TIS
Wing, Nosewheel, Whatever
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2001
- Posts
- 366
Cont'd from Part I:
http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?t=37160
The point is that if you see a question about suspension or revocation or some other legal term on an application, or if you are asked point blank you need to know whether you can avoid disclosure of the issue or not. Now some would argue that you should disclose everything no matter what but the truth is that some things are simply private matters that are out of bounds in an employment interview.
There are indeed some very real dangers in disclosing things that you needn’t during an employment interview. The most significant risk is that you could turn the entirety of your interview into an inquisition into the situation you’ve revealed when you were under no obligation to reveal it in the first place. Naturally, this would mean that your interviewer(s) would learn very little else that they actually set out to learn about you as a pilot candidate at the outset of the interview. You probably won’t get the job.
Finally, we have arrests. “Have you even been arrested?” they might ask somewhere on an application or during the interview itself. This can be an important question because it is differs from the issue of conviction significantly in that one can be arrested but never charged with any offense. Conviction is a potential end product of an arrest. Arrests are also significant because convictions will show up in your criminal background check conducted by the FBI. Arrests won’t necessarily show up in any records, so many companies ask either on the application or in person about them.
A few of things to understand about arrests are as follows. First, an arrest is significant because of its occurrence in the first place. The interest will be in what the circumstances were that ultimately led to an officers decision to put you into handcuffs. Think about that for a moment. If you were an employer interviewing someone to whom this had happened, wouldn’t you want to know more about it? That’s one reason they ask.
Another thing about an arrest is that if it leads nowhere because no charges are pressed, or if charges are dropped then there is virtually no record of it except in the municipality in which it occurred. Considering the inter-agency connection that law enforcement now seeks in the wake of 9/11, it is probably a foregone conclusion that this will not remain the case for too much longer. You risk your future if you fail to report even a misdemeanor arrest in which charges were dropped for lack of evidence.
The next thing to understand about an arrest is that it cannot generally be undone. Records of an arrest are police records that you most likely will never be able to get changed, even with the best lawyers and endlessly deep pockets. The record of the arrest is a statement of fact, not a legal conclusion. It is not open to debate. You were arrested. You were arrested by mistake … but you were still arrested. You were arrested and the charges were dropped … but you were still arrested. You were arrested and held as a material witness and then released … but you were still arrested. It’s just a fact and if you’ve been asked and there’s a record somewhere that you’ve been arrested you’d better disclose it.
Finally, it’s important to recognize that there are certain kinds of arrests that are made simply to defuse a situation. Unfortunately, these are most often domestic disturbance/abuse situations and these kinds of problems take a very high profile position in our society today. If you’ve been involved in such a situation you’ve got a lot of explaining to do because you have not only the arrest to explain, but also the nature of the situation that precipitated it is a catalyst for serious debate.
In short, once again, rather than explaining about what a great pilot they could have in you if they hired you, your interview will be spent explaining that you were too stupid to keep things calm enough with your spouse or significant other to keep the police out of it.
Taken by itself, that fact alone doesn’t speak well for an individual who wants to be handed the keys to a multi-million dollar airplane with 30 –70 PRICELESS lives aboard.
Returning now to accepting responsibility for one’s past – one’s record – it’s important to understand that doing this does not necessarily have to be completely negative. If you are in a position of having to admit to significant errors or failures in your past it can be done in a way that refers everything to the present where things have been changed by your continued effort to apply the lessons you’ve learned.
As an example, suppose you had a speeding ticket that you sincerely believe was issued in error by the officer. You could say that it was the officer’s mistake and you just got a bum rap. That’s not a good way however, to accept at least some responsibility for the events that you found yourself involved in.
A better way to approach answering a question about an event of this nature might be to explain that first and foremost, you have no doubt that something you had done raised your profile enough to attract the officer’s attention. You might add that you and he might disagree as to what you had actually done and that his point might be that you were speeding. Overall however, your attitude needs to demonstrate that you accept the consequences as a lesson learned that you have applied in subsequent years.
Another example might be that you were arrested when you were 18 at a fraternity party run amok. You could say the cops just arrested everyone and it wasn’t fair because you didn’t even have anything to drink that night. “The charges were dropped anyway so what’s the big deal?” you might ask.
Or, you could say that you should have realized that the party was going way beyond what was acceptable and you should have left. But as young people, fresh out from under their parents’ thumbs, are typically wont to do, you exercised poor judgment and stayed. The arrest was the result of that judgment and you’ve learned from it, as the rest of your record indicates.
It’s important to recognize that elements of personal and professional character are difficult to divine and assess in a 30-minute interview. Certain things matter more than others and are also more easily probed. For all of you about to embark on your first series of interviews, you must understand that things found in the recesses of your past, even the darkest recesses, will undergo scrutiny that may seem unreasonable or unwarranted. You will have to go along with it though if you want the job. Further, you will have to deal with less attractive things deftly if employment is to be the final outcome of the experience.
If you haven’t yet begun the process of letting employers know you’re out there take stock of your background. Too many people out there charge blindly forth into an expensive training program, staking everything they have on the prospect of a career in aviation, only to find that they have not prepared presentation of their past well enough to pass muster. Dealing with skeletons in your closet with skill and finesse is every bit as important in aviation as having a pilot’s license.
