Southwest interview and question formats?

[enigma]

It seems that most posts of late on this "interview" bbs, deal with things like the date that the next DB will meet, etc.

I searched for interview gouge, but didn't find much.

Can ya'll direct me to a string, webpage, etc, where the latest questions are written down? I don't have an interview scheduled, but with Chase and Wingborn continuing the "be prepared" mantra, it seems that a little advance study might be helpful.

And yes, I will buy professional prep if I get lucky enough to be given an interview.

Finally, has the interview style changed any in the last four years? I know that is used to be three seperate one-on-ones, and all of the questions were "tell me about a time". Have there been any additions to the process?

Thanks,
enigma

 

[Lori Clark]

They now incorporate a LOI process which is different from years past.


Good Luck!

Lori

 

[Juvat]

I interviewed with SWA recently, and didn't get wrapped around the axle with trying to find out the questions ahead of time. The last thing you want to do is go in acting like a rehearsed robot. We pilots like to be prepared for everything, but you don't want to be too "over-prepared" for the SWA interview.

I highly recommend that you buy Cheryl Cage's book and CD "Checklist for Success." I read through the book a couple of times and did the CD exercises a few times. Then I got into my logbooks and spent about two weeks straight just thinking about my past flying experiences and trying to examine myself to know "who I really am."

When it came to interview time, I was nervous waiting for things to start, but when I got in the room for my first interview, it all flowed. I felt like I was having a natural conversation with a new friend sitting in a bar. It was like sitting there and telling honest stories, from the heart, about my flying experiences. It was actually quite fun, and the interviewers were all wonderful. SWA has a very class act going on in the People Department. If I had memorized a list of possible questions ahead of time, I'm quite sure I would have made a dork out of myself in the interview.

Finally, regarding your question about the format...there are 3 one-on-one interviews (same as it ever was) and a new line oriented interview (LOI). The LOI consists of sitting in a paper cockpit trainer with a couple of interviewers and showing the process you go through to make a decision with a time limit. If you just relax and act like you do everyday in the cockpit, it's a no brainer.

My contacts and a few of my letter of recommendation writers were called the week after the interview, and now I'm waiting to hear results from the Aug 31 decision board.

Best of luck to you getting the interview call, and then being able to prepare for the big day!

 

[9_Driver]

SWA Interview stuff

Can ya'll direct me to a string, webpage, etc, where the latest questions are written down? I don't have an interview scheduled, but with Chase and Wingborn continuing the "be prepared" mantra, it seems that a little advance study might be helpful.

And yes, I will buy professional prep if I get lucky enough to be given an interview.
Thanks,
enigma

Still some great sample questions over at www.willflyforfood.cc - worked out well for me in getting prepared for my interview. I opted out of one of the professional preps (due alot to my location), and instead printed off the sample questions, wrote a few notes under each of them to jog my memory about a story or two, then grabbed a buddy for the weekend and practiced actually just talking about each one in the "Situation, Time, Action, Result" format. Worked great - interview went very smoothly, I felt real comfortable, no "over-rehearsed" answers, and in the end I got the "continue" call out of the deal.

The folks at SWA really are there to try and get to know you in the short time they have one-v-one, so it's just like Chase and the others say. Relax, be yourself, talk about some good stories and most importantly how the "situations" were resolved positively, *smile alot*, and have fun with it.

 

[Lear70]

I believe that www.aviationinterviews.com has some recent enough gouge to include the LOI scenariors as well as overall hotel info, format info, etc.

Kitty Porn is right on the money about the Cage books as well as others - no matter who you interview for, it's always good every six months to sit down with Cage's books (or your highlights which I wrote down inside the covers) and write out your recent stories which could go into a TMAAT (Tell Me About A Time) stories. Makes it a LOT easier to pull everything together when you get a phone call for an interview in two or three weeks and you only have 5 days off between now and then!

When you get the call, PM some of the SW guys and one of them can point you to the SW people who do interview prep, but a "little" prepared is always better, or is for me at least - that nervous tick looks funny to most interviewers. JK

 

[Lightninglou]

EN,

Ditto to all the above. Another good book which I used to help me prep was Irv Jasinski's Airline Pilot Interviews. Some good tips on what to do, and what not to do. Also, a must read for the SWA interview is Nuts which gives a great history on the company, and it's culture. Everybody I talked to from the reservations agents, to Flight Attendants, to pilots said they read this before the interview (I read it twice! ).

I read the biggest reason people do not make it through the interview, is the interviewer can't to know you in the 45 minutes they have. Because I'm paranoid about things, I elected not to do the interview prep either, because I didn't want to sound rehearsed. (Nothing against the prep services, I've heard great things about them, it just wasn't for me).

Like everyone else says here, be yourself, and be relaxed. I interviewed in Jul, and they really try to put you at ease. I've been in the Air Force for 20 years, and have never interviewed before, but they made it a very pleasant experience. Take a deep breath, and SMILE! I'm just waiting for the 31 Aug decision board. Good luck!

