SWA letters of "Thanks but no thanks, see ya next year.

[TheDogsBollocks]

Bollocks, you might have a point if SWA required that applicants buy the type from SWA. They don't. Matter of fact, SWA doesn't require you to buy a type at all. I know of several SWA newhires who never bought a type.

That sort of blows your PFT argument out of the water.

enigma

Enigma,

I respectfully must disagree with you, you are correct that SWA does not require you to buy the type from them, however buying one does indeed shuffle your name up the line for interview selection.

I know a person who got a type earlier this year and submitted his application to SWA thereafter, he was recently interviewed. I also know of an individual who had submitted an app. just prior to 9/11-still waiting for the call.

I recall reading in Aviation Careers magazine about 4 years ago when they did an expose on SWA. The interviewer in the article asked weather typed applicant's received preferential interview status. The representative from SWA (who's name escapes me) could not even give a straight answer, but his response once you read "between the lines" was in the affirmative.

So, once again PFT once you get the job is bad enough, but to PFI (pay for Interview) is quite another!

 

[Mugs]

I see the type rating as an investment in myself and my aviation career. Just like my ATP was.
If I don’t ever interview at SWA, I still would not view the type rating experience as a waste of money. I view learning new things and adding new qualifications to my resume as an investment in myself and therefore view the type rating as valuable regardless of getting hired at SWA. I also believe it proves that someone like myself whose experience is almost solely in military aircraft is still capable of learning a new aircraft in the civil aviation environment.
I could have chosen to get an MBA or go to grad school. I decided a type rating was the equivalent of grad school for someone who wants to be a professional pilot.

My 02 cents.


Still waiting for the phone to ring...

The trouble with that logic is that if the SWA job doesn't work out, your investment becomes worthless. A 737 type with no experience in the airplane is meaningless beyond the SWA world. Besides, before too long all the 737 Bee-Bees you stuffed in your head are going to roll right out anyway.

 

[MarylandONE]

Hysterical, Bozt45....Do you work for US Air or United? Your attitude is why those companies fail and why SWA is successful. The PD is the success of SWA. The people they hire are the company.

Thank God you are not one of us.

 

[Mugs]

He never worked for either. He took his first shot with you guys.

By the way, some of those paint jobs are really getting painful to look at.

 

[MarylandONE]

Lets say, just as an example, you are a manager and need an extra new-hire because your department/flight department/domicile, etc is getting short handed. WHY WOULD YOU ALLOW SOMEONE (HR) TO MAKE A DECISION FOR YOU THAT WILL NEVER HAVE THAT APPLICANT WORK FOR THEM? It makes no sense. Some HR person gets to say yeay/nay, then never sees the applicant again except in passing. Meanwhile, the manager/chelf pilot/etc is stuck with a person that may have not been THEIR first choice. Makes no sense


HR is there to make sure females and minorities get hired, even if they are not the most qualified.

Gotta fill those EEOC quotas so all of those Affirmative Action a-holes don't get their panties in a bunch.

Never mind that the middle-age white male is a minority in this country.

Have you not heard of the DB made up of chief pilots who decide who gets hired? The PD weeds out the weak. All are qualified but who wants to sit next to an Asshat ALPA type guy for 8 hours complaining that he deserves 30 days off a month and $400k/per year or the other a-hole who just sits in the cockpit like a lump when he should be pushing a wheelchair or helping a customer in some capacity. A freaking monkey can fly a plane it's the right person who can understand flying is 1/2 the quality of a pilot at SWA.

Any chance you get that one?

 

[Doug Parker]

Have you not heard of the DB made up of chief pilots who decide who gets hired? The PD weeds out the weak. All are qualified but who wants to sit next to an Asshat ALPA type guy for 8 hours complaining that he deserves 30 days off a month and $400k/per year or the other a-hole who just sits in the cockpit like a lump when he should be pushing a wheelchair or helping a customer in some capacity. A freaking monkey can fly a plane it's the right person who can understand flying is 1/2 the quality of a pilot at SWA.

Any chance you get that one?


Looks like you are one of the ones that slipped thru the crack, Asshat !!!

