Lear guy,
It was definitely the secret handshake. If you don't know it yet, I guess you're SOL.
Seriously, the thing I remember most about the SWA interview was how conscientious and "professional" it was....not in the way you'd normally think of the word "professional," but in the way that gave you (me) the absolute best possible chance of being successful. In short, the interviewers were very concerned about following their own rules for the interview, asking questions only from their prepared material so everyone got an equal opportunity for success, and asking careful follow-up questions to clarify everything. I was very, very impressed with the way they approached the interview. I truly believe they were out to give me the best chance of succeding. Contrast that to another interview I attended (what was I thinking!) where the first thing the interviewer said to me was (as he slapped his folder on the desk), "well, there's the list of questions I'm not going to ask you." Huh? As you can see, that leaves a tremendous amount of room for all sorts of bad things. What if you just had a little personality conflict with the interviewer? What if he or she just asked a few "pet" questions, and what if he or she didn't like the answers you gave? How could that interviewer respond in good faith to his or her company about your fitness for hire? Not at Southwest. They were very interested in finding out who I was, and they put a great deal of faith in the professional procedure they had created to answer that question. I couldn't have been much more comfortable with the time I spent at the People department.
That said, I do agree with the Tredmeister about preparation. At the very minimum, you should write a notebook about your career to this point. Things you had to overcome, challenging your boss, personal relations on the flight deck, proper use of diplomacy, emergencies, all that good stuff. I did that, and reviewed it often before going in. I did not prepare with a Southwest expert, but I did conduct two practice interviews with one of the career placement professionals at Randolph Air Force Base (thanks Fae : - ). That was invaluable simply because it gave me an opportunity to practice sitting in my suit in front of an interviewer and translating the notebook into something intelligible for the interviewer. Great experience....recommend it highly.
Hey I gotta go! Best of luck to you....PM if you want any more info.
Cheers!
HP