 

[avoidingmyboss]

Try willflyforfood.com

 

[miles otoole]

Try willflyforfood.com

Or even willflyforfood.cc

 

[MLBWINGBORN]

Ok..Listen up guys..

Ever tried to remember a good joke that you heard many years before?
Screwed up the punch line so bad you wished you hadnt started to tell the joke in the first place?

Then you try to save yourself by saying something like"well..its one of those you had to be there kinda jokes"..

Thats exactly how an interview feels when it spins out of control.

For those of you that havnt done a major interview before...Not getting airline specific prep is a MAJOR mistake..

Now..Lets look at it this way..

You know that you are going to need to tell this joke that you havnt heard in years to a very important group of people..
While you think you will do pretty well..Reviewing the joke and perhapes a little practice in front of the mirror is in order..

Why?Because its important to look like you know what you are doing!!!!

You may not need to practice your answers to the questions..

But..It is very important to understand the reasons BEHIND the questions..

Lets say that each question that is asked is broken down into 5 parts..Each of the parts are scored and later totalled in order to determine how well you answered the question..

While telling your story/answering the question you fail to cover any of the 5 areas enough to get a grade in that area..Its like the question was never asked..

Bingo..Guess what?..low score on the interview!!!

Now understanding the reasons behind the question would allow you to do three things..

1.Format your answers in such a manor as to ENSURE that you have covered the areas that are graded..
2.Practice those answers with several different approaches and outcomes while still covering the graded areas..
3.Allow you to appear COMFORTABLE while thinking on your feet and not appear to be canned..

What airline specific gouge does for you is give you an idea of whats expected and making the most of your interview..

You are trying to land a job that in the long run can be a multi-million dollar payoff in what has to be the most competitive job market in the world..

Whats $350 of prep really worth in the long run?

If you really want the job, spend the money to improve your chances..Buy the new suit,shoes,tie,several shirts,haircut,brief case, and all the prep you can get..

After that..Be yourself..Its a little too late to change that!


Mike

 

[Stash]

Interview Prep

Whats $350 of prep really worth in the long run?

Mike[/QUOTE]I agree with MLB... I paid $300 for my interview prep with Craig Thornton, http://www.swaprep.com/ in PHX and it was well worth it. I'm a 21 year mil pilot and have interviewed for a job only once in those years, and that was just to get in the ANG. I figured that $300 for a career with SWA was well worth it. If I had to fly the sim for the interview process, you can bet I would have spent the $$ to get an hour or two in the sim. I figured I'd do EVERYTHING I could to increase my chance at getting hired. I paid for my type rating, pretty darn expensive gamble and a lot of wasted money if I didn't get hired, but, I wanted to be able to show I'd done everything to get hired by SWA. Hell, I only applied at SWA and told the interviewers such. If I didn't get hired, I'd continue flying F-16s, oh hurt me... I paid for the interview prep. I guess, the way I looked at it was that if I didn't get hired, I'd always wonder if I could have done more. Did the prep make a difference? I don't know. I know that I felt more relaxed going into the interview than if I hadn't done it. Remember, if SWA calls you to interview, you are professionally qualified. They don't have the money, time or the resources to call interview those that aren't professionally quallified, i.e. not enough time... The interview is a personality interview. Remember that. The interviewers are trying to see if they could spend a month with you flying on the line. If you are a jerk, if you think you are too important or better than everyone else, then you probably aren't going to get hired whether you are a 5000 hour military pilot that knows nothing about the airline industry (like me), a 2500 hour comuter pilot or a 10000 hour furloughed 737 guy/gal who knows everything about the airline industry. 1) Be yourself (hopefully you're not a jerk), 2) don't lie, 3) don't slam anyone.

As for reading prep, I got called within a month after getting my type and was VERY surprised to be called so soon so I had not started my reading prep. I bought Cheryl Cage's book, I bough another airline interview prep book and I bought "Nuts." I read "Nuts" first (gotta know who I want to work for) and never had time to open the others. I guess I didn't need them, but I thought I did. Do EVERYTHING you can to prep, but, remember those three points, be yourself, et. al. The willflyforfood is a good web site. The military keeps its own gouge (outstanding gouge btw) on the different airline interviews. I'm surprised the civi side doesn't, but, I guess due to the nature of civilian flying it's not as easy to do. Willflyforfood will help a lot. Don't have canned answers, but, be able to relate a story to each of those questions. If you can't, BE HONEST and tell them that you can't think of something. Ask for another question. I could not think of anytime anyone pressured me to fly an aircraft I thought was unsafe, I told the interviewer so and he seemed ok with that. Ok, too much on a simple question. Good luck on the interview. Get prepared, be yourself, and, relax! It's truly a fun interview process. Have a great time, cheers,

 

[enigma]

Thanks one and all for your time. I hope to be as much a help to others some day as you have been to me.

regards,
enigma