received an e-mail about 5 and a half months after completing the online application and questionnaire (psych test) inviting me to complete a video interview within 5 days. It is pre-recorded so you can complete it any time. (the e-mail went directly into my junk/spam folder so be careful of this afterwards I saved it as a VIP contact, so I received a distinct ring tone anytime a future correspondence came along.
American Airlines Video Interview:
Locate a quiet well lite area; be mindful of your backdrop and any background sounds.
I worn a suit and practiced recording myself with the webcam to be mindful of mannerisms and quirks.
They read each question twice, then allow you 60 seconds to respond, once started, you have 3 mins to answer, the start and stop time can be controlled by you if you want to start or finish early.
Questions:
1. Why do you want to work at American and what do you know about its history and culture?
2. Tell me some of the negatives and positives about working for American?
3. TMAAT the last time you had to start as a new hire pilot and how you learn about it’s culture, operations, and how they deal with passengers?
4. This question the voice reads off the details of an approach plate and then had to read it back. (I wrote on postit and posted them next to the camera so it didn't look too obvious that I was reading it back)
LOC 31 Freeport dated 3 Mar 2014, LOC freq 110.3 Inbound course 312, FAF Ducky 1600' min crossing altitude, MDA 360', Runway 31 TDZE 44', MAP at .3 DME, MAP instructions: Climb to 1000', then climbing right turn to 3000' to freeport VOR and hold, MSA 2,500', 1/2 vis, Med intensity approach lighting with a PAPI (on left side), notes DME or Radar required.
5. TMAAT when you experience an operational delay and had to explain it to someone?
6. Describe some of the conversations you have had with people when you have talked about becoming a pilot at American
Response: On the forums it can take anywhere from 7-21 days to receive a response e-mail from American. This e-mail will redirect you to log into pilotcredentials and when you go to the Pilot Info tab, a newer tab called additional info will appear at the bottom. They request your SSN and DOB. Once that has been submitted it takes exactly 2 weeks to hear back about an interview (My notification e-mail arrived at 23:59 on the last day).
Interview: They usually give 2-3 weeks, but in some cases less (I had 8 days). They will positive space you from an airport of your choosing down to DFW. They will put you up at the LaQuinta DFW South, and provide shuttle service to and from the activities. There were 20 of us broken up into two groups for the first day, we all seemed to met in the lobby an hour before show time to catch the shuttle to the AA Academy. (5 Military, 5 Regionals Pilots)
Clothing for day one is business Casual, most of us wore a button down dress suit, dress pants, black shoes (No ties or jackets). There is a cafeteria with Starbucks coffee if you arrive early.
First they collect all your documents and log books (you get all but the logs back the first day). Then you hear over to the computer room for the 3+ hour cognitive testing.
Dots
Patterns and Focus
Math Q’s (simple but can’t use paper and pen – add, subtract, multiply, divide)
Cubes and Joy Stick
Memory Items
Color Testing
Examples:
1. dot going around a circle, when it skips hit a button (25 mins of this, same slow speed, stay focused, I counted each one, and started over after a skip)
2. complex patterns - 3x3 grid with one block missing - have to figure out the pattern and choose the right
solution from 6 possible squares
(patterns are fairly complex, found that half the solution is left to right, and the other half of the same problem is up and down)
3. math - complex problems like 2?4?6?8?9=34, you have to put in the correct sign in order to make the function equal out, (+,-,x,/) keep in mind there are repeated signs and multiplication and division always goes first, some of them are fairly complex (16?8?19?714=52)
4. dots and squares - dots popping up all over the screen, when they create a square you hit a button
(once again focus, this goes on for 10-15mins, do not focus on one corner of the screen, I put my seat back to try and concentrate on the entire screen at once)
5. lights, beeps and colors – This is the fun one, you have a custom keyboard in front of you, there are 5 colored circles (blue, red, white, yellow, green), right below that are 2 long bars (one on top of the other), and you have 2 rudder petals. When a color flashes, you hit that color, when you hear a high or low tone on the headphones you hit the corresponding high or low bar, when you see the left or right rudder petal block turn from black to white, you hit that rudder… goes faster and faster until you start missing them, then slows back down, designed to take you repeatedly to failure.
6. pie in the sky - inverted triangle moves around and you have to keep it centered over a green-T. This one is difficult to explain, you have two joysticks, left controls the “flying pie” left and right, the right joystick controls front and back motion as well as the bank of the pie, (think left hand rudder, right hand stick) you must line up the pie in the center of the upside down green “T”. As you get better, the “wind” gets stronger and changes rapidly (once again, taking you to failure and back)
7. matching cube designs - you seen 3 sides of a cube and have to choose the option that matches plus the
4th side
(this is dimensional orientation at it’s best, pay attention to minor details such as pattern angles within each cube, I didn’t find this too challenging.
8. maps - they flash a city map with POIs on the screen for 5 sec, then the symbols disappear and it asked
you where to find certain Pols. This was my worst activity, they start out small with 2 or 3 points of interest (i.e. find the airport), then they jump to 8 or so items all over the place.
Day 2: Interviews:
Remember that you are checking out of the hotel on your way to the interview, they have a place for your bags there.
Most of us showed up in the usual attire: Black/Dark Blue Suit, White shirt, Black shined shoes and tie (solid color navy blue/maroon) The escorted us to the Museum and had a short meet and greet with System Chief Pilots and DFW Base Chiefs. There were all very friendly and did their best to try and relax us. They had coffee and water there as well. One by one we were escorted to the pilot on pilot interview (one Capt and one FO) with you. They were very relaxed and you could tell this was just to see if your personality jived with theirs. Here were the questions I remember:
What do you do in your free time?
What do find are the best qualities of an airline pilot?
What does you friends and family think of you applying to American?
Tell me about a time you had a conflict with another crewmember
Tell me a time when you dealt with a disgruntled passenger
Tell me a time where you had to make a difficult/complex decision
How do you motivate you crew after a long day?
T ell me a time when you had to go above and beyond
Tell me a time when you dealt with an emergency
Tell me a time when you had to work with someone you don’t like
Tell me a time when you were task saturated and had to ask for help
Tell me a time that you called out Fatigued
In your logbook, is there any PIC time that you logged while sitting in the right seat?
Tell me how you make apologies to the passengers
Tell me what would you do when a Captain flew and unstable approach? And did this ever happen to you?
Most of these questions where followed back a back and forth discussion, again, they didn’t so much care about the outcome, but rather how you deal with things, decision process, and personality. I can out feeling great, really good group of people who are very excited about the direction of their company.
We then went back to the coffee station to await our HR interview, this was about a 15-30 minute wait, they then called us one by on. This was a one on one interview to mainly clarify any questions about you application and resume, they restated that they are hiring for both companies (AA and US), and that if we are ok with either. I then had a few HR questions:
Tell me a time you made an unpopular decision?
Do you find authoritative commands are better than coercion to get a task accomplished?
Tell me a time when you dealt with a displeased passenger?
My first interview maybe lasted 45-60 mins, second one maybe 15min. Then back to pick up our bags. The lady at the desk was awesome; she already checked us into our flights and gave us our boarding passes. We then headed to the airport and awaited the next step.
Next step: the next day, I received several e-mails about a background check, link to the website to re-enter my 10 year history for the third party background check.
12 days after my interview I received the call… invitation to join the Company, with more information to follow… Good luck! |
