| i had originally posted this information on the aviation communication
message board and had hoped that it would have been copied and posted on
your sites. i feel that it is important stuff since my interview was very
much indeed contrary to the experiences of all the others you have in your
collections.
monday afternoon, picked up the holiday inn north houston shuttle bus to the
hotel. already seated were two other interview candidates and we chatted
about "the gouge" and our demographics on the rather long ride to the hotel
which goes by route of some very obscure back roads. since you are
wondering, i have a little less than 1450 total, 1250 multi-turbine(yes,
thats right, and never payed to play), 250 jet. one guy was an ex air force
herc driver with about 2700 total. the third guy had about 1700, 200
seminole, and was an instructor (and of minority background) at one of the
more prestigious colleges around the country.
when we arived, i suggested that two of us get a double room to save some
cash. i would certainly recomend this to everyone if it is possible for
you. if i remember correctly, the cost turned out to be about 30 bucks each.
there is really no convienent place to go eat other than the hotel. if you
eat at holiday inn, i would suggest not ordering any alcohol. about three
miles to the left is a pizza parlor that isn't too bad. you decide if its
worth the walk. we pretty much spent that evening studying and i worked
with the air force guy on how to read the jepps. i also showed him the vor
14 waco approach.
the next morning the three of us were seated in the rosewood room of the
holiday inn by 7:30 for an 8:00am show. thats right, only three of us
interveiwed this day. just after 8, the infamous john dresser walked in
with scott larson and leanne brown. scott started with the propaganda type
speech and he expained how to fill out some of the paper work. leanne was
next. she admistered the wonderlic test and explained how to properly fill
out the application. they were both so nice and professional. we never
heard from, nor talked to john at any time during any process of the
interview. a few words about the tests: the wonderlic test is an i.q. test
in every shape and form. it is not a psycological evaluation. i really
think the only reason they administer it is so that they can say they give
the canidates some kind of test. don't sweat it. i don't think you have to
score very high to pass if they even grade it at all.
the application: here is where my advice will be of use. now listen and
listen well. if you want to work here, get your behind down to the local
continental/continental express ticket counter and pick up an application or
two. fill it out. ok, so you can't turn it in. during the interview you
will have to fill out the one they hand out but you will already have all
the information ready and availible to transfer to the appropriate blanks.
the title of the app will be wrong but every single aspect is exactly the
same otherwise. if you do what i tell you to, you are going to be prepared
and they will respect you for it. don't listen to anyone that says this is
a waste of time. they just don't know nuttin'!
here are a few pointers on the app. the last page is a tear off sheet for
the background check. it has directions on it that say "do not complete
until told to do so." you can fill it out on your practice app or you can
just xerox it and fill out the copies. everything is pretty straightforward
except for the flight time grid. talk about bran deficiencies! this is the
proceedure if you are civilian: (sorry wasn't paying attention for the
military directions) for single engine, group your time by manufacturer
such as cessna, piper, mooney, etc. if you have flown planes by more than 4
companies, group the rest on the last line and call it "other". under multi
engine, you can group the airplanes by cessna 300 series or cessna 400
series for example. all turbine aircraft flown need to be listed by make and
model. no grouping unless you don't have room. i would ask for direction
in the interview if it is a concern. if i remember correctly, the aircraft
commander column is crossed off. under the first pilot column, tally up
your PIC time. under the second pilot column, you will combine your dual
recieved time with your second in comand time. this is one of the few
companies i know of that actually give you credit for dual recieved. pretty
cool. with this information beforehand, you have the power to make this
flight time grid match up with your logbook to the tenth. i am telling you
boys and girls, my advice will save you so much time. one guy i interviewed
with, was sitting there until late into the afternoon trying to get his grid
to work. i had all of my paperwork filled out by 10:30am and yes, it did
match my logbook to the tenth (and they were impressed).
