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Human Resources Prep

One of the most difficult parts of an airline interview, if not properly prepared, is the HR or Human Resources interview. Because technical questions generally have a right and wrong answer usually easily identifiable these types of questions are easier to answer. An ILS is still an ILS no matter where it is, however, questions like; “what would make you a good crew member” are much harder to answer if you have not prepared and practiced answering these type of questions out loud.

We see many excellent pilots regularly stumble through HR type questions and this problem is easily avoidable. Knowing what your strengths and weaknesses are is the key to effectively communicating during an HR interview.

Common interview errors are stuttering during answers, repeating statements or stalling by repeating the questions.  Pilots also avoid eye contact, move around excessively, and fail to smile. Sometimes pilots get to stressed or self conscious and do not interact during the interview other times the opposite happens, a pilot may be to relaxed and overly talkative with the interviewers and even fail to show proper courtesy or respect for the position the interviewer holds.

Following are some suggestions to remember as you prepare for the HR interview. 1) It is very important to prepare and rehearse. You need to get comfortable talking about yourself out loud. Find someone to practice with. They don’t have to be a pilot, but can give good feedback on your answers. By practicing interviewing you can identify and correct any of the common interview errors listed above, just avoid giving canned answers. 2) Ensure that your answers have positive outcomes, and try to avoid relating or dwelling on anything negative. 3) Don’t talk negatively about previous employers. Remember to be professional. 4) On TMAAT questions (see below) always use examples in which there was a learning experience and that had a happy or positive ending. 5) Conduct yourself with class and dignity. The airline industry is very conservative, and you should be polite and professional at all times.

Personal Profile
This next exercise is designed to help you analyze your strengths and weaknesses as well as establish a basic foundation of who you are. Using a standard 8 ½‘’ x 11’’ blank sheet of paper, draw a full page “Y” in order to create three separate areas. Label the three areas: Facts, Bad, and Good. As you can see in the image below, the page is set up now to be filled up with information about yourself.

Starting with the “Facts” area, fill in your name, age, total flight time, multi time, degrees, awards, certificates and rating held, etc. Continue filling this section with factual information that not only qualifies you for a pilot position but also any other information that relates to your education or personal profile. Do not include any opinionated information in this area, such as, “Good instrument skills”; this sort of statement will be placed in the “Good” section.

Next we deal with the “Bad” stuff section. Everyone has something less than positive in their past. The important thing is to be prepared to talk about it if the subject comes up during an interview. Things like speeding tickets, checkride failures, and termination from a job are some examples of items for the “Bad” section. For this exercise to be successful you have to be absolutely honest with yourself and blunt in your assessment. After identifying any negative history, you need to revisit each event and acknowledge responsibility for it, and what you learned from the event. By writing down this list of negatives you can be sure to address each one by practicing talking about it out loud with someone who can give you constructive responses to your answers. Remember that every “bad” item should be a learning experience and that you should have a positive aspect to your answer even though it may be about a less than positive experience.

Finally, is the “Good” section. Here is where you get to pat yourself on the back. List personal traits or accomplishments that you feel would contribute to your role as an airline pilot. No failed checkrides, gold-seal flight instructor, master’s degree, eagle scout, etc. are all examples of items for the “Good” section. Just like in the “Bad” section, here you must likewise feel comfortable talking about your positive traits. Stammering through a series of questions that present an opportunity to introduce your personal strengths is a result of poor preparation. To avoid this ensure you spend an equal amount of time answering mock interview questions from both the good and the bad sections of your personal survey.

Now that you have completed filling in the entire page you have a good snapshot of your personal strengths and weaknesses and can now truly prepare for a human resources interview.

Airline Pilot Traits and Characteristics

When practicing for an airline interview, you can expect to be asked several questions which all have a common theme, what can you bring to the airline? This next interview prep exercise will help you understand the interviewer’s point of view of what they are looking for in the pilots they hire for their airline. To begin, on a piece of paper make three columns and title them Captain, First Officer, and You. Under the Captain title make a list of traits that you would want your Captain to demonstrate (see below).

As you can see we have started a short Captain list for you. Continue to add your own ideas to the Captain list. Once the Captain column is completed, copy it underneath the First Officer column. Finally, copy all the items from the Captain column to the You column. The Captain column is what an airline interviewer is looking for in the pilots they hire. Airlines don’t hire First Officers, they are hire future Captains. Review all the traits you listed and think of examples of how you demonstrate these traits. Then practice out loud with a friend answering questions like “what can you bring to our airline?”, and incorporate these traits into your answers.

Preparation Guidline

The following areas are a general reference of topics to prepare for during an HR interview. Though each airline has its own specific course of questions these are among the most common areas that most airlines will inquire about in one way or another.

• Orientation

• Logbook Review

• Personal Questions

• Training Questions

• What Would You Do Questioins (WWYD)

• Tell Me About A Time Questions (TMAAT)

• Crew Resorce Management (CRM)

More comming Soon!