DAL New Hire Demographic

[skywav8r]

I was a check airman on my previous aircraft, 9000+TT, 4500 PIC in turbo prop or jet, BS in Aero Engineering (with 2 years working in aerospace), built my own airplane, 1 internal rec from senior DL captain I've known for 20 years, no tickets or incidents. No call. Go figure.

Cheers,
Scott

Gee, did I write you a letter?? Not one of my rec's got an interview. You many even have given me a line check! Keep trying, it really is a lottery. 3 years ago I applied with 9500tt, 6000 pic jet/turboprop, one internal rec from another newhire. Got the interview within 5 weeks and was in a class a few short weeks later. I went over my app at least a billion times to make sure there were no errors.

You have to remember how many off the street newhires we had this last time. My guess is around 150ish. That's not many spots for the amount of apps we had. Keep trying.

 

[Caveman]

I suspect DALs degree requirement is a leftover from the days when major airline hiring was dominated by military applicants. Military FW pilots are almost exclusively commisioned officers and 99.9999999999999% of unrestricted commissioned officers have at LEAST a four year degree. So back in the day when most major airline pilots were prior military having a degree was a defacto requirement to be competitive because most of the people getting hired just happened to have one. It has since morphed into a requirement as a way to cull the herd of applicants.

To put this in perspective you need at least a 2 year degree and usually a four year degree to be competitive for a job as a fireman or cop. In most cases it isn't a requirement to apply, but the reality is most of the other applicants have at least an AA/AS in Fire Science or Criminal Science. Aviation is no different.

A four year degree is almost the same as a high school diploma of 30 years ago. You gotta have one.

 

[ACL65PILOT]

Yep, and Delta will kick and scream to change this one. If you look at the degrees and skill sets of people five and six levels down from the top of flight ops, you were realize that Delta was the cream of the crop as they see it and a Bachelor degree is step one towards that "ideal" candidate.

Does it mean they lose good candidates, yes, I know a few, but they feel that even with that fact known it is a requirement for what they want for their piloting staff.

 

[AnimalTale]

Come to my airline. They require no degree. The downside is you get what you pay for.....

CYA

 

[hockeypilot44]

Come to my airline. They require no degree. The downside is you get what you pay for.....

CYA

Lol. That's really funny. A lot of the pilots at your airline went to "The Academy." No, not "The United States Air Force Academy;" "The Delta Connection Academy."

 

[RedRum]

There are some good people in class for Delta, they are the flow guys from Compass and MEsaba. I know the ONE non flow mesaba pilot that was hired was given so many breaks for breaking reserve rules, he was unprofessional how he treated schedulers and had low time. But it was a good thing he has some awesome contacts at Delta and his issues at Mesaba and breaking commuting rules were handled discretely. I have read some postings about ASA pilots complaining about the people they took from their pilot group that went to Delta. I try to judge people individually but with what is going on with Delta HR directing the hiring practices is not a good sign. Yes I am bitter the flow was pulled out from under me, I was given career expectations and then given a knife in the back. If Delta had kept the flow at Mesaba they would have been better for it, they would have gotten a amount of great people who have already proven themselves. Heck they could have even kept their "standards" and required a 4 year degree to flow.

I agree that you had the rug pulled from under you. But with that being said, it would have been great for Mesaba to have given me my job back after I flew for them for 5 years and then was furloughed at Northwest.

Expectations and a aviation career do not go hand in hand. Have a back up plan. I did and I did just fine.

No one owes me anything. Words to live by these days.

 

[Jet Wash]

for some reason, Delta's big on college.

As is every single Fortune 500 company. If you expect to have a decent job then you have to have a college degree. A job with a major airline may not be what it once was, but it's still a good paying highly sought after job.

 

[pilotmyf]

I was a check airman on my previous aircraft, 9000+TT, 4500 PIC in turbo prop or jet, BS in Aero Engineering (with 2 years working in aerospace), built my own airplane, 1 internal rec from senior DL captain I've known for 20 years, no tickets or incidents. No call. Go figure.

Cheers,
Scott

Maybe Delta doesn't appreciate your "I'm the bee's knees" attitude. I can't believe you are not an astronaut!!!!

