The interview process, overall, was a great experience. There are several steps in the process and I have completed the first two steps.
- The first step was the Video Interview. I was invited to take part in that on Nov 26, 2018. That consisted of sitting in front of my computer/iPad/etc (I used my computer) and recording myself answering 8 questions. I will be honest, this was the "hardest" part of the whole process thus far. There is something unnatural about looking at yourself while talking to yourself on the computer. I did not feel comfortable doing it. The questions I received were the following - I am not sure if everyone gets the same ones.
1) Please conduct full self-resume review. Please touch on reasons for leaving each employer.....
2) If you could change one thing about your role and/or company, what would it be?
3) Tell us about a time when you overcame an obstacle on the job.
4) How much multi-engine fixed-wing time do you have, if any? If so, please specify which type.....
5) How many flight hours do you have in the last 12 months?
6) Have you ever had ANY type of training or checkride failures?
7) Have you ever had any accidents, incidents, or violations? If so, how many, what were the circumstances?
8) Of the 5 JetBlue core values besides Safety, which one would your family and friends say best represents you?
You have 2 attempts at each question. So, if you feel the need, you can re-record your answer. I did on most of them just to make the answers more fluid. Like I mentioned above, it is not as easy as it sounds. You have between 3 - 10 minutes to answer each question depending on the specific question. For instance, the resume review gave me 10 min and the Accident, Incident, and Training or Checkride failures questions were 10 min (I think). I never came close on the time limit on any of the questions so I can't say whether or not you get the exact amount of time. I know someone else mentioned that you don't actually get the completed allotted amount of time. The time started as soon as I pressed record. I do not recall a time limit between when the question was shown to me and when I Had to start the recording. I would practice the answers before trying to record them. You do not have to finish the video interview in one sitting. I had 168 hours to submit the recording upon receipt of the email invitation.
After submitting the video interview, I was sent an email with an attachment that contained some followup questions - A Flight History Addendum. I am not sure if they were directed at my specific answers or if everyone received the request. It essentially was a flight history form requesting me to explain my job, training, and checkride history. In full disclosure, I did have a failure to talk about in the video and the instructions on the the form requested much more detail.
On Dec 10th, I received an email informing me that I had moved on to the next part of the process which was a Face 2 Face interview. It also contained the General Application Packet which included a detailed list of everything you needed to bring with you for the interview as well as travel request forms.
On Dec 27th, I received an email inviting me to participate in the Face 2 Face interview. The email contains a link that you access. In that link are interview date and time choices to chose from. NOTE that these are first come, first serve. So, as soon as you get the email, open it and select your date and time. My invitation was for the interviews that were being held in Orlando on January 15 & 16. However, I was flying over the ocean at the time the email came and and by the time I get into WiFi range, accessed the email, and tried to chose my date and time, all of the options were gone for those interview days. So, I had to wait for a followup email inviting me to the February 26 & 27 interviews held in NYC. When that email came, I chose the first day and first time slot - 26th at 0930.
I flew up on JetBlue (they provide a positive space round trip ticket via the Travel Request form included in the Gen App packet) the morning prior to my interview. Look at your flight confirmation when you get it. When I received mine, they had me booked for January 25th & 26th travel instead of the February 25th & 26th travel dates I requested. They quickly fixed the oops when I pointed it out to them.
The Face 2 Face interview was great. Here is what it consisted of........ Keep in mind, mine was held at their NYC HQ so the process may be slightly different at the MCO location.
- Check In
- Turn In Paperwork
- Fingerprinting
- Logbook submission
- 2 on 1 Interview
- Exit Interview
- Computer Assessment
I showed up about 10 min early and checked in. I waited a few minuets until it was my turn to turn in all of my paperwork. A very nice young lady went through my paperwork, took what she needed, and gave the rest back to me for disbursement throughout the process. After that, I sat back down on the couch and chatted with a few fellow applicants. Within a few minutes, I was whisked back to a holding room where I waited for my fingerprinting and to hand over my PRIA forms. After that I was sent to the "safe room" where I also handed over my logbooks for review. The "safe room" is where you are taken in between the different stages of the interview process. It is also where you can freely ask questions about anything you want to know about JetBlue. They say you aren't being interviewed in this room but try to stay in the frame of mind that someone is always watching. As soon as I dropped off my logbooks, I was taken to the 2 on 1 interview with a JetBlue Captain and a Talent Acquisition person. The two that I had were funny and they made me laugh. It was actually a fun experience. My butterflies immediately went away as soon as we started talking. This is the part where they ask you a series of questions. I think I remembered all of the questions but I can't be positive. My questions consisted of:
1) Tell us about your resume. They have a copy of it in front of them.
