Nepotism at CAL

[sardinesnack]

Nepotism means favoring relatives or personal friends because of their relationship rather than because of their abilities. The word is generally used derogatorily

Nothing new here of course in this industry. But its running rampant at CAL right now in their hiring process and if you think you have a fair shot just by applying you will be passed on by, on by and on by in favor of the 23yr old who's daddy was an 83' hire and has a commercial with 1,200hrs total time.
You may think its only temporary also, but there are a-lot of these guys coming aboard everyday. I've heard people say will good for them, but you have to wonder what our industry has come to when a 35yr old guy out of work, with no retirement, and thousands upon thousands of hours can't get a break while a G-whiz number 23yr old kid is holding 777 First Officer at Cal. The question you have to ask yourself is does experience count for anything in this industry anymore and the answer is obviously not. If you think you have a fair shot at Cal with a few recommendations but no parental lines, will good luck.

 

[LJDRVR]

but you have to wonder what our industry has come to when a 35yr old guy out of work, with no retirement, and thousands upon thousands of hours can't get a break...

Because you spend your time on the stupid internet complaining about how those people stole "your" job, and how incredibly unfair this whole thing is. (Gosh, you're so much more qualified that those punks.)

The airlines don't hire the most qualified people. The fact that you're 35 and haven't figured this out yet goes a long way to explain your dilema. Spend some time cultivating some resources at CAL. If you can get one pilot to really go to bat for you, that's all it it takes.

By the way, if I was in a position to help my offspring in such a manner, I'd do it in a heartbeat. "I'm sorry son, I'm not recommending you because you haven't paid your dues yet. Besides, there are so many older, more qualified pilots that deserve that job."

Get real sardinesack.

 

[SuperFLUF]

Uhhhh, while it does suck, that's life at EVERY airline.

AND every other business without an anit-nepotism policy.

 

[FN FAL]

Father and Son fly together at FedEx...

http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/business/article/0,1426,MCA_440_4369902,00.html

 

[KeroseneSnorter]

It's who you know that gets the interview, always has been, always will be.

Learn to play the game, meet folks and BE NICE! The system has not changed in 60 years, it's not going to change just for you.

I have helped several guys get the interview call at various airlines, but I never helped a guy I did not know(Meet people!), or one that was an ego trip or in general social moron (Be Nice!)

I owe many pilots much beer for the help I received, and I try to help friends when I can.

Network and you will get the call.

 

[Captainzero1]

wait a minute, many people on this board go overboard when a woman or minority is shown supposed preferential treatment. Now the realtives of captains are getting preferential treatment and it's ok because that is the way it is always done in the airlines. Hyprocrites.!

You can't have it both ways. It is either a meritocracy or it isn't. I am not naive but I don't ever want to see anybody starting treads bashing women or minorities they perceive as taking jobs they are supposedly not qualified for.



"Obstacles are those frightful things we see when we take our eyes off our goals".

 

[FN FAL]

wait a minute, many people on this board go overboard when a woman or minority is shown supposed preferential treatment. Now the realtives of captains are getting preferential treatment and it's ok because that is the way it is always done in the airlines. Hyprocrites.!

You can't have it both ways. It is either a meritocracy or it isn't. I am not naive but I don't ever want to see anybody starting treads bashing women or minorities they perceive as taking jobs they are supposedly not qualified for.



"Obstacles are those frightful things we see when we take our eyes off our goals".

Do what I'm going to do when I get out of college, get a job as a cop in the city where a major hub is, find out where the pilots like to drink and then nail em leaving the bar. You'll definitely cut down the chances of that pilot getting his kid on the line and if you know how to push buttons during the traffic stop, maybe you can get some bonus felony assault on a police officer action.









If you can't tell, I'm just f'n with ya. :nuts:

 

[urflyingme?!]

If you can't get promoted for superior flying you might as well get hired for being a superior networker....

 

[sardinesnack]

Deleted.............

