First an online assessment and IQ test, very good screening process, if you pass you will be selected for the interview. The actual interview did not follow the rigid style of the online assessment test. Very relaxed and casual. In my opinion first part of screening is good and through, 2nd part is an absolute waste of time. There is no formal interview. You are in a group setting, and are given a random question; typical questions are; tell me about a time when.. Standard airline questions. Nothing new.
VA is catering to a yuppie crowed, it is not a low cost airlines. VA company pilot profile; are younger techno type guys mid 30ties, good looking, preferably liberal attitude and minority.
Their screening process is very poor since they hire less than 20% of the applicants; this becomes a huge waste of man hours. Overall though if you are successful it seem to be a cool place to work at.
Date Interviewed: January 2010
Summary of Qualifications:
ATP, 8000TT 4500 JetPIC mostly CRJ time
Were you offered the job?
No
Pilot Interview Profile:
Best part about the day was a nice lunch provided by the company. Had a very nice sandwich with chips and some salad of some sort.
Interview was at a hotel near HQ because "HQ was so full with everything going on". Interview team was about 30 minutes late. Introduced themselves and told us about the company and the job. Passed out paper with a question to each of us and we took turns answering in front of the group. Then broke for lunch, did I mention the lunch was great?
After lunch took a short written test in the hotel lobby, two versions of it. There was a lot of looking at other peoples papers by everyone, but it was not very hard. Some basic ATP stuff.
As we are taking the test two teams of two are calling people in for the interviews. Standard TMAAT stuff. I found the interview team to be disinterested in my answers and borderline rude. They seemed like they could not wait to finish so they could play with their crackberries and text their buddies.
All in all a waste of a day, only 2 out 12 got hired I think, and while they have cool lighting in their planes, they could not even bother to offer a pass for us to come interview. But, I did get a nice lunch, so I guess not a bad day after all!
Asked to meet at the Sheriton Burlingame as the group was larger than normal (12).. there was two former ATA, a former Aloha, Air Wisconsin 10 year CA, 2 Mesa Check Airman, 1 USAir East, 2 Skybus, 1 American Eagle CA.
We met at 815 on the 4th floor at a conference room. It was about a 10 minute casual meet and greet with the Director of Ops, System CP, and Head of HR pilot recruitment, as well as a line Check Airman. Paperwork was collected by HR lady and then we all took a conference table and were handed a paper with a single question on it.. we then went around the table and were first asked to a)Why Virgin, and b)answer the question on the card we got.. some were "tell me how you would deal with stress in the cockpit" or "When have you had to divert" etc.... these were answered in front of the group.
We then broke off into two groups.. one group interviewed with the CP the other with HR/Check Airman.. all questions were situational and only minimally tapped on technical topics if at all. There was no airbus specific questions to those with Airbus time. We then broke for lunch half way thru the interviews which was very nice, catered by the hotel with iced tea and high quality sandwiches and salad.
After lunch we finished off the rest of the interviews and did a quick tour of the HQ facility which is with in a short walk of the hotel. The facility was quite impressive for being a new and small airline and you could tell they were gearing up for growth and had sufficient support staff.
Upgrade times were estimated at between 1 and 1.5 years and based strictly on seniority. Crew base was currently only SFO but others (likely in the east) are in the works.
All information found on WFFF is accurate, be yourself. Read the Cage consultant book, Checklist for Success, Great information about discovering your aviation stories and how to present those stories accurately. This is the type of interview Virgin will conduct and this is the type of applicant Virgin is seeking. No butt-kissing, hand stroking you guys are the greatest BS. Virgin wants to know you and whether or not your personality will be conducive for their operation.
After a month of submitting the on-line application I received an email from Laura Ferguson (Virgin HR) Laura is professional and can see right through the BS if you attempt it. I then took an on-line customer service survey for Virgin, consists of about 100 questions. A week or so after the test received an E-mail from Laura stating they would like to schedule an interview in SFO at their headquarters. Laura’s assistant will e-mail you (about a week prior) details and forms that must be completed before your interview, FAA records release, driving and drug test forms (one needs to be notarized).
Stayed at the Sheraton Gateway for $90.00, bucks walking distance to VA, they give you all the details with hotels and directions. The rooms at the Sheraton are great regardless of the hotel construction.
Interview consisted of group discussion with the Chief pilot, check airman and Laura. Starts with an hour of who Virgin is and they allow an open door for you to voice your questions. Of the group we where all asked why VA? After we answered why VA we all had a question of, “tell me about a time when.” After the group discussion we where asked to head to the break room, each applicant was called in for an independent interview. They fired off questions and reviewed my logbook.
Tell me about a time when you met and exceeded customer service expectations? Tell me about a time when you had to improve crew moral? Tell me about a time when you broke company policy? Tell me about when you diverted, what went right and wrong? Tell me about any aviation type association with whom you are involved? A few questions about my current employer, logbook and airplane, nothing you should have to study for.
Overall very good impression of VA, they are really looking at enthusiastic, customer service oriented folks as they are. Towards the end of the day I felt relaxed and really wanted the job. Regardless of all the negative comments in the aviation forms, the compensation, moral, employee-employer relation appears to be better than most carriers. Good luck!
Awesome company, with a good business plan and financing. Having said that, the postings below are very accurate; except, that my group of five did a group interview consisting of what you like and dislike about your present employer, why Virgin America and a situational question. No small group problem solving occured. The situational question format they are lookin for is similar to what Southwest looks for, i.e. in the format of situation, action, result. As with most interviews, they are looking for a positive outcome or learning from the situation.
After a small break, the individual interviews with a check airman and the HR gal, Laura Ferguson. Laura carries 95% percent of the vote as I found out earlier. My interview with the Check Airman - Mike McInerny (sp?) went extremely well. Once he'd asked about my "Glass" experience and I explained my background with the airlines in the 767/757 and my present position as a checkairman in a glass cockpit aircraft; he apparently was pleased with my reply. The remainder of the interview with him was more social. They do say, that they are very interested in who you are and getting to know you - very informal.
The interview with Laura went well; but, she is very unreadable. I was de-briefed a day later by a different check airman who was hired by Laura a year ago and he said the same thing. Laura did ask a few more questions about disregarding policy/rules and my background.
Both interviewers were interested in my availability in terms of notice. They are in extreme need of jet pilots with glass experience that can upgrade to captain in six months. I relayed to both of them that based on my personal situation, I was avialable immediately as I'd already given a months notice to my present employer. As mentioned in the postings below, they ask for you to resign from any present jobs and any recall rights. Rumor has it that a few of their startup pilots had held on to their previous jobs and were later let go. Additionally, one friend of mine may have not been hired due to his not convincing them he would resign his recall rights to a legacy carrier.
