Airtran Interview coming

[Jetboy]

Any advice on the interview process would be greatly appreciated. I have read the aviationinterviews.com website so am up on that, but would appreciate any further gouge that anyone is willing to share.

 

[jjleesa]

AirTran Interview

I interviewed with AirTran on Tuesday 28 Jan 03. I flew up to Atlanta on Sunday and stayed in the Diplomat (recommended by AirTran). The hotel is currently being renovated, the walls are paper thin (you can hear normal conversations clearly from the next room) and food is a real hassle if you do not have a car. The only advantage is they have shuttle service to Airinc and the airport. Obviously, I would recommend staying somewhere else.
On Monday I did the sim and interview preps at Airinc ($800.00 total). I had never had to interview before (military), so the interview prep was good for me. If you have done airline interviews before, the interview prep might not be that valuable. The sim prep is a must. The displays are small and hard to read and the sim is difficult to control.
On Tuesday morning there were 8 for the interview (7 male, 1 female). There were 7 blue suits, 5 red ties, 1 gold tie and 1 blue tie. The AirTran people talked for about an hour and put out good info about the company and interview process. At the end of the presentation, Jill takes your application paperwork and certificates to make copies.
The interview process is in 4 parts- 3 one-on-one interviews and the sim ride. The interviews are with 2 captains and HR. The interviewers are great people that promote a relaxed atmosphere and they ask the standard questions. I do not know what else to say. The maneuvers on the sim ride are straightforward (T/O, climb, turns, descent and ILS approach), but as I said before, the sim is hard to scan and control.
I was called late Friday afternoon with the good news and start class on 20 Feb. I heard that out of 22 total interviewed, 11 were hired. Good luck.

 

[Heavy Set]

Which aircraft type for training - 717?

JJleesa and Career Pilot,

Congrats on the job offers. Great news. Any indication about aircraft type training? Is it safe to assume most/all new pilots are training on the 717 - or are a few still being trained on the DC-9? Did they tell you which type?

JJleesa, I am sure they were also happy with your 737-700 experience given the rumors about adding 737NG airplanes to their fleet - good job!

 

[jjleesa]

145drvr,
There were no techinal questions. Most of my questions were negative questions i.e. Tell me about a time you screwed up (confrontation, being criticized, uncomfortable in the cockpit, etc). Suprisingly, not one of the interviewers said "Tell me about yourself" or asked why AirTran should hire me.
Bottom line- you need 4 or 5 negative scenarios with a situation, action and ultimately positive result. I had a hard time with some of the negative questions and thought I did not do well during the interviews. Obviously, it worked out.
I do know that they asked different questions for the other interviewees and I do not know what those questions were (a caveat in case they ask you all positive questions).

I can't tell you how happy I am to be hired by AirTran. The only possible downside I can see is one of the majors trying to drive the company out of business, like Delta might be trying to do JetBlue with Song. Other than that, I envision nothing but great things and can't wait to start contributing to its success.

 

[jjleesa]

Career Pilot,
I heard there would be 20-22 people in the class. Where are you going to stay during the training?

 

[Midnight Mike]

FlightSafetyBoeing in Long Beach California offers Interview Preps, we have "2" full flight 717 simulators
and fully qualified 717 instructors that can offer the interview prep.
1 hour brief (with a fully qualified 717 ground school & simulator instructor
1 hour in the simulator (717 if you want)
30 minute brief

The contract people keep changing the price, if you are curious about the price, send me an email
[email protected]

Sorry for the cheap plug, but times are tough.....

 

[flx757]

The "sim" that AirTran uses during it's interview process is Air Inc's "Elite" sim supposedly designed to duplicate an MD-80. It's a PC based program, with 2 monitors in front of each pilot for "visuals" depicting the instrument and engine displays. There is no motion. I see no beniefit to getting an interview prep in a real simulator. If you feel the need to get a prep, I suggest using the actual sim that AirTran uses at Air Inc. (since I personally had never been exposed to anything like it). I didn't get the prep, and did ok on the interview...at least good enough to be hired. But I would still recommend that you get an hour on that thing just to see what it's all about.

Also, I was a little surprised to read that jjleesa said there were 22 interviewees and 11 were hired. Normally, the interview to hire ratio is a little higher. The hard part at AirTran is getting the interview. Once there, they really want to hire you. The rest is up to you. At my interview group of 12, I think all but one was offered a positiion, although one other person accepted a position with another airline.

 

[Jetboy]

Thank you very much to all who replied. I am very greatful and hopefully will see you on the line someday.

A few additional q's:
Do you get paid in training?
Are you responsible for lodging, etc. while in training?
How soon offer to class date was it for you.

Thanks again and congrats.

 

[flx757]

You are paid the 70 hour minimum guarantee from the first day of training, with medical, etc, benefits beginning on the first day of the following month. For example, for those that start class on Feb 20th, medical coverage begins on March 1. You are responsible for your own housing for all training conducted in ATL, since you are considered in your domicile (ATL currently being the only domicile). Some sim training is conducted in MIA, and in this case, you are provided hotel and per diem.

Personally for me, the time from offer to class date was many months, but it could have been 6 days. I had the offer on a Tuesday, and they gave me the choice of starting class the following Monday or a class date in 3 weeks. I took the later date for several reasons. Ultimately, due to the training dept being saturated with pilots transitioning from the DC-9 to the 717, my class originally scheduled for Feb wound up being postponed until August. Right now, I believe the time from job offer to class date is only running a matter of maybe 3 weeks. Maybe someone who has a recent class date can give better information on this.

 

[AV8OR]

Of you guys that interviewed at Airtran recently, would you mind posting the break down of the the interview class? Most important for me is, were there any non 121PIC pilots there for an interview or not? This has been stated as a "soft" requirement for an interview.

Thanks