 

[mckpickle]

CAL's hiring practices are disgusting in my view. I interviewed and was offered a job in 2002. Of course they weren't taking anyone then so I was given a letter saying I would be given a class date when hiring resumed. That letter also stated that I must remain employed by XJT. I stayed employed at XJT and then in 05 when they started hiring again they decided that I would be given a class date AFTER about 250-300 new hires who hadn't even interviewed when I was offered a job. Oddly enough those who were given jobs shared lasts names with upper management types. I decided for that and other reasons CAL is not the place for me. They can kiss my APU!

 

[Patriot328]

Well for what it's worth I'm a new hire that knew exactly no one at CAL and the only interaction I had was filling out the online application and then tossing a resume to a recruiter at a job fair a couple days later. I know I got incredibly lucky, but I am also proof that "off the streeters" do get hired. We have a few other people like that as well.

No one in my class was related to anyone at the airline, though most had friends that had gone in to vouch for them. We had several XJet guys and a few Xjet guys that left XJet and went on to other regionals, then came back to CAL on their own.

I'm sure there are a few guys and girls getting hired that have help from mom or dad or whatever, but that's just life. Been that way for 70 years in this industry and at least 2,000 years on this planet. The vast majority of people getting hired at CAL are people who have friends/former coworkers go in and vouch for them. I'm sure most people can find SOMEONE they have worked with that can help them out. If you have 10,000 people that are qualified for the job on paper, how do you chose? Maybe ask the advice of someone that's at the company (and has a good rep) that knows them and ask their opinion.. ?

 

[miles otoole]

Well for what it's worth I'm a new hire that knew exactly no one at CAL and the only interaction I had was filling out the online application and then tossing a resume to a recruiter at a job fair a couple days later. I know I got incredibly lucky, but I am also proof that "off the streeters" do get hired. We have a few other people like that as well.

No one in my class was related to anyone at the airline, though most had friends that had gone in to vouch for them. We had several XJet guys and a few Xjet guys that left XJet and went on to other regionals, then came back to CAL on their own.

I'm sure there are a few guys and girls getting hired that have help from mom or dad or whatever, but that's just life. Been that way for 70 years in this industry and at least 2,000 years on this planet. The vast majority of people getting hired at CAL are people who have friends/former coworkers go in and vouch for them. I'm sure most people can find SOMEONE they have worked with that can help them out. If you have 10,000 people that are qualified for the job on paper, how do you chose? Maybe ask the advice of someone that's at the company (and has a good rep) that knows them and ask their opinion.. ?

Really?!?!?!?! Hey McDork, apparently you weren't as qualified as you thought. Enjoy your "career" at XJT especially with the upcoming pay cut with the "world owes me" attitude. Have you always been so bitter?

 

[Patriot328]

Really?!?!?!?! Hey McDork, apparently you weren't as qualified as you thought. Enjoy your "career" at XJT especially with the upcoming pay cut with the "world owes me" attitude. Have you always been so bitter?

I think you quoted the wrong person there otoolie.....

 

[miles otoole]

I think you quoted the wrong person there otoolie.....

No Buttriot, I was supporting what you were saying, hence the "McDork." Sorry if you missed it.

 

[100LL... Again!]

By the way, if I was in a position to help my offspring in such a manner, I'd do it in a heartbeat. "I'm sorry son, I'm not recommending you because you haven't paid your dues yet. Besides, there are so many older, more qualified pilots that deserve that job."

That is exactly what I would tell my kid. In more polite terms of course.

Know why? because I would want my kid to earn it like I did so that he would appreciate it more. Too many kids who get freebies grow fail to appreciate their advantages. Kids are young. Let them pay their dues. My sympathies are with the dedicated career professional who earned the position through years of hard work.
It is a bad parent who smoothes to many bumps from his child's road. They will never become independent.

But I guess I'm just an old meanie.

You make me want to vomit.

