Hiring profiles and insitutionalized discrimination
Hugh Jorgan said:
I'm seeing people of all different ages getting hired at regionals. I don't know where you come up with this.
From first-hand experience, that's where.
Example: I applied to most of the same regionals to which my ERAU colleagues had applied. They had interviews and were being hired. They were mostly twenty-five (25) and under; I was pushing forty (40). They had no qualifications that would give them an advantage, such as turbine, 135, freight time, etc. I applied to plenty of others to which they did not apply, but never heard from them, despite
repeated application and update efforts. I had documentation from magazines and hiring reports that these airlines were hiring people with lesser quals than me who were younger than me.
Example: I had a friend at ERAU who was a little light on multi time, but had Ameriflight freight and ditch tours experience. Far better quals in the big picture than me.
She was close to my age. No one was calling her.
This lady had applied to Horizon for years, with no success. The FAA in Portland eventually hired her. Eventually, she met two Horizon bigshots who received and screened applications and hires pilots. They offered her a job, which she turned down. She told them right to their faces, flat-out, that she never understood why she never was given an interview after trying for years, but she was amazed that now they were interested in her. They admitted they understood how she felt. Those morons had it coming.
Example: I have a friend who attended a regional interview a few years ago. Our birthdays are within days of each other, meaning he was in his mid-to-late forties when he was interviewed. He was told he was rejected because of his
age. Very stupid of them and probably illegal.
See, link to the Age Discrimination and Employment Act, below.
Sometimes the stack of resumes is just too big . . . .
. . . which makes it
soooooo easy for them to find their "perfect" applicant and not to bother with someone who is good but does not exactly and precisely meet their "profile." The airlines have their profiles, and with the piles and piles of resumes it is easy, and very little bother, for them to select these candidates. It is far harder and requires far more brainwork for them to attempt to qualify someone else who is good but is somehow a little different than their "perfect" candidate.
You mention, Hugh, that people are overlooked. Probably. But how can one be overlooked after submitting numerous applications and updates to the same companies over several years?? Applying and updating every few months, as the experts have recommended, over a period of years should get someone's attention. If it were me, I might call that person and speak with him/her for a few minutes. But that's just me.
The various non-saints who have been hired obviously were able to clear up any concerns about themselves at their interviews. How can one clear up concerns without getting an interview? It's really hard to be given the chance to present your story without benefit of the interview. And it's hard to get the interview when your materials are consistently "overlooked," as you put it. I prefer another verb and/or institutionalized practice.
Is there another way to garner that interview and have the chance to present your story without going through the traditional means of preparing a resume, cover letter, application form, transmitting them and/or maybe having someone walk them in for you? Of course there is, and we all know what it is. It is a three-letter abbreviation and a subject that is frequently discussed here. You don't need good qualifications, high moral fiber and in-house references for it; you only need a checkbook.
[A]ll I can say in this day and age is that I can't see something like age/sex/race/height/military or not making a hill of beans.
Then maybe
Age Discrimination and Employment Act and other anti-employment discrimination laws listed on the page and the 14th Amendment should be repealed and the EEOC disbanded.
All of this nonsense . . .
. . . to whom? Do not call it nonsense until you have walked in the other guy's shoes. Just reread what I wrote above. I have no doubt that others have suffered similar experiences. They just aren't coming forward to relate their experiences as I have.
I, for one, have never said that it is impossible to get on in the airline business. But, for a certain class of people, it will be tougher than for others because of institutionalized forces that work against them.
Finally,
Originally posted by 350DRIVER
Having just turned 25 I was the youngest, high end was 48 or 49. There were quite a few people in there 40's, mailnly UAL and Airways furloughed guys. Age really is not so much a factor as some would like to believe it to be. The airlines that are hiring in fact are more concerned about "experience" versus the "age" factor....
(emphasis added)
I cite this as a point of clarification. My beef is with those regionals who ignore and/or flat-out discriminate against
older career-changers, i.e., those who took up flying later in life and who are offering the same credentials as those who took it up at a much younger age, i.e. flight instructing
only, as I wrote above. The folks 350 met at his interview are already members of the club. I do not believe that regionals or others discriminate against them, nor do I believe that they discriminate against pilots in the same age bracket who have been flying for years already and offer credentials commensurate with their experience.
