SWA DB- DING You suck!

[Gatorade]

My post was referring to the June applicants. Their class hasnt started yet. Past is the past. I will give turbo a hug later. Remember Jesus loves you!

 

[mullet]

Sounds to me like the hiring process worked perfectly...

Or possibly, in your case, it's flawed?

 

[FlyBoeingJets]

Gatorade,

I don't know you but I truly am sorry the interview didn't work out.

My opinion--

I think there is a desire to hire a certain percentage military. Maybe there are extra points for being military, but I can't be sure of that.

I do know there are a BUNCH of sharp military folks that have been turned down in 2002 and 2004. I know many of them. The competition has been very fierce. I wish I knew how to better manage this process.

But SWA is not a military only place. They have and want tons of civilian folks. I truly believe the rule now is they call you in if you are competitive for interview. It used to be you were guaranteed an interview if you met the mins. But that is not fair, as you pointed out, to those not competitive. But there is a caveat. They say they want to hire all of you, but I think they really only want to hire a percentage. I think the people department WANTS to hire substantially >50%, but the percentage varies in practice. Sometimes over and sometimes under 50%. Maybe its the CP's in the DB that are putting the thumbs down on so many. That would be out of the people department's hands.

I believe the fine folks in the people department want every interviewee to be the best they can be and make it. They want to let you know that only you are in control of how YOU interview and not to worry about the other people and factors that you can't control. I think that explains what they say to interviewees. But people aren't perfect. The people department staff are probably not aware they are making a "promise" they can't possibly keep. SWA is a positive place but they still want to pick and choose who to hire. I found that tough to deal with while I was waiting for the call, but a necessary reality.

In my newhire class we had at least 2 people on the second or later interview. One guy made it on his 4th interview. If that is salt in the wound I'm sorry. I'm just trying to offer some facts.

Interviewing is tough. Don't give up on the process. Keep finding ways to improve your interviewing skills.


BTW, This is a good place to vent and no one can reasonably judge you or your performance in an interview by your posts. I wish they would stop critiquing you. I think you got enough of that at the DB.

 

[FlyBoeingJets]

Talk about being hustled for your job search dollar with no reward--

I think FedEx is far more efficient. FedEx charges $50 and doesn't even spend a dime on a phone call, let alone an interview. You don't need a type or anything to apply to FedEx so many more pilots get sucked into paying the $50 to FedEx and the $200 for FE writtens. I say FedEx is the more successful hustler.

Its all about volume....

 

[semperfido]

Buck up and don't be a wus. the sting of rejection only smarts for a little while- i remember it well.

 

[ExAF]

Pick Of The Litter

It's like anything else that has supply and demand. Large supply available and relatively small demand. They can afford to be picky and patient, so they are. Their hiring practices have been pretty consistent over the years and it works for them. If you were surprised at how many they selected, you didn't do your homework very well. Good luck and don't give up.

 

[gern_blanston]

WHAT DIGUSTS ME THE MOST ABOUT SWA!!! OR THE PROCESS!...
WHAT THE HELL??? WHERE IS THE LUV???
It's disgusting! SWA you should be ashamed of yourselves. Thanks for wasting all our time and money. If your not hiring than many pilots, stop fu#$ing calling guys for the interview. Stop boasting about your company culture and how great your company is and sending these poor little lambs to the slaughter. Give us a chance, and STOP lying to us, saying "We want to hire all of y'all" . I just feel like I got hustled out of $8000 and 3 weeks of vacation.

If you were interviewing a hundred people for 20 positions, would you hire a guy with your attitude?
Have you ever interviewed anyone? Not to be too condescending, but do you even know how an interview works? They're trying to find a few people who fit a certain profile. You didn't convince them that you do.
Don't take it personally. We've all had interviews where we didn't get hired. Jeez.

 

[Jetjockey]

Good people get looked over, and bad people sometimes get hired. That is a fact of life. What can you do? It's a very competitive industry with an abundance of qualified pilots. Is any interview process perfect? I hardly doubt it. I agree they seem to select far less than they invite, but that's thier call. Most everyone knows going in that SWA selects roughly 10-20% of applicants. I too was turned down by SWA after having references checked. Was I bummed out? You bet I was, especially since I was furloughed. I have had excellent track record in interviews. I did not think I had a perfect interview. None of my interviews ever were perfect. Buying a 737 type does not entitle me to a SWA job. It's the type of interview that you can be stepping all over yourself, and they would still be smiling and laid back. I'll really never know the reason, but all I can do is learn from failures and try again. This was my first rejection out of 6 sucessful airline interviews. (2 major airlines included). Since the rejection I have had two other interviews with positive results. I intend on re-applying to SWA, and trying again next spring.

It wasn't that long ago that people were complaining about United's hiring practices. Back in the late 80's, early 90's it seemed you had to be a Navy pilot to get hired by Delta. FedEx is now like an auxillary of the USAF. UPS you have to know someone in management to get an interview. It goes on and on. No airline has the perfect hiring practice. SWA is a great airline, it is not for everyone. I think you can find flying happiness outside of SWA, but if that's your ultimate goal, keep plugging away.

