I'm not a line pilot, but I am an HR consultant.
Were I to be advising a client about investing a considerable amount of money in training a new employee in skills based on an existing competency (i.e. a type rating for an ATPL), I would certainly advise that that existing competency was assessed very carefully at a peer level (e.g. by TRI/TRE or whatever they are called these days) before the hire decision was taken. (BTW, competency includes attitudes as well as skills, so the assessor may also see a cultural non-fit under a little sress.)
Otherwise you are risking a bad investment and the attendant writing off of valuable time and money.
As an afterthought, even if you weed out a non performer early in the training, you have still lost the opportunity to fill that seat with someone else and thus its bad news.
I won't comment on the risk elements of a bad hire, as I'm not qualified to do that.
Last edited by Final 3 Greens; 1st June 2006 at 07:22.