TIS
http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?t=37160
The point is that if you see a question about suspension or revocation or some other legal term on an application, or if you are asked point blank you need to know whether you can avoid disclosure of the issue or not. Now some would argue that you should disclose everything no matter what but the truth is that some things are simply private matters that are out of bounds in an employment interview.
There are indeed some very real dangers in disclosing things that you needn’t during an employment interview. The most significant risk is that you could turn the entirety of your interview into an inquisition into the situation you’ve revealed when you were under no obligation to reveal it in the first place. Naturally, this would mean that your interviewer(s) would learn very little else that they actually set out to learn about you as a pilot candidate at the outset of the interview. You probably won’t get the job.
Finally, we have arrests. “Have you even been arrested?” they might ask somewhere on an application or during the interview itself. This can be an important question because it is differs from the issue of conviction significantly in that one can be arrested but never charged with any offense. Conviction is a potential end product of an arrest. Arrests are also significant because convictions will show up in your criminal background check conducted by the FBI. Arrests won’t necessarily show up in any records, so many companies ask either on the application or in person about them.
A few of things to understand about arrests are as follows. First, an arrest is significant because of its occurrence in the first place. The interest will be in what the circumstances were that ultimately led to an officers decision to put you into handcuffs. Think about that for a moment. If you were an employer interviewing someone to whom this had happened, wouldn’t you want to know more about it? That’s one reason they ask.
Another thing about an arrest is that if it leads nowhere because no charges are pressed, or if charges are dropped then there is virtually no record of it except in the municipality in which it occurred. Considering the inter-agency connection that law enforcement now seeks in the wake of 9/11, it is probably a foregone conclusion that this will not remain the case for too much longer. You risk your future if you fail to report even a misdemeanor arrest in which charges were dropped for lack of evidence.
The next thing to understand about an arrest is that it cannot generally be undone. Records of an arrest are police records that you most likely will never be able to get changed, even with the best lawyers and endlessly deep pockets. The record of the arrest is a statement of fact, not a legal conclusion. It is not open to debate. You were arrested. You were arrested by mistake … but you were still arrested. You were arrested and the charges were dropped … but you were still arrested. You were arrested and held as a material witness and then released … but you were still arrested. It’s just a fact and if you’ve been asked and there’s a record somewhere that you’ve been arrested you’d better disclose it.
Finally, it’s important to recognize that there are certain kinds of arrests that are made simply to defuse a situation. Unfortunately, these are most often domestic disturbance/abuse situations and these kinds of problems take a very high profile position in our society today. If you’ve been involved in such a situation you’ve got a lot of explaining to do because you have not only the arrest to explain, but also the nature of the situation that precipitated it is a catalyst for serious debate.
In short, once again, rather than explaining about what a great pilot they could have in you if they hired you, your interview will be spent explaining that you were too stupid to keep things calm enough with your spouse or significant other to keep the police out of it.
Taken by itself, that fact alone doesn’t speak well for an individual who wants to be handed the keys to a multi-million dollar airplane with 30 –70 PRICELESS lives aboard.
Returning now to accepting responsibility for one’s past – one’s record – it’s important to understand that doing this does not necessarily have to be completely negative. If you are in a position of having to admit to significant errors or failures in your past it can be done in a way that refers everything to the present where things have been changed by your continued effort to apply the lessons you’ve learned.
As an example, suppose you had a speeding ticket that you sincerely believe was issued in error by the officer. You could say that it was the officer’s mistake and you just got a bum rap. That’s not a good way however, to accept at least some responsibility for the events that you found yourself involved in.
A better way to approach answering a question about an event of this nature might be to explain that first and foremost, you have no doubt that something you had done raised your profile enough to attract the officer’s attention. You might add that you and he might disagree as to what you had actually done and that his point might be that you were speeding. Overall however, your attitude needs to demonstrate that you accept the consequences as a lesson learned that you have applied in subsequent years.
Another example might be that you were arrested when you were 18 at a fraternity party run amok. You could say the cops just arrested everyone and it wasn’t fair because you didn’t even have anything to drink that night. “The charges were dropped anyway so what’s the big deal?” you might ask.
Or, you could say that you should have realized that the party was going way beyond what was acceptable and you should have left. But as young people, fresh out from under their parents’ thumbs, are typically wont to do, you exercised poor judgment and stayed. The arrest was the result of that judgment and you’ve learned from it, as the rest of your record indicates.
It’s important to recognize that elements of personal and professional character are difficult to divine and assess in a 30-minute interview. Certain things matter more than others and are also more easily probed. For all of you about to embark on your first series of interviews, you must understand that things found in the recesses of your past, even the darkest recesses, will undergo scrutiny that may seem unreasonable or unwarranted. You will have to go along with it though if you want the job. Further, you will have to deal with less attractive things deftly if employment is to be the final outcome of the experience.
If you haven’t yet begun the process of letting employers know you’re out there take stock of your background. Too many people out there charge blindly forth into an expensive training program, staking everything they have on the prospect of a career in aviation, only to find that they have not prepared presentation of their past well enough to pass muster. Dealing with skeletons in your closet with skill and finesse is every bit as important in aviation as having a pilot’s license.
TIS
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