Southwest nightmare update

[SWA/FO]

Folks,

Back in 1999, a former employer of mine, a small part 61 flight school with 3 C152s said made some false statements to US Airways. US Airways had total disregard for the Pilots Record Improvement Act of 1996 and I was never able to get it cleared up. (Yes, I hired a lawyer but was unable to prove damages)

I go to my FedEx interview and I try to explain this former employer of mine to them. I guess, it came accross wrong, maybe to much emotion etc... They did not like me.

I go to SWA and I'm told by my interview prep company that I should tell SWA about this previous employer (even though it would not be part of my background check > 5 years, by then) Well, I write this letter with just the facts no emotion. I laid it all on the table the good and the ugly. It worked.

I'm not sure why this has happened to you, but no employer likes to discover things. It just looks bad. They might have you mixed up with some other guy? When I called the people dept. to put the good word in for a buddy once, they had two guys in the data base with the same name. Don't give up

 

[shagadelic]

radio,
Understand your point, but in reality the way SWA does it is better. Not only do you not want to hire jerks, by the same token you do not want people you know are marginal. Which is more important: a one hour sim in something you've never flown or someone stepping up and saying "hey that guy has always been a weak flier and here's 5 guys who will tell you the same thing. He nearly got me killed in such and such..."

Remember when United had the sim? If you went early, paid the big money to the prep people, you could get coached well enough to do good on the Frasca. But what about the poor slob who didn't rely on that. What about the guy who just has a bad day? Simulators do not prove anything.

BTW, everyone, at every interview, at any company, is discriminated against for something. They use discriminators to weed people: hours, equipment, military, civilian, logbooks, flying history, attitude, appearance, references, lack of references, criminal record, the way you smell, lack of smiling, etc. If you want to work for a company, then you take care of those things you know are important for that company.

 

[qxeplt]

Ultimate Background Check...

I will relay to you about a SWA jumpseater I had on one of my flights last year just after I interviewed. I had a SWA pilot ride jumpseat with me on his way home, we got on the topic of interviewing with SWA since I was waiting for my DB. He told me about a guy who interviewed with SWA that was flying for my company at the time. They were a bit curious about this guy after the interview. I think any jerk can go in and play the interview game and even get a few people to write up recomendations. At anyrate, the jumpseater told me SWA knew he was a SWA commuter and he usualy went home on the company from which this guy they interviewed was employed. They asked him next time he commuted into work to ask some of the crews about this guy. Well, all he got was awful comments about the guy and needless to say he wasn't offered the job. I doubt this was all they went on, maybe other stuff surfaced and they wanted to do more checking. We all know SWA is very protective of their culture, as they should be. It goes without saying, be careful cause they have their ways of getting the inside scoop. I've heard of other little techniques too. I'm sure MVI is a great guy and I hope he gets this fixed soon but I just wanted to shed a little light on this subject since it's being discussed.

As far as SWA being PFT, I think that's nonsense. When you PFT that IS the training and you go online thereafter. At SWA you type on your own and when you go to class you get it all over again just as intense training as any other airline. When I went through my interview they told us at one time they were offered big insurance discounts when both pilots in the cockpit were typed. Today that's not the case but out of respect for the already 4200 pilots give or take, that had to type themselves and most that had to do it just to get an interview well then that's why they require it, among other reasons...

 

[shagadelic]

Radio,
First, let's not turn this into military vs. civilian. At this level, there is no siginificant difference between military and civilian. No, I am not afraid of a sim, any sim, and I don't think any civilian or military pilot would be at this level.

Let's take your two friends who got hired by faking their personality. Would you not want some degree of input into their hiring process? I think someone who knows these people failed in exposing their personality weaknesses and as a result, some SWA Captain will have to spend a three day with them and hate life because of it.

 

[trainerjet]

radiofly er,

Just curious. Did you request and were you able to find out where you failed or were not satisfactory at SWA, and was that that?

I think it's much more valuable to hire a person using the process that most companies..including SWA, use today, than the one which you describe. Gee, wouldn't want to worry that my shoe was untied while I was giving an answer to a legitimate question.
Maybe that video caught you picking your nose when no one was looking?? That'll weed 'em out for sure.

 

[BeerNear]

Fellas, chill out!!!

Am I goin' to have to throw a bucket of cold water on both of you? Let's keep our wits about us. Times are tough now and there is no need to throw fuel on the fire. There is only one thing to really keep in mind here: Southwest is a great community.

I believe SWA is a great place to work due to two reasons: Strong leadership and hiring the right people. It's hard to get to know someone in just a half a day. Finding solid evidence that someone probably will or won't fit in the Southwest mold is really the only way Southwest people can discriminate between potential employees.

If anyone is interested, I wrote a paper for my masters while attending Embry-Riddle at Davis-Monthan AFB. The paper compares interviewing and hiring practices of SWA vs. the Big 3. I went out on a limb and stated that SWA may be a safer, more productive, and happier place to work than the Big 3 mainly due to their interviewing and hiring practices. Basically, seeking out and hiring a higher emotionally intelligent person. Maybe I'm totally out to lunch, but it brings up the fact that in the past, some major factors in the hiring process of other airlines may not have been emphasized enough. The paper is a little dated and some airlines have totally changed thier interview process. Anyway, email me if you would like a copy.

Take care and fly safe, BN

[email protected]

 

[shagadelic]

I removed any personal jabs, 1 too many scotch and waters last night with friends!!

This is kind of a dumb argument, so I'm done. But nice chatting.

Good luck MVI, I hope you get things figured out.