 

[Juvat]

Really wasnt going to post, but it suprises me than no one else has. I guess most of us are just lurkers.
To all purspective applicants and/or interviewers here's is the skinny, at least from recent hiring practices, specifically June .
Over the past year and before my interview with SWA the only thing I heard about the interview process, how great it was! We're different from other airlines! We're a big family! Feel they Luv'! If you fit the SWA family! Sounds great. Im in.
Here's my experience-
Interviewed in June, the whole process was enjoyable. Everyone I met extremely nice. Before the interview started, SWA recruiters told us how great it was to have us all there and stated several times "We want to hire all of you!".
After my day was complete, felt great about the whole process, I couldnt have be more pleased on how everything went. Did better than I thought I would. No regrets. Before lunchtime, less the 24 hours after my interview was complete, references were called. holla!!! 3 weeks later, DB met, calls went out, I got nothing. Boo freaking hoo. Oh well.
WHAT DIGUSTS ME THE MOST ABOUT SWA!!! OR THE PROCESS!
I met roughly 20 guys the day I interviewd, I'd say except for maybe 2 or 3 guys, all seemed to be very outgoing, friendly, all pretty decent guys, excited about being future SWA new hires, if all went well. Out of the 20 or so there, the SWA DB hired 4 of us. Roughly the same number from the other interview groups in June. Most of the ones hired. seemed to be retired military guys. I was told out of the 100 or so interviews in June, they hired 20 folks.
WHAT THE HELL??? WHERE IS THE LUV???
It's disgusting! SWA you should be ashamed of yourselves. Thanks for wasting all our time and money. If your not hiring than many pilots, stop fu#$ing calling guys for the interview. If you want military guys, call just Military guys. Have a soul, for gods sake. Stop boasting about your company culture and how great your company is and sending these poor little lambs to the slaughter. Give us a chance, and STOP lying to us, saying "We want to hire all of y'all" . I just feel like I got hustled out of $8000 and 3 weeks of vacation.

SERENITY NOW! SERENITY NOW!

Whew...I feel better!

Hopefully you guys at the August DB have a better chance.

flame away, flamers!!!

Gatorade:

Your post appears to be addressed to Southwest Airlines. So I recommend that you just print it out, fold nicely, stuff it in an envelope and SEND IT to the company you're so apt to complain about. My guess is that you'll get a nice reply from SWA explaining that the purpose of a job interview is simply to help them decide who they want to hire out of a group of qualified candidates.

Remember, for every one person that gets the opportunity to interview at SWA, there are probably 100 others on the other side of the fence looking in, wishing they could take a shot at it like you did. My recommendation: reapply when able, keep flying and landing rubber side down, and you'll get another chance to interview (if you haven't drowned in your own vinegar by then).

By the way, as a former military pilot, I tend to bristle a bit when I hear civilian pilots claiming that SWA hires mostly pilots from the military. That is factually incorrect (and I think you know it). I understand that you're feeling badly about not being hired. Who wouldn't? But don't set up military pilots as your straw man so that you can somehow feel justified in your irrational rant. That demonstrates what we at SWA call a "bad attitude," and bad attitudes don't get hired.

Good luck in your attitudinal rehabilitation and future interviews.

 

[roughneck]

We have been interviewing and hiring for a long time. Recently we have been doing alot of it. As a result the application pool has been thinned out proportionally.

I think it is safe to say that out of the 100 that interviewed in June the experience level of that group as a whole was probably not as high as say June 04. This is not a ding or insult to anyone, just an observation. This may be the reason that not as many folks got hired as you thought should have. As time goes by the "avg" number for flight times etc will decrease. Thus the company will be interviewing guys with less overall flight time and experience.

I don't know if this applies to you or not, you may be very experienced, but i think it is a reasonable conclusion to draw about the recent number hired.

 

[MDP727]

You might as well start hating AA, DAL, UAL as well because that's how it's been at those places for years!

 

[Stan]

"You might as well start hating AA, DAL, UAL as well because that's how it's been at those places for years!"

That is the problem. Southwest is suppose to be better. In the late 90's UAL was interviewing between 4000 and 5000 a year to hire between 500 to 1000 a year. That policy sucked big time.

 

[K-Mart]

This has the potential to possibly be the longest thread in Flightinfo history. Let's keep it going guys! Ha!!

 

[gern_blanston]

In the late 90's UAL was interviewing between 4000 and 5000 a year to hire between 500 to 1000 a year. That policy sucked big time.

So all employers should hire everyone they interview? That policy would certainly lead to a loser airline. Nobody held a gun to your head and forced you to go to the interview.

 

[Torpid]

I think it is safe to say that out of the 100 that interviewed in June the experience level of that group as a whole was probably not as high as say June 04. This is not a ding or insult to anyone, just an observation. This may be the reason that not as many folks got hired as you thought should have. As time goes by the "avg" number for flight times etc will decrease. Thus the company will be interviewing guys with less overall flight time and experience.

Don't forget about all the guys (and gals) rejected more than a year ago. Most of us rejects have high flight time and lots of good LOR's (hence the reason we were called early on in this hiring boom.) It's been over a year and I haven't re-applied, but if it's true that they only hire 20% of those interviewed, than there are lots of experienced pilots still hoping that the second (or third) time will be the charm.