 

[mckpickle]

Really?!?!?!?! Hey McDork, apparently you weren't as qualified as you thought. Enjoy your "career" at XJT especially with the upcoming pay cut with the "world owes me" attitude. Have you always been so bitter?

Now why is it that I wasn't qualified? I seem to recall passing the interview and sim ride. Thank you for the support though. I will enjoy my career at XJT, or whatever other airline I decide to goto, thank you. And for the record when a company tells you that you are hired and tell you as a condition of that you must adhere to certain things.........AND THEN change the rules and place 300 guys ahead of you in seniority..... Now why would I be bitter.

Otherwise Miles Tooldouche you can kiss my a$$. Jerkwad

 

[24 carat]

Still relatively new to flying, and definitely the jobsearch, I don't find networking that easy. I have no problem being nice to people but I find it hard to go out of my way to make those people, those that I think I might need, feel special. It makes me uneasy and, quite frankly, in my mind it is not far of from brown nosing. At the very least it is all not very genuine.

I do understand its purposes though. I can see the point from the company perspective, having so many applications, why not narrow it down on the bases of recommendation of company employees. Could do worse, I suppose. But it's one thing getting an interview this way and from then on being on your own; getting through the interview on your own merit. It's quite another if the interview is basically a done deal (wink, wink) as soon as somebody recommends you. I sure hope the second scenario is not often the case with the bigger companies.

 

[Cardinal]

Life is hard.
Some kids are born poor, and have to dig ditches to pay for every one of their first 400 hours. Some are born wealthy and fly their own shiny twin around until they get a job. Should their be a federal government Early Aviation Experience Financial Redistribution Reallocation and Transfer Program (EAEFRRTP) to help the poor and punish the wealthy? No, and if you think otherwise you are a communist. Anyway, you probably pull more chicks at a bar than I do, I'll just have to get over it.

Incidentally, everybody from my company that has interviewed at CAL has "known" somebody. All of these individuals have also been shot down at the interview. That means sardinesnack's application is two places higher in the stack Rejoice for these little victories.

 

[Diesel]

The world will allways need ditch diggers.

 

[Cardinal]

I just saw this posted by member LHD on ar15.com. I couldn't help but think back to this thread. Forgive me, cause it isn't exactly gentle, but hilarious for sure.

Their cross is not mine to bear.

Life sucks and then you die. Everyone has to take a bite of a sh!t sandwich sometimes. People need to stop using these things as an excuse and start acting like mentally developed, sentient beings capable of feeling.

If you had a sh!tty life, I'll listen to your woe. But if you expect to use that as a reason to go all fruitbat on me then you're mistaken. This is the real world where lions eat gazelles, families get evicted from thier homes and I dont have time for you to act like a nutcase.



​

For what it's worth, sardines, I do feel that the recruitment process at most airlines is a bizzare, corrupt, disingenuous farce. But what are ya gonna do about it? I don't have 3 buddies at FedEx, don't want to mark myself with a 737 type for the scant likelihood of a SWA job, my airplane doesn't weigh 20,000 pounds to qualify at JetBlue. We all have obstacles.....

 

[Patriot328]

I just saw this posted by member LHD on ar15.com. I couldn't help but think back to this thread. Forgive me, cause it isn't exactly gentle, but hilarious for sure.

Their cross is not mine to bear.

Life sucks and then you die. Everyone has to take a bite of a sh!t sandwich sometimes. People need to stop using these things as an excuse and start acting like mentally developed, sentient beings capable of feeling.

If you had a sh!tty life, I'll listen to your woe. But if you expect to use that as a reason to go all fruitbat on me then you're mistaken. This is the real world where lions eat gazelles, families get evicted from thier homes and I dont have time for you to act like a nutcase.



​

AND THAT, RIGHT THERE, IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH AMERICAN WOMEN....

 

[Photoflight]

well if the 35 year old and the 25 year old are equally qualified...and the 25 year old has a good rep is a good stick and a great guy...why should the age be a factor. Simply being older doesn't "earn" you anything, especially in this business.

