• Pilot Jobs Board
  • Pilot Resume Database
  • Pilot Interview Gouge
  • Airline Pilot Pay Rates
  • Career Articles
  • Flight School Directory
  • Blog
  • Message Boards
  • Resume Services
  • And much more...
Post a Pilot Job

ExpressJet Airlines Pilot Interview Profiles

» Home » Pilot Interviews » National Airlines » ExpressJet Airlines
Date Interviewed: January 2007
Summary of Qualifications: cfi, cfii, mei 2450tt, me260
Were you offered the job? No
Pilot Interview Profile:

They sent me an e-mail with steps to follow and what to bring to the interview. The interview was the same day that they bring you to Houston so get plenty of rest.
The day start out with 3 hour flight to houston and a shuttle bring you to their office.
Get off the shuttle bus and proceed to the holding room. There were probably 30-40 of us there. Signed forms and application and started to call us one by one into the three rooms. The first room consist of technical (aircraft systems, weather, charts, your history). The second room is the mexico high altitude and approach chart. They try to trick you here with the chart, pay close attention to the msa which is lower then the en-route structure and they will clear you for the approach. No problem. The last room is the weed out room in which if they like you, then you will be fine. The last room is human resource and high altitude jep charts again. If you have failed a checkride or a stage check, then you will not be hired or anything that they don't like about you.
They don't tell you why you failed and all the time you think that you passed.
This airline remind me of Atlantic Coast Airlines(independence). They are getting booted out of Continental Express end of this year and they try to solicate other airline to become express partner with no success. They have way too many disgruntal FOs which tell me don't stay here too long with this company. Many FOs and Capts left for other regionals and national carriers.

Date Interviewed: December 2006
Summary of Qualifications: 900 TT, 630 multi, part 135,121.
Were you offered the job? No
Pilot Interview Profile:

I was in a class of about 50 people, they gave us a briefing of the company and we filled out all the paper work, ( if you bring all the documents they tell you to in the email it will make the paper work easy.) then it is a waiting game, the first interview was with a captain? or F/O, he asked about the multi which you have the most hours in;i.e. emergency proc., v-speeds, weights, demensions , etc. and that was about 5 minuts, the next guy asked about jep charts, you will have to finger fly a mexican approach, he asked about MOCA, MORA, MEA, etc. , that was 8 minutes , the HR is asking if you had any accidents, incident, failed check rides and why, what if your captain goes below mins, on a ILS. Good luck.

Date Interviewed: November 2006
Summary of Qualifications: 1400 Hrs, 560 SIC Turbine Part 121, 750 PIC, 645 Multi
Were you offered the job? Yes
Pilot Interview Profile:
Overall interview was a very pleasant experience. The ExpressJet pilot recruitment team does an outstanding job of making its applicants feel relaxed. That being said, I was still nervous, but who isn't? At any rate, my advice for those with an interview date is to do the following: 1)Get internal letters of reccomendation. 2)Study the introduction to the Jepp approach plates/enroute charts and know the chart legends like the back of your hand. 3)Review Jepp Hi/Lo enroute charts (Don't forget to review the information on the panels) and approach plates. 4)Be able to apply scenarios to the charts and finger fly an approach plate once it's put in front of you. 5)Familiarize yourself with Mexico approach and enroute charts. It doesn't matter which airport in Mexico you study, they are all the same with crazy DME arcs around mountain ranges into a valley. If you can finger fly one Mexico VOR approach, you can finger fly them all. ExpressJet as you know does a lot of flying down there so you'll need to know it anyway. 6)Study the Red ASA Instrument ORAL Exam guide cover to cover. 7)Be humble and display a positive attitude. Be full of great personality (Plays a huge part), and maintain eye contact. Those main points aside, here is how my interview went: Got to the ExpressJet training building at 8:45am. At 9am was taken into the applicant holding tank and all our forms, certs, logbooks, and letters of recc. were collected. They are not messing around when they say they want all required information. Just follow their instructions you recieved via email and you will be fine. Amy collected all our data and gave a presentation on the company. She's totally cool and down to earth. As a matter of fact, everyone there is. The interview is a Three step process: Two technical interviews followed by One HR/Chief Pilot interview. The first tech interview for me covered Situational Awareness, CRM, and aircraft systems. Brandon conducted this interview. Cool guy and as previously stated, totally laid back. He asked about my current job and what it is like. After which I was given a description of how the interview process would work. Moving on, he asked me the proverbial drunk captain scenario and how I would handle a couple different scenarios involving a captain either wanting to drink within legal time limits or showing up drunk for a flight. I was then asked what my definition of CRM was. After this an approach plate was pulled out and I was asked when I could descend below MDA/DA. Was also asked what to do if outside of the FAF and WX goes below minimums. Was asked about my 121 background and Alternate minimums for 121 carriers. If you are a 121 dude, just check your ops specs for alternate airport derived minimums. And finally, I was asked to describe the Hydraulic system on my airplane. After this, I was sent back to the holding tank. Second Tech interview was conducted by two Captains. Super cool people but I can't remember their names. We covered Jepp charts (HI and LO Enroute) and a VOR Approach to some place in Mexico. First, the VOR approach came out and she pointed to a Feeder route and said..."You are at X thousand feet and cleared for the approach. Talk me through the approach. No need to brief the approach, I will assume that you already did that." Easy enough. I almost got one thing wrong... forgot to read the notes above the plan-view with information on DME failure procedures, etc. So pay attention to those notes. I was then asked about MSA and what it is good for and what an MSA gives us. Then came the HI and LO Enroute charts. What's this? What's that? As previously stated, just study the Jepp intro with the legends, and you're gold. Also, keep in mind that they will point to stuff that you won't find in the Jepp intro legends. If they point to something that you haven't seen, before saying "Sorry, I don't know", check the chart for a legend that may be on one of the panels (i.e. Mountain Wave squiggly lines). Know where on the HI/LO charts to find information on CLASS C and D airports and the times that they are operational. Know where to find info on the panels of HI/LO charts on MOAs, Restricted, etc. airspace. So... that was it for the two Technical interviews. Very straight forward. Keep in mind that the folks conducting those interviews are looking for people that they can be on the road with for six days in a row. Personality is huge. Finally, the Chief Pilot/HR interview. This was perhaps the most difficult of all. Amy starts by asking a few basic questions. Why ExpressJet? Any failed Checkrides, stage checks, etc? Then the Chief Pilot took his turn. Totally cool guy, but definately made me think and put me on the spot. I was asked a couple of basic weight and altitude limitations on my current airplane. He then gave me a scenario where the Captain passes out and smoke of unknown origin appears in the cockpit. What do you do? What is your procedure? You aren't cleared to descend, now what? Where are you going? Basically, he put me on the spot and grilled me on a real life scenario. I wasn't ready for it, but did the best I could. If I could change one thing, I would have been more confident in the answers I gave to him. It just went to show not to put your guard down at all during the interview process. I had thought after that Q&A session that I had blown the whole interview. After the HR/Chief Pilot interview, Amy asked me to stand outside next to the ERJ picture. She came out maybe three minutes later (felt like a lot longer than that) and asked how I thought I did. She strung me along for a minute and then extended her hand welcoming me to ExpressJet:). Standing next to the picture and getting the job offer, I felt like Pomp and Circumstance should have been playing over the building PA system. Haha. Overall, a great experience. Follow the seven main points that I mentioned above and you should be great. The Dude abides.
Date Interviewed: August 2006
Summary of Qualifications: CFI, 1500 TT, 115 ME
Were you offered the job? Yes
Pilot Interview Profile:
Arrived at IAH and picked up the company shuttle to the training center for the morning interview session. There were about 20 candidates. 2 were sent home early for not having the required minimums or documents. Started with company overview and Q&A while logbooks were reviewed. Then we "relaxed" in the room while others were called into separate rooms for more personal interviews.

