Hiring insights from a regional airline recruiter
Appleton, Wisconsin-based Air Wisconsin has been an airborne fixture in the Midwestern skies for more than 35 years. Recently, after a long series of ups and downs, AWAC can now boast that it transports nearly 4 million passengers annually to some 44 destinations on a fleet of Dornier DO-328 turboprops, Canadair CRJ-200 regional jets, and the four-engine BAE-146 jets.
Unlike some regional airlines that have adjusted hiring minimums up and down depending on the market, AWAC has for the most part adhered to major airline hiring criteria that includes 1,500 hours of total flight time and 500 hours of multiengine time. However, this company seems to attract the seasoned professional aviator. The "average" new hire tallies 4,600 hours of total flight time, at least 3,000 hours of multiengine experience, and around 2,000 hours of turbine time. It is estimated that 60 percent of the new pilots at AWAC come from other regional carriers, and almost everyone has some turbine time. Many flying professionals obviously consider a transition to the airline a move up rather than a lateral one.
Air Wisconsin operates a hub-and-spoke structure with bases at Appleton, Chicago, and Denver. Denver is the largest base with nearly 300 pilots; Chicago is the most junior base with about 125 pilots; Appleton, the most senior base, hosts some 100 pilots.
Although the industry is still quite volatile, AWAC hopes to expand its fleet by adding more RJs and hiring pilots. One estimate calls for recruiting up to 300 pilots annually. Kevin LeWare, vice president of operations, noted that the attrition rate is running about 25 percent, and the number of senior pilot retirements over the next few years will be increasing. According to AIR, Inc., Air Wisconsin has 60 CRJ-200s on order, with deliveries expected at about three per month through 2003.
So, how can someone lock down a job with this airline?
Amy Kienast is a seasoned pilot recruiter who has spent a good part of her career at Air Wisconsin passing judgment on potential pilot employees. Most recently a hiring representative for Spirit Airlines, she has parlayed that experience into a consulting business aimed specifically at helping new professionals survive the selection and interview process at regional airlines.
During the rah-rah hiring days of 1999 to 2001, Kienast and her staff would schedule up to seven interviews per day to fill a new-hire class that typically included 25 to 30 pilots.
Pilot applicant r�sum�s may be faxed to AWAC's Midwest recruiting office (920/749-4233); e-mailed [email protected]; or mailed to W6390 Challenger Drive Suite 203, Appleton, Wis. 54914-9120. However, Kienast says, "Recommendations and referrals from employees are very important to AWAC, and the company does place a high priority on those recommendations....AWAC pilots are very careful about making recommendations and, if an Air Wisconsin flight officer says so-and-so is a good bet, that generally turns out to be true."
But, before the invitation for the formal evaluation is extended, a screening telephone interview is conducted.
"The percentage of pilots making it to a new-hire class after the evaluation process in Appleton is quite high," Kienast says. "That's because the hiring criteria is also high, requiring some fairly substantial flight experience. Additionally, a recruiter can determine a lot about the applicant in the screening telephone interview."
During the telephone interview, "the recruiter wants to determine if the individual is qualified and understands the requirements of the job. There is also a need to determine salary expectations and how mobile the person is. If compensation expectations are too high or the applicant [cannot locate] to one of the company domiciles, it just does not make sense to proceed further. This process is a huge time- and money-saver for the company."
The telephone interview is oriented toward initial qualification, inaccuracies in the r�sum�, discovering dishonesty, and addressing past problems. From this discussion, the recruiter can form some initial impressions. Kienast continues, "We can really tell a lot about applicants simply by the way that they answer questions. Are they articulate? Can they express themselves coherently and with some level of enthusiasm? If they come off sounding like duds, they simply would not be invited into the next phase. Communications skills are so important in the early stages of the evaluation process."
As a side note, Kienast agrees with some advice that has been dispensed in this column: Change your answering machine greeting if it is goofy! "If I am attempting to get in contact with a potential pilot, and I hear some sophomoric, immature greeting, I will scratch that person off the list! Likewise, get rid of any suggestive e-mail address. To me, this is a judgment issue, and this shows poor judgment."
After the telephone interview the applicant may be invited to either the Appleton corporate headquarters or Denver, where interviews are also conducted. There, the applicant faces four stages in the selection process: a general interview with a personnel representative like Kienast; a technical interview with company pilots; a short aviation quiz; and a simulator evaluation. These four phases may come in any order.
The interview day starts at 9 a.m. For the first 90 minutes or so, applicants receive an overview of the day along with information on the company such as history, plans, benefits, pay, scheduling, etc.
When the recruit sat across the table from Kienast, the number-one quality she always looked for was "communication skills." Kienast says: "The question I've always asked myself is, 'Would I want to sit in a winged closet for hours at a time with this individual?' Personality and corporate fit are always important. Decisionmaking, conflict resolution, and judgment skills are also key areas." As one of Kienast's colleagues has said, "Everybody we interview can fly an airplane, but not everyone has a good personality or a great attitude."
For personality, Kienast would ask questions like, 'What kind of people do you like to work with? What characteristics do you look for in a company? What kind of working environment do you feel most comfortable with?' But a lot of it is based on a true gut feeling about this person, she said frankly. "How did the applicant enter the room? Did the prospect seem professional? Were good questions asked? Reputation is also important. In many instances, pilots had been hired previously from such-and-such a company, and they were great. So, I would figure that this particular individual might shine for AWAC, too."
A college degree is not a vital consideration to Air Wisconsin. "A college degree is like icing on the cake," says Kienast. "In a competitive hiring environment, it certainly can set an applicant apart from the others. But, candidly, it is the flight experience and personality that AWAC looks for. Now, if a person chooses to earn a college degree, great. But, it really does not matter what the area of concentration. It might make the best sense to major in an area that will serve the individual if flying has to be put aside due to medical or economic reasons. What a college degree really says to an airline, and that is any college degree, is that this individual has shown a commitment to a long-term goal."
A short aeronautical quiz based on FAR 121 flying involves only 10 multiple-choice questions and generally takes fewer than 15 minutes to complete. The purpose of the quiz is to give the flight department some idea of what level the pilot is operating at, so they are looking for some correlation between the quiz results and the level of experience listed on the r�sum�.
The flight interview is normally conducted with the chief pilot and a line pilot. Questioning about the pilot's flying career and some situational questions is standard fare in this phase. As the AWAC chief pilot says, "The type of things they ask tells me a lot about the person. We also want the pilot to have enough information about working for us to make a quick decision if we offer a job." Simulator evaluations in Denver have taken place in a Frasca 141 device that the company has rented locally. In Appleton, the company has used an Elite simulator set up like a King Air.
The hiring team meets at the end of the day to decide who will be offered a job. Offers for a specific class date usually occur within two days, with the offer typically made for the next class.
Kienast's suggestions for young pilots aiming for the airlines? "Get involved in the industry early through part-time jobs and extracurricular activities involving aviation, attend industry conventions and read industry publications, and network. Many times, it is a case of whom you know."
This, then, is what an Air Wisconsin hopeful can expect. Anyone headed for a regional airline can anticipate essentially the same theme with some variations. Good luck!
Wayne Phillips is an airline transport pilot with a Boeing 737 type rating and is a designated pilot examiner in Colorado. He is a speaker for the AOPA Air Safety Foundation. E-mail Amy Kienast at [email protected].
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