Inside info on FedEx pilot hiring

[Goose17]

dondk

I think there is probably a majority of military at FedEx vs pure civilian background. However, I fly with pure civilian guys all the time. We have a WIDE variety of backgrounds here.

Your comment to the effect of why put in an app if the odds are against you is sad. The odds are against EVERYONE. If you are 1 app in a sea of probably 10k, the odds are against you. That said, we are hiring a ton of pilots. If you don't want a job, don't apply. If you would like a shot, apply. If you don't have any sponsors, dig deeper. We have pilots from all the branches of the military and from all the regionals I can think of.

Good luck.

Goose17

 

[klhoard]

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And remember that all of the active pilots (military background only) get a percentage of your $50 application fee whether you're hired or not!!!
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[dondk]

Goose17, you have a great point.. It is similar to the lottery, you can't win if you don't play. It just appears to be skewed towards a particular group of pilot's over the entire industry.

I have read on a few AirTran threads of some military guys complaining about the fact that Airtran only considers those with 121 PIC time. Again, a practice that decreases the whole pool in favor of a group of pilot's. Not too much of a difference from the FedEx policy.

once again, my .02

 

[jetexas]

military pilots are better!

Better at what?

 

[Maddog2]

16 guys in my class in November. 5 with no military background, 3 prior military working for other civilian companies, and 8 military only. Good mix of good guys overall. The all civilian guys were by far the youngest guys in the group, I would say by an average of 9 years.

 

[mongopilot]

My 2 cents, if you don't know the person you are recommending or have flown with them, the recommendation is worthless. That being said, I came straight from the military,so all the guys I know well or have flown with, u guessed it, are prior military. I have absolutely no problem with hiring civilian only pilots. I have flown with quite a few of them here and they are just as good as anybody else.

 

[seefive]

everything

 

[psysicx]

Since mil guys are getting on with lower time does it matter if its AD or reserves/guard?

 

[Mr Zog]

Ok. I wasn't gonna get into the military vs civilian arguement. But I have nothing better to do than "stoke the flames " a bit.

Psysicx,

I have to take a little opposition to your comment about "low time" with military pilots. I can't talk for the "fast mover" guys or the squids and jarheads, but for the "toads" the flight time is all about "quality." For example, a local four to five hour sortie would include a formation departure, a tanker air refueling, a receiver air refueling, and about two hours beating up the pattern (usaully get 4 or 5 touch-and-gos). Not to mention vast experience in oceanic crossings, ICAO, cargo operations, wide-body aircraft operations, etc... I am not saying that military is better than civilian. But you can't compare one hour of military time with one hour of civilian time, it is like comparing apple to oranges.

 

[walden]

We can't log taxi time either though some airlines either factor that in (SWA .3 x sortie) or are aware of the difference.
All in all I'd say it doesn't really matter. We can debate all day about the mil v. civ stuff, but what matters is what the interviewers think. If they like mil guys, OK. If they like civilian guys, OK. I'm sure there's subjectivity that favors either side at companies everywhere.