Southwest training

[Benjamin Dover]

They do hire for attitude, and that's probably what got him canned. Coming to the training center with an "...well, that's not how we did it at Brand X..." attitude is the most serious threat to your surviving new-hire training & IOE. Some guys do wash-out for plain-old lousy flying abilities (but not before the company has provided a LOT of extra sims, IOE flights, etc. as needed). It's the furthest from stump the chump I've ever seen. If you've survived any other 121 or military training program and are reasonably current, you shouldn't have any issues....unless you're a know-it-all d*ckhead, then lookout.

True statement. Also true is that "how we did it at Brand X" was often better than Southwest's procedures. But, many here - including a couple of my Navy buds - who have never flown anywhere else refuse to entertain this concept.

Those of us that came from other airlines don't claim to "know it all", but we do know what was clearly better if anyone ever cared to get our input. But, sadly, "we're doing just fine the way we've always done it" is generally the culture here. Maybe upcoming VNAV/RNP will the beginning of some change.

 

[Bob_Sacamano]

I thought newhire training at SWA was very fair. Our class had the dubious distinction of having a guy who was 1 of only 2 not to make it through training last year...out of what, 600 guys?

Like the others have said, our guy had a really poor attitude. He claimed to have come from a bizjet background at DAL with 3000 PIC in a Lear. We all came to the conclusion that he'd grossly padded his logbook because it was obvious he'd never cracked an AIM in his life, and had the flying skills of "an igneous rock".

The attitude portion came in that when the rest of us had all passed our checkrides, he still didn't know his limitations, Memory Items, Standard Calls, or Flows. SWA bent over backwards trying to get him through. But even after several extra sim periods, he spent all of his spare time on the phone cussing out his former employer wondering where his last check was, or talking about the renovations he was doing to his house. The sad part is that he was only 27 or 28. If he would have taken it seriously, he could have had a wonderful career. But instead, he pissed it away, and claims that SWA screwed him over. Not even close...