Originally Posted by
atpcliff
ALPA is wrong. There is NOT a strong supply of pilots. For example, a pilot for either UPS or FedEx recently posted of info from a meeting with their Chief Pilot. They were told within about two years, their applicant pool will have shrunk so far, they will not be able to recruit enough pilots for their operation.
Sorry, not buying the idea that either UPS of FED-EX will be unable to fill pilot positions in 2 years.
Understand, I am not saying that you didn't see someone claiming to be a pilot for one of those airlines, post on a forum some place the claim that his chief pilot told him that was true. You may very well have. That don't make it true. The airlines with the best Pay, Benefits and working conditions are for the most part *still* inundated with applicants to the point that they are *still* using some pretty questionable criteria to weed out otherwise well qualified applicants. The requirement for a college degree for example. Mind you, I say this as someone who holds a bachelors degree, so the is not a case of personal resentment. But a college degree (particularly one in a non-related, non technical discipline) has virtually nothing to do with the ability to fly an airplane. There are plenty of very skilled pilots who don't have a college degree. I know some. I suspect that you fly with a number of them. The major airline interviewing and recruiting process contains a lot of elements of a meaningless beauty contest. There are business which exist solely to advise hopeful interviewees on such vital items as the correct color and pattern of suit to wear, together with the correct colour tie.
Sorry, if you're interviewing at an airline where the difference between wearing a blue pin striped suit vs a black solid suit can make a difference in whether you get hired, you're in a beauty contest. And that airline is running this beauty contest precisely because they have such an abundance of applicants with good qualifications that they can afford to reject them on the basis of silly nonsense.