Being older and having been in the biz longer...IMHO......does.

 

[Cardinal]

Good call, PatriotDork! I always figured you were one and the same over there...

 

[LJDRVR]

You make me want to vomit.

Awesome! Thanks for putting a big smile on my face, low-lead. I hope you gagged on the bile and had dry heaves too!

Thanks for the sunshine there, puddin.

 

[Patriot328]

Good call, PatriotDork! I always figured you were one and the same over there...

Yeah I'm too lazy to come up with different screen names. I figured there were a few arfcommers running around here.

 

[Diesel]

Look at nepotism of Fedex and military pilots.

Nothing new in aviation. It's not what you know it's who you know.

 

[100LL... Again!]

Awesome! Thanks for putting a big smile on my face, low-lead. I hope you gagged on the bile and had dry heaves too!

Thanks for the sunshine there, puddin.

Glad to see that you'd hire your own child over a professional who paid their dues for years. That is what dictators do too.

 

[LJDRVR]

Glad to see that you'd hire your own child over a professional who paid their dues for years. That is what dictators do too.

Of course I would. If my son or daughter was trying to gain employment at my airline, I would do everything possible within my power to get them hired. What loving parent wouldn't? Oh, that's right, YOU. Even though your kid is an adult at this point, you'd still feel it their best interest to try to teach them some imagined lesson on the importance of paying dues? What are you smoking?

Your kid's personality is formed by the age of five. The remainder of their childhood is an opportunity for you as a parent to imprint certain values. Once they're adults, the cake is pretty much baked. Witholding your support and assistance when they are working in the same career as you accomplished nothing but hurt, resentment and acrimony, just to name a few.

With such a skewed sense of moral authority and your self-imagined mandate for character building, the question that begs answering is: How did you find a woman desperate enough to procreate with you? She must have loved it when the rest of your emotionaly stunted "skeletons" came out of the closet.

Just funnin ya', I think you and I would be in perfect agreement on the importance of teaching our children that hard work and persistance pays off. But can you honestly sit here and tell me that your lack of assistance (Along with the frustation and pain that accompany it) would be of more value to your adult child than you helping them get career job a little faster than they could have done so on their own?

 

[100LL... Again!]

...personality is formed by the age of five.[\quote]

Resisting wide-open cheap shot opportunity.

The remainder of their childhood is an opportunity for you as a parent to imprint certain values. Once they're adults, the cake is pretty much baked. Witholding your support and assistance when they are working in the same career as you accomplished nothing but hurt, resentment and acrimony, just to name a few.

With such a skewed sense of moral authority and your self-imagined mandate for character building, the question that begs answering is: How did you find a woman desperate enough to procreate with you? She must have loved it when the rest of your emotionaly stunted "skeletons" came out of the closet.

Just funnin ya', I think you and I would be in perfect agreement on the importance of teaching our children that hard work and persistance pays off. But can you honestly sit here and tell me that your lack of assistance (Along with the frustation and pain that accompany it) would be of more value to your adult child than you helping them get career job a little faster than they could have done so on their own?

My 1200 hour son could and would have to wait until I felt he merited moving to the next step. Advancing people beyond their due stunts their development.

 

[LJDRVR]

My 1200 hour son could and would have to wait until I felt he merited moving to the next step. Advancing people beyond their due stunts their development.

Say what? First off, kindly explain what determines a persons "due". Eastern airlines hired single-engine private pilots in the mid sixties, trained them in an aero commander, then stuck them in DC-9's. Many of these gentlement flew entire careers without bending metal. Where was their development stunted? Outside of market forces in the arena of employment, what cosmic force determines what a person is due? Certainly not their parent attempting to make imoprant life descision for their offspring beyond the age of twenty one.

100, I really think you're pulling this stuff completely out of your rear end. Can you give me an example of a professional pilot whose parent's influence and assistance resulted in a less than capable aviator? Can you also justify why that single occurence should result in your blanket rejection of such action?