To recount my own experience wherein I, for one, would not now have several thousand hours of Boeing time had it not been for John exhibiting some amazing judgement in my respect.
I.e. during what I thought was probably my last realistic opportunity at obtaining airline pilot employment ( e.g. age versus experience issues, etc ) I was invited for a simulator assessment ( where John was the then Chief Pilot )
Needless to say, with what I perceived as the Sword of Damocles hanging over my head ( what with having substantially more than a decade of being a ‘wannabe’, to say nothing of having spent all the money, and having beggared myself in the process.... sound familiar ? ), on the day in question in the simulator I failed to deliver the required standard.
But John saw things differently, and ( to my continued amazement ) he invited me back for another go in a B737 simulator ( though this time, instead of it being described as an ‘assessment’, he put it to me that it was ‘training’ ).
Less than an hour later I’d landed a jet job ( and of which, to this day, I’m still pinching myself in somewhat disbelief
) wherein he surmised that the pressure / culmination of the years of toil was just too much to expect anybody to deliver their best and that I just needed a break from beating myself up and trying too hard; John was the one that gave me that chance; that is the measure of the man.
Veritably we all need that special somebody who is prepared to go the whole way ( and often beyond ), to give a bloke a chance; which in my experience of aviation is something that’s few and far between !
In closure, some of these people work at Astraeus and they certainly remember what it was like to be looking in from the outside – and we’ll certainly do our best to help as much as we can, but wherein much of what happens is similarly up to you and the injection of a fair measure of luck.