 

[NEDude]

The trouble with that logic is that if the SWA job doesn't work out, your investment becomes worthless. A 737 type with no experience in the airplane is meaningless beyond the SWA world. Besides, before too long all the 737 Bee-Bees you stuffed in your head are going to roll right out anyway.

It depends on your defintion of worthless is. If you mean that you will never fly a 737, then yes maybe it is. However if you view learning something new for the simple sake of learning something new, then no it is not. If I never see the cockpit of a 737, I will not regret getting my type rating. It was a very enjoyable two weeks.

How many of you are using your college degree? I majored in Political Science. Since I do not work in government, is my degree worthless? Or did I improve myself just because of the process? I view it as the latter. I enjoyed the process of getting the type. I learned something new, made some new contacts in the industry, and refined my study habits. I also learned some new ideas about teaching aircraft systems which helps me in my current position in my company's training department. Sorry to disagree, but I view none of that as worthless.

 

[enigma]

Have you not heard of the DB made up of chief pilots who decide who gets hired? The PD weeds out the weak. All are qualified but who wants to sit next to an Asshat ALPA type guy for 8 hours complaining that he deserves 30 days off a month and $400k/per year or the other a-hole who just sits in the cockpit like a lump when he should be pushing a wheelchair or helping a customer in some capacity. A freaking monkey can fly a plane it's the right person who can understand flying is 1/2 the quality of a pilot at SWA.

Any chance you get that one?

MarylandONE, could you please explain your statement about the PD weeding out the weak. This goes against the statements made here recently by other SWA peeps who are contending that the PD is not much more than paper shufflers witn NO input into the decision.

If your statement is correct, (BTW, I think you are but have no inside info to confirm my belief) then the PD has much more power than any current SWA pilot/FI poster is willing to admit. It seems to me, that if you are correct, the PD is in complete control if they have total control of who is put before the
DB.

Either everyone who passes the three interviews goes before the DB, or they don't. If they don't, then any discussion we have here concerning the SWA PD is fair game.

I realize that most of us have forgetten this, but this IS the FI Major Airline INTERVIEW forum.

To all of you SWA peeps who passed your interview and are here to help. Thank You. To you SWA boys here to fight ad nausem, go fly another couple of trips and go spend the day on your ranch. Because it doesn't matter to us wanna-be's how much you protest our perceived errors, we don't really care. We are going to continue to attempt to achieve the same success as yourself and if that means spending too much time on this forum studying the minutia of your processes, so be it.

For myself, I understand that this is an anonymous forum and having been around here for way too many years, I don't take anything personal. I'd suggest that you men do the same. Seriously, if I say your PD sucks, does it really matter? Will my anonymous opinion really change anything, or effect anyone in the PD? If I say that your PD is the best in the world and they all deserve a 100% pay raise, will Colleen give it to them because some anonymous guy going by enigma on the internet said to give it to em? I don't think so.

I know that you are proud of your employer. I respect that and would be proud to join you in being proud, but don't let us wanna-be's get your goat. We aren't trying to, and the anti-SWA guys who are trying to get you riled up aren't worth your time.

regards,
enigma

 

[FlyBoeingJets]

This horse has been beaten beyond all recognition.

BTW, we all say or type things that sometimes we wish we didn't. Things that seemed right at the time but afterwards we realize are not really what we intended or are even right.

Just as it is hard for us to figure out what works in an interview or DB, the interviewers and board members find it hard picking and choosing. And, oh yes, they have to pick and choose. That is their job and they would lose it if they didn't.

 

[MarylandONE]

MarylandONE, could you please explain your statement about the PD weeding out the weak. This goes against the statements made here recently by other SWA peeps who are contending that the PD is not much more than paper shufflers witn NO input into the decision.

If your statement is correct, (BTW, I think you are but have no inside info to confirm my belief) then the PD has much more power than any current SWA pilot/FI poster is willing to admit. It seems to me, that if you are correct, the PD is in complete control if they have total control of who is put before the
DB.

Either everyone who passes the three interviews goes before the DB, or they don't. If they don't, then any discussion we have here concerning the SWA PD is fair game.