the first intervew: the flight instructor was called for his interview
first. it seemed that we went in alphabetical order. i was second and i
had a one on one with scott larson. lasted less than 30 mins. he was very
curteous and professional. he started by asking about the info on my
application, my previous flying jobs, and how i liked them. all of my
answers were very positive even though i don't necessarily have a likewise
recolection. they just don't want to hear you complain. remember the last
time you flew with a whiner? how much fun was that? i pretty much felt
like i was in charge of the direction of the interview. i started talking
about saftey, judgement, and good decision making skills. now and then he
would interupt me and ask a question or two. sometimes he was looking for
examples. he asked a few h.r. questions. one of the more notable ones went
something like: what would you expect the company to owe you as an employee?
i had prepared three really good answers of which he asked if i had any
more to add. my non committal response was something like i feel these are
the most important to me. i am glad that i answered the way i did, because
he dug really deep into those by asking several questions about each. he
needed examples too. jeez. wanted to know what "availible immedeatly" meant
on my resume. he kept asking if i had any questions. i kept firing them
away at him from a list i made beforehand and during his propaganda speech.
finally, i had to say that i had no more questions. scott said that i would
be returning a little later in the afternoon for a second interview.
about two hours later scott and leanne called me out for my #2. this one
lasted for about what seemed like all of 4 minutes. he and leanne asked
pretty much the same questions as i heard in #1. i suppose they wanted to
hear if the story changed. the only thing that was mildly confrontational,
was that scott picked on me for having only 2 recomendation letters. neither
were from pilots. he wanted to know why. i responded with something like i
requested letters from several of my peers, but did not get them in time for
this meeting. he started to give me hell for that answer so i said, "you
know what, you are absolutely right, i really dropped the ball on that one,
huh?" (pretty sure you will ablsolutely need rec letters to get hired
here.) they looked at each other and asked if either had anything else.
then scott looked at me and offered me a position on the jungle jet. i had
5 days notice from my interview date to the day my groundschool began. they
gave me a packet of info and a ton of directions for what i needed to do
before groundschool. they told me that i wasn't to discuss any of this with
the other candidates. basicly, they told me to sneak out. i found out
later that the herc driver was also hired this day but the flight instructor
was not.
a little more insight: none of us ever said a single word to john dresser.
he was in another room somewhere doing who-knows-what. none of us were asked
a single technical, situational, or regulatory question during our
interviews. nothing, zip, nada. very easy and straight forward. not at
all like the rest of the interviews i read about on these sites. i spent
two months reading the cheryl cage book, studying regs, jepps, and the
systems on the jet i flew. i am not saying it was a waste of time, but it
was a little disappointing that i wasn't able to flex my knowlege a little.
i remember as i walked out thinking, "is this it?!!"
i heard later in groundschool that you need to be on your best behavior at
any time you are talking to anyone from the company or anyone that is
employed at the hotel. one of mr. dresser's little "things" is that he goes
around to all the hotel staff(driver included) and asks if any of the
canidates gave anyone trouble. so, don't irritate anyone and tip the van
guy. cyndy, the woman that calls you to set up the interview is also taking
notes. you had better assume they are watching you when you are in the
rosewood room and it feels like you are unsupervised. there is even a good
posibility that they are videotaping the interviews. i still wonder what
john was doing when i was in the hot seat.
you will see a lot of complainers post on the message boards about how coex
only hires minorities and unexperienced pilots. that is total
misinformation. my groundschool had 8 pilots total. all of us for the jet.
not a single minority, woman, or pfter in our group. all of us white
males. all of us were previous military(all branches and backgrounds)
except myself and one other guy who was in his mid fourties and had a total
time of about 8500 hours(no jet). i was the youngest and lowest time guy in
my class at 28 years of age. the company is looking for a reasonable amount
of experience and good attitude. period. the other details are
inconsequential. they(john dresser himself) told us the first day of indoc
that they hire 1 of every 12 that are interviewed, and of those that are
hired, 93% sucessfully complete training. i don't know about the 1:12
ratio. i really think the odds are(a lot) better than that.
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