Airline Interviews
 

Assume you are an Airline recruiting Captain and you are looking to elliminate the "She's right mate" Australian pilot problem, What interview questions would ask?

"How many "l's" are there in ELIMINATE? Are commas followed by a capital, if the word is not a proper noun?"
And, "What is the meaning of the following:-
What interview questions would ask??"

Trying to reed, right and speek Inglish correctly wood bee a good start four meny!

Ew nasty!:8

Their reeli is two many pepil with bad grama and hew cant spal

Just reed mor books and "she'll be right!":ok:

Last weak i couldnt even spel pilut, and now i are one.

Kaptin M, how many spelling bees have you won? Since when do you spell Captain as Kaptin. How do you justify three capitals in your title. Give the guy a break! We all get a little excited posting on PPRuNe, sometimes our fingers are a little slower than our minds ;)

Anyway, as I am not aware of any written grammar and spelling tests as entry requirements for any Australian airlines we will just ignore that post.

However, having only GA experience I can offer no more constructive advice than the Kaptin, sorry.

What is the "she's right mate" Australian problem?

Sorry about the grammar (little country school where spelling & grammar was left out altogether)

Post written in a hurry without a spell check rushing off to a charter flight.

The old Australian "She's right mate attitude" was the quoted major problem evident in 9 out of 10 Airline applicants by the Chief Pilot of Australia's largest Airline in a personal interview with myself.

The post should have read more like "what answers to Airline Questions have you heard about that reflect that she's right mate attitude"?

To start the ball rolling...
A candidate was asked "how would you go about getting into Coffs Harbour at night"

His reply "fly 3 legs of the circuit and land".

Application to the Airline rejected...

Another big day charter flying, must go

'"Anyway, as I am not aware of any written grammar and spelling tests as entry requirements for any Australian airlines..".
First impressions count, and a poorly spelt letter isn't necessarily ONLY an indication of a person's spelling ability, but as Aeromentor mentions in his next post, "Post written in a hurry without a spell check rushing off to..". In other words, he didn't give it too much attention, and if THAT were the impression gained by someone who was looking at your job application, then it may appear that you aren't REALLY interested in the job anyway.

"Anyway, as I am not aware of any written grammar and spelling tests as entry requirements for any Australian airlines..".
And neither is being a "fashion model", however I was DUMBFOUNDED when I saw the dress of another pilot who applied for a position at the same time I did. He wore checked pants, a sports jacket, and black suede shoes (which looked like unpolished black leather shoes). To further lower his chances, when asked if the interviewers could see his log book, he presented a wad of computer printed papers together with a log book written in pencil.

Now, Boomerang, let's suppose that the people responsible for deciding who gets in have a requirement for say only 6, but they've narrowed the final selection down to 7. A re-check of the candidates' initial applications MIGHT just edge one of those seven out, because it DID come down to, "written grammar and spelling tests as entry requirements"!!
You are going to get ONE SHOT - so best to make it your BEST one with EVERYTHING, if you hope to have a chance.

There's a lot of competition - unfortunately most of them will put THEMSELVES out of the running somewhere along the way.

Aeromentor.."A candidate was asked "how would you go about getting into Coffs Harbour at night".
The question doesn't provide enough info for an answer, does it.
You would need to know from which direction you were arriving, what the weather conditions were, and what nav aids were available.
From the answer given, it would appear that the respondent has ASSUMED far more than he was told (if the question you cited is complete).

And back to Boomerang.."Kaptin M, how many spelling bees have you won?" Several in the long ago past - none of late.
"Since when do you spell Captain as Kaptin." Since when did...since 1997.
" How do you justify three capitals in your title." It's a visual emphasis on the "M".

"Give the guy a break!" Better to "rip into him" here, and hopefully straighten him out NOW, before any applications/interviews, so that he DOES have the best chance of being one of the SUCCESSFUL ones, isn't it?
A bit of a roasting here, for mistakes, won't cost him anything. It may cost him a career later on.

The "Spelling Nazis" are only trying to HELP you guys :ok: ...well, most of the time!! :E

:D Ok, ok, point taken. Where's our mate Winstun gone. I need some cannon fodder :)

M stands for MEATHEAD.

There are some good avaition websites out there that give a series of airline type interview questions.

Usually each airline will have its standard bank of questions.

Try

http://www.flightinfo.com/

or

http://www.aviationinterviews.com/

Check on there links and you might find yourself with stories from guys/gals who have gone through the interview and given out a few questions.

Hope this helps. You only get one shot to impress them, so make it your first shot.

The Chief Pilot at this airline doesn't even sit on the interview panel. He takes feedback from the line pilots who are on the panel, who in my opinion, are not qualified to be asking the behavioural type questions that they do, (unless of course they have some sort of formal qualification in the Human Resources area) which most do not.

