6 directs a day to jfk. I normally hop on the noon flight that gets in around 9pm.
3. I commute in the day before and not on the red eye. Some people can do this, some cannot. I honestly cannot think of a better way to hate my commute than bye commuting on a redeye. Think about this...anyone who is a commuter that has an early show has to come in the day b-4 anyway...
4. I bid early shows. Unless you are positioned for a truely "commutable" line" ie..late show on the first day and able to commute in, and if dine early on the last day,ie able to commute home...I want to garantee myself getting home on my last day....ie early shows= early sign offs for end of your trips.
5. people say" how do you deal with the time zone change"..I simply try to keep it in one zone the best I can...ie..i just tell myself I stayed up late last night ect. ect.
6. Your commute really depends on where you live. If you are commuting from sfo, lax, oak, sea....your golden...lots of options and opportunities. You would find your commute somewhat easier that some Florida commuters...IE lots of pilots, lots of commuters. Bottom line is, Not that many people are stupid enough to commute across the country, so your compitition for the seats is limited. I sit in the jumpseat maybe twice a year.
Our bases: Longbeach is the senior base...very little movement either. We are planning our west coast expansion, which means someday, there will be another west coast base...probably in the bay area. I see us flying out of lax and making lgb and lax a co domicile, and likewise in the bay area with sfo and oak.
Hope Ive been some help and good luck, where all counting on you!! C