I realize that most of us have forgotten this, but this IS the FI Major Airline INTERVIEW forum.

To all of you SWA peeps who passed your interview and are here to help. Thank You. To you SWA boys here to fight ad nauseum, go fly another couple of trips and go spend the day on your ranch. Because it doesn't matter to us wanna-be's how much you protest our perceived errors, we don't really care. We are going to continue to attempt to achieve the same success as yourself and if that means spending too much time on this forum studying the minutia of your processes, so be it.

For myself, I understand that this is an anonymous forum and having been around here for way too many years, I don't take anything personal. I'd suggest that you men do the same. Seriously, if I say your PD sucks, does it really matter? Will my anonymous opinion really change anything, or effect anyone in the PD? If I say that your PD is the best in the world and they all deserve a 100% pay raise, will Colleen give it to them because some anonymous guy going by enigma on the internet said to give it to em? I don't think so.

I know that you are proud of your employer. I respect that and would be proud to join you in being proud, but don't let us wanna-be's get your goat. We aren't trying to, and the anti-SWA guys who are trying to get you riled up aren't worth your time.

regards,
enigma

The PD weeds out the people who are socially challenged or less then customer service oriented. Quite possibly the person is a good guy but didn't present himself well. That's life if you can't step up to the plate when the pressure is on, try again and present yourself better next time.

The DB takes those recommendations and looks at the whole package and decides who is best qualified. There is no percentage they require. If all of them aren't fitting the bill then all aren't getting hired. It's been SWAs mantra since the beginning is hire the right person. The right person to people on this board might not be the right person at SWA. Doesn't mean they aren't good pilots but aren't a good fit here.

And no, no one cares what you think but I had to spell correct your post. It was killing me.

 

[capt. megadeth]

This horse has been beaten beyond all recognition.

.

I am the queen of beating a dead horse and I even agree.

Let's drop it all already.

 

[Deadbug]

Do you work for US Air or United? whoops.....

Hysterical, Bozt45....Do you work for US Air or United? Your attitude is why those companies fail and why SWA is successful.

I'm really sad to see the "us" vs "them" unfairly applied to our fellow professional pilots. I work with a lot of great folks at US Airways...guys and gals that are really great to work with and...yes...that go way out of their way for the customers; like most other pilots at any airline.
One difference though is that we've gone through a lot more pain as a pilot group. Are there some bad apples? sure...just like at every airline. I would just like to say--in as nice a way as possible--to pause a bit before the "submit post/reply" button is clicked, and remember that we pretty much are all the same...good people.

 

[HoursHore]

I would be surprised if MarylandONE really works for SWA. If so their vaunted Interview process really needs some tweaking.

Here's a conspiracy theory, first put forward on this board by Yank Mcobb:

410dude, Ihaveapension, E170Guppykiller, and MarylandOne are all the same person. A sad demented person, most likely a UPS pilot on reserve based upon some posts in the cargo section. He or she has invented these screennames to impersonate the exaggerated qualities of the typical posts from a variety of backgrounds.

It actually reminds me of Andy Kaufman, and the piss people off is funny school of comedy. Anyway, I am sure other people have come to this conclusion as well.

 

[enigma]

And no, no one cares what you think but I had to spell correct your post. It was killing me.

Well thanks for the spell check.

Oddly enough, some here do care what I think. I know, I know, it astounds me too.

enigma

 

[KnightDog]

I don't understand why anyone would want to work for a company that tells you in writing that they don't want you to work for them. And i don't understand why a company would interview somebody again that they didn't want in the first place. I interviewed with SWA and they sent me a letter saying i was not qualified. To me it was an insult and a good laugh as I was an int'l capt on the 737-8 at the time. They knew my qualifications from the time they called me for the interview. Why waste mine and SWA's time and $ if they allready know they are not going to hire you. Or just put the truth in the letter.... "Sorry Mr. Smith all we need this month is center line trust experience." I would rather the truth than an inpersonal slap in the face. Needless to say i lost respect and confidence in SWA's hiring proccess. kd