SpiderMouth.. sorry, Moth, I had a friend who spent three years as a military recruiter. He said 99% of potential recruits had one thing in common - they heard only what they wanted to hear, and simply blanked out or ignored anything he told them that didn't fit into the mindset they had when they walked in the door, hell bent on putting on a uniform.
Six months down the track, a large proportion of them were bitching that things weren't as rosy as promised - despite the fact that he had clearly spelled out all the pitfalls and shortcomings of the system they would without doubt experience.
I had a similar experience in my time in the military when I found myself in a position of interviewing and selecting enlisted men for airmen aircrew positions. (Most applicants had spent three or four years in the Service in non flying jobs.) My speech to successful candidates went along the lines of: "If you have a really important family occasion, an anniversary, a child's school prize giving, a wife's birthday, I can almost guarantee you that you'll be away on detachment at the time or sent way on a trip the day before the big event. Have a talk with your wife (if there was one) and make sure she understands this, and if either of you can't handle that, this job isn't for you.."
To a man, the applicants would nod sagely and assure me they understood and were willing to accept that. ...and six or 12 months down the line... you guessed it. "We didn't know... Why weren't we told... I wasn't expecting it to be like this..."
Of course, with your (excuse me as I pause here to gasp in admiration) 13 years airline experience, 11 of those years as a captain, none of the above will apply to you. Welcome to the Sandpit. The lads in head office are gonna love you. But you'll really need to be creative to have them love you more than they already love your countryman Brian. (A perhaps cryptic comment you'll all too quickly come to understand after you get here to take up the DEC position [at least you consider] you so richly deserve.)
Last edited by Wiley; 1st Jun 2008 at 06:12.
Reason: typo