SWA interviews

[tmstewar2]

SWA Interview Schedule

SWA "old" interview schedule was 3 weeks out of the month - 4 days a week with 6 interviews per team with 2 -3 teams per day. So if you do the math: They could handle up to 215 interviews in a month. Take into account last minute reschedules, no-shows, etc. They probably only saw 150 a month.

 

[Pig]

Does anyone know if Rob beeks has been activated and deployed? I've written him an e-mail but he hasn't returned to me yet after 2 weeks. He's been good about getting back to me in the past but now this time.

 

[SWAnnabee]

Competitive Interview

The company is also seriously considering prioritizing who is called first by type vs no type then by experience factors--pic time, recency of experience, etc. No details yet.

What would be considered "competitive" as far as PIC, PIC Turbine, TT, etc. If they go to a competitive system then, does that mean that a guy who gets his app in early, with the type, but barely meets the minimums will constantly be getting passed over for interview by others with more hours who apply later. I always thought that SWA put a little more emphasis on fairness to those wanting to interview. This was one of the things that set them apart from others in this business. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Snoopy58]

boz,

In the absence of all empirical data for the "new" system and the lack of a People Department rep who posts here, I'm afraid we're all speculating. That said, I'll offer my personal speculations:

I don't think SWA sees the 10,000 hour pilot as necessarily "better" than the 3000 hour military guy. More experienced, yes. Not necessarily a "better" fit, though. The guy with a zillion hours at "brand X" may be more entrenched, less trainable, and less adaptable to the SWA mentality than the younger guy coming out of the military. "Hire for attitude, train for skills, and you have 5+ years in the right seat to gain experiencec." (Yeah, sweeping generality there, and plenty of exceptions.) I think the guys with years at Brank X are going to have a hard time with the question, implied if not stated, "so, if you luv Southwest so much, how come you didn't apply here back when you were starting in the airline business? Do you really want to be HERE, or are you only applying here because you need the job?"

While there will be plenty of guys with good answers to that question, I think that the P.D. will also keep a steady flow of 10-year military guys in to the interviews, if for no other reason than the fact that such pilots bring a good balance to the newhire classes and to the pilot force. Them, along with some number of military retirees, and corporate guys, and 135/121 commuters, and some number of ex-121 majors. Strength in diversity, so to speak.

While there may have been times where some carriers decided that they only wanted XYZ type of pilot & everybody else was pretty well chopped liver, I don't think that the P.D. has gone that route at Southwest, and I don't think that that's in the offing.

So, bottom line, the mainstream 10-year military guy with normal career progression & experience will continue to be competitive at SWA, just like he always has been.

Just my personal opinion, but I'll stand by it.

hope that helps,

Snoopy

 

[Falconjet]

Fairness

Fairness isn't necessarily this issue. A company in business to make money flying aircraft around the country is going to hire the best pilolts it can identify, by what ever means they think is the best. If you meet their mins and have the type, apply. Delta's pool used to be first in, best qualified out. Who's to say who is best qualified? The company doing the hiring. Staying the course and getting in early is probably worth something, but it probably won't get you in ahead of more qualified applicants. Keep the faith, and keep building that time.

 

[Snoopy58]

Falconjet,

I agree that "fairness" per se doesn't drive everything in a hiring process. Southwest DOES pride itself on treating people well, including applicants as well as employees, so that will limit the "arbitrary & capricious" application of policies, but the rules are still the rules.

However, my point is that in choosing the best qualified applicants, I'm not sure that the guy with 10,000 hours and 10 years at "Brand X" is more qualified to be a newhire at Southwest than the guy with 3000 hours in military jets. More experience in -121 ops, when it potentially comes with a long history of "at Brand X, we did things like...," doesn't necessarily make for "best candidate." Besides, it would seriously skew the demographics of the pilot force to only hire 45 year old furloughees for the next couple of years!

I'm not suggesting that furloughees, or any other group, will be excluded from the new hiring process; only that mid-career military guys who would've been competitive before will probably continue to be competitive, and that the presence of lots of 10,000 hour -121 furloughees in the applicant pool shouldn't cause military pilots with 3000 hours to lose hope of being hired.

 

[Falconjet]

We are in serious agreement!

Snoop: I hear you and I vehemently agree with you. I was directing my comments to Boz because he seems worried that he will lose his space in line to a better qualified candidate.

Southwest is as fair a company as there is out there and they seem to treat their employees (and perspective employees) as well as any airline, but EVERYBODY is going to say that they always wanted to fly for them, so they have to go by the quals that they deem important, not just who applied first.

Applying first is great, but with the number of qualified pilots out there I don't think they will stick with a first in-first to be interviewed mentality.

We are all just speculating, of course, only the PD folks know how they will fill their interview slots. Most airlines like to have a variety of experience groups in their new hire classes and I'm sure that a reasonable percentage of them will be ex-military pilots.

In the meantime SWannabes should be focusing on getting the type and getting as much quality time that they can, not worrying about whether the process will be fair when it opens up again. The good folks at SW will implement a system that meets their needs and will no doubt be as fair and reasonable as can be.

I wish Boz the best of luck and hope he gets to feel the Luv soon!

 

[SWAnnabee]

Appreciate the responses

Thank for the replies. I WILL keep the press on to join the ranks of LUV. I have made my decision on where I want to be. The wife is behind this all the way too. Hope everyone out there gets to where they want to go.