SWA DB- DING You suck!

[Gatorade]

SWA Decision Board- DING...YOU SUCK!!!

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. 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!!!

 

[ivauir]

I'm sorry it didn't work out for you this time. Best of luck with whatever course of action you pursue now.

 

[Captain Overs]

Sorry to hear it was so unpleasant for you. Are you going to apply again in a year?

 

[FN FAL]

A co-worker of mine was not hired at SWA after going through the process. He was career Navy P-3 Commander, well educated and one hell of a great guy.

 

[Turbojet]

There are many people working here who didn't get hired on the first try. I would venture to say that the ones who are hired the second time around stayed positive and used it as a learning experience. Most likely they were mature and realistic knowing that not everything was perfect, improved upon it and went back with a positive attitude and got the job. By the way what is "perfect"? Who knows...there are no perfect resumes, right or wrong answeres to the questions they ask. Most of what you "say" in the interview is nonverbal anyway. Eye contact, facial expresions, handshake, posture, enthusiasm! Have you ever had the perfect flight? where you couldn't have done anything better? I hope your answere is NO! Just like nobody has the perfect interview. This obviously means you can do better next time. But you will never get the job "next time" if you blame your failure on others or the system. How do you know that your stats are correct? They sound a lot like rumor and speculation to me. If you truely are a great guy then I hope you do get a second chance and get the job. But based on the tone of your post I have to wonder if maybe something came out in the intervew that showed them you may have a "short fuse". Southwest is not perfect. It is a great place to work, and I wouldn't want to be any place else. But there will be days where you get that reflow from hell and you have to be able to put things into context at not go off just because things don't go your way.

Good luck,
TJ

 

[Gatorade]

Sorry to hear it was so unpleasant for you. Are you going to apply again in a year?

I didnt mean to imply that the interview was unpleasant. Interview experience was made enjoyable, by all invovled. As far a re-applying, time will tell, alot can happen in a year. The main reason I made the post, was just to let guy's know how competitive it was and in my experience more guys were rejected than hired. Also to let everyone know, calls to your references, doesnt mean you will make it past the Decision Board. Things I was unaware of before I got typed and before I went to Dallas for the interview. I was extremely disappointed on how many applicants were offered employment. I thought SWA was different.
Best of luck to.

 

[Gatorade]

turbojet...blah blah blah. reread the post. you missed the point.

 

[Singlecoil]

I was turned town by two airlines before I got hired by a major. One was a trash hauler and one was a startup in New York (you know the one). I had long considered the fact that I wasn't working for a bigger airline was simply the fact that I hadn't been called for an interview. I figured I would have no problem beating out other guys and gals for the job. What those two instances taught me was to approach the process from a different angle. In both cases, it took me a couple of months of reflection and pondering to realize the mis-steps I had made in the process and I learned a ton from the experiences.

Hopefully you can take some time to reflect and mull over what your impressions might have been and use that going forward.

 

[Turbojet]

Gatorade...there is a hell of a lot of difference between "pleasant", "enjoyable" and sucessful. Im sure you did find it enjoyable, but just because you enjoyed the interview and felt good when you left doesn't mean that the interview was perfect.

If it was perfect or even close to perfect you would have been hired.

TJ

 

[scoreboard]

Sorry, but

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

 

[Gatorade]

Never claimed mine was prefect. Enough about me, I was just surprised the success rate was so low for the June interviewers as a group, thats all.
ok?

goodnight sweetheart

 

[Metro752]

20 folks out of 100 very qualified people, who spend a lot of time and money just to go play inteview with southwest.

Wouldn't you be POed too if they are all smiles and giggles with you, then take a big giant crap down your throat after making you wait 4 weeks?

Southwest knows everyone wants to work for them, so they hire whoever meets their quotas, right?

We need one hispanic guy, an asian, and two pastey white guys. Uncle Sam will like us even more!

haha, southwest makes me mad too

 

[Porch]

Everyone? I don't want to work for SWA.

 

[Widow's Son]

SWA doesn't call in people for interview just to stroke them. I have also heard that they don't bother calling references on people that they are not planning on hiring. The reference checks go very deep. They call other references that you don't list that they gleen from the references you list. A lot of the reference checkers are Captains on trip pull earning top dollar to make calls. They aren't going to waste time on something they aren't serious about. My guess is something went sour on the reference check.

 

[Beechdriver32]

Gator-

Your response to Turbo speaks volumes. He was only trying to help.

FWIW, 16 of the 24 in my class were civilian. One guy got in after his third interview. Oh yeah, he was military. This Mil VS Civ thing is really a bunch of crap.

Also, just had an overnight with a guy on the interview committee. According to him, our hire percentages really haven’t changed at all in the last decade. And yes, he really would like to hire everyone called; it would make their lives a lot easier.

Wish you luck the next time.

BD32

 

[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.