My suggestions to this Chief Pilot are-

You can't avoid the attitude you are concerned about here as it's very prevalent in Australian society, so what can you do? Make sure you have the appropriate processes in place within the airline to identify and rectify if it's required.

Now, no doubt my suggestion here will fall on deaf ears as i'm sure they already have this stuff worked out :rolleyes: ,which begs the question, why is this CP talking too you about this stuff anyway Aeromentor?

The reason I was talking to the Airline CP was I had asked him for some of his time to advise me how I could more effectively help pilots across the gap between GA and Airlines.

I have some comments regarding the postings of 'Aeromentor'. Air safety researchers Wiener, Kanki and Helmreich(1993) have described the major deficiences that go hand in glove with poor aircrew performance. These are : 1)Preoccupation with minor problems, 2) Inadequate leadership, 3) Failure to delegate tasks and responisibilities, 4) Failure to prioritise, 5) Inadequate flight deck monitoring, 6) Failure to use available data and resources, 7) Failure to communicate intent and plans. The chiefs of major airlines would at the very least be dimmly aware of these findings and tailor recruitment strategies to avoid candidates showing a predisposition to the above behaviours. It is true that these authors also say that highly effective captains NEVER exhibit a laissez-faire approach to operations. However the same survey of effective captains also makes the observation that such captains also disavow perfection. This means that they accept that perfection in operations cannot be achieved. Such characteristics would be sought during the screening process. From personal obsevation, I concur with these findings. However, I have also observed that the best captains are those that have a relaxed attitude to the operation. That is to say that they are not distracted by unexpected events and are able to tell the difference between what matters and what doesn't. They are flexible in their thought process and in prioritizing of tasks. At the same time, they can communicate any change of plans and keep all involved in the loop. I once flew at a GA company where a pilot constantly reiterated the need to avoid the "she'll be right" attitude. One day, I was flying ICUS with this pilot, I was making the 'Welcome aboard' PA and I said that "the briefing card outlined the use of the exits" instead of the SOP explained the use of the exits. This pilot then began to loudly chant "Fcuk, fcuk fcuk.." whilst punching his/her hand with his/her fist. All the passengers could hear him/her. I agree that I made an error of wording as to the delivery of the PA, but such an error was immaterial to the operation. Such an attitude is taking the avoidance of the 'She's right' attitude too far and impacts negatively on the operation. Note above the finding that effective commanders accept that perfection is unachievable and are not distracted by trivial failings. (As an aside, this pilot displayed other bizarre behaviours and I refused to fly with this person again). The question regarding Coffs Harbour at night: on the surface the failed candidate made a suitably glib reply to an apparently unworthy question. However, this question is, to my mind, designed to elicite a response from the candidate and the response was assesed accordingly.

Further to the above I have been asked the following questions during airline interviews: 1) What would you do if ATC instructed you to decend to 5000' and the Capt put 4000' in the AAI and refused to change it? 2) What if the Capt. tried to taxy without a taxy clearance because you were running late? 3) Under what circumstances what you accept a wake turbulence waiver if you needed to make up time (trick question)? 4) What would you do if you caught a FA stealing grog from the galley and told you it was for a room party and you were invited? What if it was a Check Capt who was stealing? Ansett used a 'targeted behaviours' method of questioning candidates. The questions were asked by trained interviewers. Examples 1) Tell us about when you really screwed up.2) Give us an example of when you had a disagreement with a Captain. 3) Tell us about a workmate that you didn't get along with. Intimidating stuff, let me tell you!!

Not sure on the intimidation angle Ralph.

In all my interviews (and all but one have been successful), l have found that questions of your history are much easier to handle than hypothetical ones.

Being open and honest whilst talking your way through your memories, good or bad, is a walk in the park when put up against the "What if" scenario.

But there is a reason for scant information questions, and that is to see how active you are in evaluating the situation from all the gathered information. Therefor you have to ask questions right back and build a model of what they are after from the initial question.

halas

Excellent posts Ralph & Halas...

How about these

You are coming down the ILS in cloud, reach the minima still in cloud, and you have an engine fire what would you do?

The answer given was "I would land anyway." Result fail, he answered from his own background as a light a/c pilot where without fire bottles the wingspar in a light twin burns through in 2-3 minutes. He did not elaborate on his answer.

or this one

You are at the last stop before home, It's the Captain's daughter's 21st birthday party and he wants to be there.
The first officer said if he is not home tonight his wife is leaving him. The aircraft is u/s, but the other pilots are saying we are going anyway. What would you the 2nd officer do?

I suggest that learning to think on your feet in a public speaking club like Toast Masters or Rostrun club is excellent preparation.