First room I was called into was for the tech interview with 2 line captains. Questions on Jepp chart - appch and enroute (both hi/low alt). Some situational questions: captain descends below MDA; you notice captain's seat belt not fastened as you are on t/o roll doing 80 kts; finger fly this appch; have I ever had an emergency; etc. All as in previous gouges.

I went back to the original room and waited about 15-20 min. Then called into another room for HR interview. Atmosphere was RELAXED! They were very cool about open-ended discussions and allowed me to make points/counter-points, not just straight Q/A. I was asked to discuss my flying background and experience. Why ExpressJet? Any emergencies? incidents? accidents? violations? why now do I want to start flying (I had 15 yr career in engineering and mgmt)? how is my CFI background going to help me during training and also flying the line? what would I do if captain uses non-standard procedures - not unsafe, just non-std? It seemed to me that they are looking for people who are going to get along well enough and deal sensibly with conflict.

As promised, I stood under the famous ERJ picture for 5 min after the HR interview and then they offered me the job. I think about 1/2 - 3/4 of the morning candidates were offered jobs. No class date given, but I suspect it will be late Sept/early Oct (I should know on orientation day, 2 weeks after interview). Then I went for a pee test and was on a flight home by 14:30 local time. Good luck!
Date Interviewed: April 2006
Summary of Qualifications: 1050 TT, 105 multi
Were you offered the job? No
Pilot Interview Profile:
Express Jet arranged transportation to/from Houston...flights were great; check-in, gate agents, flight attendants, all really friendly. XJT is one of the few airlines that still actually gives you a snack on the plane...not merely just a drink. Continental Express' training facility is impressive, with gorgeous modern architecture. You can see the sims through the glass, too.

My big disappointment with the whole process came about because I was given a 9am interviewing time, but I didn't meet with a single interviewer until after 3 in the afternoon! And there were a couple people even later than me! There were two groups...about 30 people in the morning group and another 13 in the afternoon that showed up around 1:30. Several of the afternoon people finished the interview process before many of us morning people-- not quite sure how that happened. Seems to me like a company that prides its self so much with on-time schedules, punctuality, and stresses professionalism among its workers would know better than to schedule someone for a 9am interview, only to make them sit around for 6 hours before meeting anyone! No appology or explanation or anything. In any case, I spent quite a bit of my own money driving several hours to my home airport to get a hotel room the night before, since they booked me on the 6am red-eye flight to IAH. What a waste, if I would have known no one would have interviewed me until 3pm...I could have easily caught a noon flight to IAH, saved my personal hotel expense, and would have still been early to meet with the interviewers.

And don't expect lunch either. No one offered us lunch, snacks, or the opportunity to leave and go get something. Bringing a lunch wasn't in the interview instructions either. The interviewers basically "disappeared" around noon and just stopped calling people in to interview...no fooling us, we all knew where they went!

I am sure Continental Express is a great airline to work for, but they sure didn't make that apparent to me. Whether they realize it or not, they were's just interviewing us-- we were all "interviewing" them as well and how they operate. I was certainly disappointed they didn't show me the true Continental I've known all these years-- on the other side of the fence as a paying customer and frequent flyer.
» Home » Pilot Interviews » National Airlines » ExpressJet Airlines
Feedback Form