I interviewed at one of the SkyWest Pilot Recruitment Events. The ads for the event online said that if you wanted to interview at the event, submit an application beforehand and bring a copy of your resume and logbooks to the interview. I submitted an application via the skywest.com website, and two days later received a phone call from Utah inviting me to an interview in Denver. I told them that I’d be going to the Recruiting Event in just a few days, so they scheduled my interview for the event. Once I was formally scheduled for the interview, they emailed me the list of documents to bring (stuff in addition to just the resume and logbooks as noted earlier; radio license, FAA First Class med, social security card, passport, etc.) and the list of books to read to prepare for the interview.
There were about 10 people who showed up to the Recruitment Event, and of those 10 at least 6 had full-on interviews (some that had been scheduled beforehand like me, and some who showed up to the event without a specific interview invitation but who were able to interview anyway). Very diverse group of people in the interview group; one active 121 pilot from a Central American airline who was looking to shift to working in the US, a pilot from a 135 outfit in Hawaii, one former military pilot/Comair,/Net Jets pilot who’d been out of the regionals for a decade working for a startup charter company, one 135 sightseeing pilot from Vegas, and me (the retiring military dude coming off 3 years of a non-flying desk job). I didn’t catch the full backgrounds of all the rest of the guys, but a couple of them didn’t have ATP or R-ATP mins yet. For those guys, both of them had full-on interviews, but I don’t know how the company is going to handle them — from the informal discussion in between interview events, I got the impression that if they were hired, they’d simply be given class dates that were far enough down the road for them to get to ATP mins before starting class.
The day started with the typical 30-minute presentation about SkyWest, given by 3 locally-based Captains. All three were enthusiastic about their jobs and SkyWest, but were also surprisingly candid about the company, about the state of the regional industry, and about how that is impacting their pilot interviewing and hiring. They admit they’re having no-shows to both interviews and training dates, and that the quantity of applicants is decreasing. They seem to be actively trying to fight “lowering the bar” so far as who they’re offering jobs to, and as such the company is focusing on grabbing as many of the most qualified and motivated applicants they can — they seem to be a little SWA-ish in that they value positive motivation and attitude, and that they’re hiring for personality. They indicated that minor trip-ups in the interview were going to be overlooked if the person had the right attitude and would be a good company fit.
After the presentation, the Captains discussed the formal interview process, and how it would be handled at the Recruitment Events (as they didn’t have the time/people/infrastructure to give the full interview there). They did not formally administer the 50-question ATP “clicker test”, but in the 1-on-1 part of the interview they had a printout of one of the tests and were working questions from it into the technical interview. Regarding the Frasca sim, they indicated that people they interviewed at the Recruitment Events wouldn’t all be required to go schedule a sim later, but they’d determine need on a case-by-case basis. They said folks who didn’t give particularly strong performances in the technical interview and lower time multi folks would likely get scheduled for a sim, and if that happened that’s all they’d have to do in SLC or DEN (no repeating any other portions of the interview). Same thing went for the CRM portion. They did not have enough time/people to do full CRM exercises, so in my 1-on-1 the Captain and I role-played two minor CRM situations (one, how I’d handle encountering a line of T-storms enroute from DFW to SFO, and second how I’d handle an engine failure in flight).
So, the “formal” portion of the interview started with the blank sheet of white paper and: 1) Draw a jet engine, 2) 91.175 descent out of DH/MDA requirements, and 3) Draw your most complicated aircraft’s electrical system. As has been stated, they want you to be as detailed as possible, label as much of it as possible, and that the drawings would form part of the discussion in the 1-on-1 technical portion.
As has been reported many times, the interview content was exactly as reported in previous reports. In fact, the three Captains who were conducting the interviews mentioned more than once that they were EXPECTING applicants to have taken the time and initiative to find/read/study the gouge, and that they looked favorably on such initiative (and not favorably on folks who hadn’t taken the initiative to prepare like that).
My 1-on-1 lasted about an hour. It started with a quick review of my resume and job history, and then the times were compared with my logbook. I brought a printout of a digital logbook (spiral bound at FedEx Office for about $5) and they were happy with the details. Since I am not in a current flying job, the Capt specifically wanted to find my last BFR, last IPC, my 30-day, 90-day, and 1-year hours lookback. For some reason the summary of hours in each aircraft type that I submitted in my online application didn’t make it out to them, so we spent a bit talking about the hours breakdown in each of the aircraft I’ve flown.
Discussions of the drawing were straighforward; what kind of engine, describe the components front-to-back (I discussed a few things specific to the military fighter engine I drew, like the afterburner), and then had me describe the airflow through the engine and what each section did. What do the stators do…what’s the difference between the N1 and the N2…how and where is pressure measured in the engine…what is bypass air and what is the benefit…where are the ignitors…how is ignition in the combustion chamber sustained…where is the accessory section…how does the starter work (how does an air-start work). From there it was on to the 91.175 discussion. About all he asked here was about if the 100-foot restriction from the Approach Lighting was measured from field elevation or TDZE, but we also briefly discussed what the ALSFs looked like, and what the other instrument runway lighting looked like. On to the electrical system drawing; although I drew a good flowchart, I didn’t label all of the volts/amps of each of the systems, especially in the DC system, so we talked about each of those.
From there, the rest of the HR questions and tech questions were all exactly from the previously-reported gouge. I won’t repeat all of it — it has all ready been said before, so go read that stuff. I think because of my single-seat military background, he asked me several times about CRM, how I’d handle various situations (weather delays, mechanical issues, etc) to gauge my knowledge of including FAs, dispatch, ACARS, etc, into the decision-making. As mentioned, he had me talk through the two CRM scenarios from above, but we also discussed checklist and memory item execution in a 2-pilot environment, PF/PNF responsibilities, and he had me brief him an approach as if we were flying it as a crew during the Jepp portion.
For the Jepp review, we looked at the ILS 16 to RNO and the Skywest-only Silver ILS 16. I was stumped as to why the ceiling and vis requirement for the standard ILS were so big (7 miles vis, 4000’-something HAT), and I assumed it was because of the terrain. That’s partially true — it is apparently because of the climb gradient for the missed approach, and the Silver ILS has lower mins because it assumes a steeper climb gradient for the missed.
Other than that, all pretty standard stuff that’s been reported and repeated before. Based on their attitude about gouge, I wouldn’t expect them to throw in any curve-balls unless someone is showing serious deficiencies in knowledge, so study up on what’s here and elsewhere and you should be fine. For any USAF folks, I’d say this was one of the easier orals I’ve had compared to the instrument checks I’ve had in the fighter/trainer world. Even the TMAAT questions were sort of woven into other conversations, so I didn’t really have the opportunity (or need, to be honest) to set up and execute the stories I’d prepared and practiced per the interview prep guidance. |
