SWA Hiring

[:-)]

A behavioral interview presumes that past performance indicates future performance. They are the "tell me about a time when" questions. A candidate relates a situation that has happened in the past as an answer to a specific question. It not about your "philosophy" on what you would do, but what you have already done.

Kathy, I'm sure you are correct, but wouldn't that preclude SWA from hiring anyone who does/did not have previous experience as a 121 Captain? If it's not about your "philosophy" or personality, and is about what you've already done, then how can they make any reliable decision about someone who has never done the job for which they are hiring? How can a fighter pilots storys about killing a MIg possibly tell how he will perform as a airline first officer? How can a night freight pilots story about dealing with boxes possibly predict how he would interact with pissed off passengers?

I'm just trying to tell some of you SWA wannabes, that this type of interview is not just a "get to know if we could spend the week with you" session. There is a point to the questions and they're looking to find out more about you than the manner in which you previously dealt with a gun/bomb/box/student/airplane.

Forewarned is fore armed. Get prep.

 

[:-)]

I'm sorry to keep this thread going, but I'm confused. Are you railing against:
- the interview process?
- interview preparations services?
- having pilots conduct interviews?
- having HR departments determine hiring criteria?
- having pilots determine hiring criteria?

How do you propose a company hire pilots? Only a sim check? Hire eveyone?

I'm sorry I don't know the answers to your questions, but it seems pretty obvious to me that some form of a "getting to know you" interview ought to be part of a hiring process. Shoot, when I was a waiter in highschool they interviewed me.

BTW I am not much of a public speaker and I took engineering in college.

Good question.

I'm certainly NOT railing against the prep services, however, sometimes Kathy posts something that I can use as a launch pad. Note to Kathy, You are not the object of my disdain, I think you provide a invaluable service. Even if I think that you tend to over simplify the SWA system

I'm railing against people who come on here and try to tell wannabes that the SWA process is nothing more than a "getting to know you" session. It is not, and just a short bit of research into the interview technique will prove that out.

TIme to get to work, maybe I'll check back later

 

[str8upflyrght]

,
Have you ever interviewed w/ SWA? From my interview experience the question were rather broad. I've never flown 121, but have problems/flt experiences were i've dealt w/ problems w/ crew, weather, mx, or mgt. Those were the type of question/ scenarios presented to me.
I don't think anyone is maintaining the interview is solely a "getting to know you process". However that is definitely a part of it.

 

[apdsm]

Kathy, I'm sure you are correct, but wouldn't that preclude SWA from hiring anyone who does/did not have previous experience as a 121 Captain?

Why would it have to be 121 experience? Does teamwork, leadership, CRM, etc. only apply to 121 flying?

 

[mule]

How many of you know people that were hired at SWA that you would have never guessed would make it? I know 7 that I would not want to spend 4 days with and did not expect to make it. On the other hand, I know 5 others that are good dudes and did make it...Lately it seems that the people that get the nod are not the ones that you would expect, while the ones that you would expect to get the call are told to take a flying leap...

 

[Resume Writer]

Kathy, I'm sure you are correct, but wouldn't that preclude SWA from hiring anyone who does/did not have previous experience as a 121 Captain? If it's not about your "philosophy" or personality, and is about what you've already done, then how can they make any reliable decision about someone who has never done the job for which they are hiring? How can a fighter pilots storys about killing a MIg possibly tell how he will perform as a airline first officer? How can a night freight pilots story about dealing with boxes possibly predict how he would interact with pissed off passengers?

I'm just trying to tell some of you SWA wannabes, that this type of interview is not just a "get to know if we could spend the week with you" session. There is a point to the questions and they're looking to find out more about you than the manner in which you previously dealt with a gun/bomb/box/student/airplane.

Forewarned is fore armed. Get prep.

Let's see if I can straighten out what I meant by "philosophy" for you. When the interviewers ask a "tell me about a time when" question, such as "tell me about a time when you had a personality conflict with a crew member," they are not looking for an answer such as, "I think everyone has personality conflicts. Personality conflicts are always going to happen when you have many different people working together."

What they are looking for is an answer that tells about a specific time that YOU had a personality conflict with someone and how you handled it.

Now, if you are smart, you will weave into your answer SOME aspect of Southwest's philosophy regarding safety, judgment, ability to get along with others or leadership, which are four areas that SWA looks at in their patented system.

Hope that clears up what I meant.

Kathy

 

[Resume Writer]

BTW I am not much of a public speaker and I took engineering in college.

I am going to place a bet on something here. I believe that you were probably very methodical and organized in your interview answers, since your background was engineering! As I am sure you can attest, everything in engineering is a process, with a very specific beginning and specific ending. That is the very thing I tell my clients when conducting an interview prep session.

I am pretty certain that is why you are working there! (aside from probably being a super pilot!)

Kathy

 

[Resume Writer]

How many of you know people that were hired at SWA that you would have never guessed would make it? I know 7 that I would not want to spend 4 days with and did not expect to make it. On the other hand, I know 5 others that are good dudes and did make it...Lately it seems that the people that get the nod are not the ones that you would expect, while the ones that you would expect to get the call are told to take a flying leap...

I will take a stab at this one. Every company is made up of different people. Hopefully there is a good mix of the type of people that get hired. You also have to look at who is conducting the interviews. There are very different people doing the interviews also. I have had many clients tell me during their "debrief" that they had one Captain who seemed to be a "stick-in-the-mud," which seems contrary to the type of people that SWA hires.

That being said, maybe the people that got hired, that you would not expect to get hired, were aligned personality-wise with the same type of people that interviewed them.

This is PURE speculation on my part. Just my thoughts; I could be wrong.

Kathy