 

[Helos2Galaxy]

1000 turbine pic is really the only hard time minimum. The rest is flexible... F-16 guy is competitive and may get on w/ 2000tt; the 2500tt hour civilian pilot with 1000 turbo prop pic probably isn't yet competitive.

 

[General Lee]

1000 turbine pic is really the only hard time minimum. The rest is flexible... F-16 guy is competitive and may get on w/ 2000tt; the 2500tt hour civilian pilot with 1000 turbo prop pic probably isn't yet competitive.

1000 turbine PIC? Are you sure about that? I thought a couple Eagle FOs with no PIC got into a couple of the last classes? I don't think there is a PIC requirement. It might be helpful, but not a requirement.


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[regionalcap]

1000 turbine pic is really the only hard time minimum. The rest is flexible... F-16 guy is competitive and may get on w/ 2000tt; the 2500tt hour civilian pilot with 1000 turbo prop pic probably isn't yet competitive.

There is no turbine pic min requirement.

 

[Flyer1015]

The above is true, but the only people with no PIC getting called are those deeply connected (read: legacy kids or Delta interns). There are absolutely no FOs getting a call out of the blue from Delta unless they have some serious connections. Couple of female ASA FOs come to find.

 

[CRAWDADDY]

Twenty years ago, you couldn't get hired at Delta Air Lines with corrected vision. Doesn't it make sense for Delta to give preferencial treatment to people with glasses who were in diapers back then?

 

[General Lee]

The above is true, but the only people with no PIC getting called are those deeply connected (read: legacy kids or Delta interns). There are absolutely no FOs getting a call out of the blue from Delta unless they have some serious connections. Couple of female ASA FOs come to find.

Some advice to anyone who wants to find some "serious" connections, go to work as a caddy at any Peachtree City, GA golf course on your days off. Try to caddy (for free) for any Delta Captain you meet. He/she will be so impressed (especially if you do it for FREE) that he/she may just give you that recommendation that CHANGES YOUR LIFE... (in a good way) Good luck to you.


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[skywav8r]

Some advice to anyone who wants to find some "serious" connections, go to work as a caddy at any Peachtree City, GA golf course on your days off. Try to caddy (for free) for any Delta Captain you meet. He/she will be so impressed (especially if you do it for FREE) that he/she may just give you that recommendation that CHANGES YOUR LIFE... (in a good way) Good luck to you.


Bye Bye---General Lee

If you caddy for free you will make up the lost pay in beer savings if your hired. I haven't bought the first or even the second round of beer since I've been hired. I'm still amazed at the pay it forward attitude here. When we made real wages they'd pay for dinner and beer but I'm quite happy with a couple free beers.

 

[HA25]

Become a Minority...Like it or not, Delta has adopted the old United hiring practices.

I witnessed it first hand.. DAL hired a Caravan driving woman over a USAF C17 guy, myself and two other RJ captains.. with 10K+.... the other two hired were F-xx drivers (fair enough)...

 

[ACL65PILOT]

The above is true, but the only people with no PIC getting called are those deeply connected (read: legacy kids or Delta interns). There are absolutely no FOs getting a call out of the blue from Delta unless they have some serious connections. Couple of female ASA FOs come to find.

Wrong. In 2007 there were AMR Eagle FO's ( 7 year FO's) that got called with one line pilot rec and others FO's from other carriers with no recs that were called. They do occasionally just pick out of the stack.

I still suggest getting as many recs as you can from qualified references.

 

[clippyrip]

I witnessed it first hand.. DAL hired a Caravan driving woman over a USAF C17 guy, myself and two other RJ captains.. with 10K+.... the other two hired were F-xx drivers (fair enough)...

It's not all about flight time. Are you a dbag? Your personality is a big part of getting hired and you mentioned nothing about that.

 

[CesnaCaptn]

It's not all about flight time. Are you a dbag? Your personality is a big part of getting hired and you mentioned nothing about that.

Judging by FI, all airlines hire dbags.

 

[metroplex]

under ethnicity, select other....then fill in...ARYAN, that will get you in