SWA technical questions at interview?

[Creamer]

I'm hoping to someday have a successful SWA interview. I've got the message that I've got to have my happy ending stories ready, but what about technical questions? I feel like I've got a good knowledge base (mostly military), but I'd hate to blow the interview having great stories, but missed key technical questions. Any good advice about how much effort should be devoted to the technical side of a SWA interview?

 

[swaforme]

Here's one that I can answer. 0. There are no technical questions on the SWA interview.

 

[SWA GUY]

Technical questions?

You mean like: how many rivets does the airplane have? (one for every rivet hole?)

Or, what is the airspeed of an unladen swallow? (African or European?)

Or, why is it that when you see a group of geese flying the V is always lopsided? ( there's more geese on one side?)

Sorry, no technical questions. Just questions to get to know you better stuff.

We just want to see what kind of person you are, and whether you'll fit in nicely with our group.

Best of luck to you!

 

[Ten at the T]

Line Oriented Interview (LOI)

The only thing that could be considered as anything close to technical is that portion of the interview known as the LOI. Half the interview day is dedicated to answering the "Tell me about a time..." questions and the other half is where you do the LOI.

The LOI is a scenario driven activity where you demonstrate decision-making and crew resource management capability. You are handed a scenario and, in a cardboard familiarization trainer with a SWA interview captain and FO playing roles (the FO is your FO, the captain is a jumpseater or ATC, dispatch, FA, etc.), you work through the scenario to a decision in 7 minutes. You're given some airplane, weather and fuel facts as the relate in the scenario, but it doesn't require technical knowledge per se.... just basic airmanship that you would apply as the PIC of an airliner. www.aviationinterviews.com and www.willflyforfood.cc provide some good trip reports for this.

Best of luck!!

 

[SWA GUY]

LOI....oh yeah, they didn't have that when I went through. Maybe they should have.

Standards were never lower than when they hired me. I think they scored me as, "weak and unteachable".

 

[saabcaptain]

Zero. Although in the answers to some of the situational questions you may bring up things of a technical nature in your answers, so make sure what you say sounds right.

 

[Creamer]

Thanks for the info. Once again the flightinfo.com sub-culture has helped me out. I'm looking forward to the chance to be part of the SWA family. Time for another drink of kool-aid!