2) TMAAT you witnessed someone doing something unsafe and what you did about it.
3) TMAAT you used your technical knowledge to solve a problem.
4) Why do you want to leave your current job?
5) TMAAT that a difference in culture was part of a problem and what you did about it.
6) TMAAT that something did not go the way you wanted it to go (that isn't the exact question but it was something along those lines.
7) Will you have a problem with commuting?
8) Of the 5 JetBlue core values, TMAAT you applied Fun while at work. I would have a specific story that you can use for EACH of the 5 values. I knew all of the values and could talk about them all. But, I was a little thrown off when asked about a specific value for Fun. I had stories that I could apply to the other 4 easily but Fun was the one I didn't want and, of course, I got. I ended coming up with a specific story but it took a min.
After the interview, they ask if you have any questions for them.
After the 2 on 1 interview, I was taken back to the Safe Room, picked up my logbooks and tried to sit down and recover. However, as soon as I got my logbooks, I was taken to another room for the Exit Interview. This is where they ask you about Training, Accidents, Incidents, etc. It was very relaxed in this interview as well. I was asked:
1) Walk us through your job experience - They have a copy of your resume in there as well
2) Why JB
3) They ask about your training / checkride failure(s). If you have any, what did you learn from the experience.
4) Do you have an Accidents, Incidents, or Violations / Enforcement Actions from the accidents or incidents?
- When they are done, they ask if you have any questions about the process or anything in general
After the exit interview, I was taken back to the Safe Room where I sat down to take part in the Q&A session. However, after only about 2 minutes, I was taken downstairs to the computer assessment room. I will be honest, this was not fun. It took my about 2 hours to complete. It consisted of the following:
1) Strongly Agree, Agree, Don't Care, Don't Agree, Strongly Don't Agree type of questions. LOTS of them
2) A multi tasking exercise where you had a small cockpit display, a small windscreen, and two boxes under the display. Here, you had to focus on the windscreen to see what was passing by as the airplane flew, watch the instruments, watch for lights to come on and off, listen to nav instructions (you don't actually fly this simulator), answer multiple choice questions - math, grammar, etc, and in the other box, manipulate an airplane with up/down arrow keys to keep it from hitting objects as they pass the airplane. After doing all of that, you then answer a series of questions about what you saw, heard, etc as you watched the airplane panel and window. When you finish answering the questions, you do it all a second time. The second time went much smoother.... still not good though
3) Then you go through another series of tests..... Which of the four objects isn't the same as the others, what does this shape look like when rotated, algebra math problems, grammar , word association, and other crazy stuff
4) More Q&A questions like the Strongly Agree, Agree, Don't Care, Don't Agree, Strongly Don't Agree type of questions. Also some two level questions like which one do you like and how strongly do you like it.
5) Flight simulator test using a gaming joystick and the computer screen. Basically you fly straight and level at constant altitude & AS using a HUD. Then you repeat the exercise except you fly a course instructed to you over the earphones. When you complete that, you answer a series of questions.
- Just like all the others have said, I felt like I failed miserably after the computer assessment. And to make matters worse, after finishing step 3 of the assessment, the computer froze and wouldn't upload my results. So, I had to repeat step 3 I mentioned above and to me, that was the hardest part.
All in all, it was a great experience. I actually wanted to hang around and socialize with everyone after the process was done. But, my mind was blown and I had a flight to catch. Everyone, and I mean everyone, made you feel extremely welcome and mad you feel like you were wanted. In reality, I think it is a get to know you process more than an interview. Although I never really got to experience the Safe Room to "recover" after each step, I still enjoyed it. That was just how my day turned out. The lady who took me around even commented that I had not had time in the safe room like everyone else. But I didn't mind it. I did talk to guys who got to spend quality time in there to decompress and get questions answered.
I was told that I would find out if I made it to the next part of phase one in two weeks. And, after that, it could be several weeks before I process through Phase 2 and into the pool for the next class date. |
