publius

They are just over-suspicious and obsessed with the background, training history, and legal questions. The reason is that I think they are still under the radar of the FAA because of the crashed B767 in 2019. Their HR representative is like a detective searching for a discrepancy or a lie... I am more suspicious about them than they are of me. They are not looking for pilots only or hiring them, they want the FAA to see how they are selecting their pilots. They also want people to fill out an independent application form per the FAA's request. The HR interview is going on like someone from the FAA is watching and listening to all conversations secretly. You can conclude it from their nervousness. It's easy to smell that and it's irritating for someone who has experience and a clean record.

dera

da fuq are you talking about?

publius

Man, that was the case for me. I am not local, maybe this could be the reason. I was asked a couple of times, `Is there anything you would like to share?``Are you sure?` `If you don't share, our company is going to be doing a background check anyway before we come with the job offer.` blah blah. What should I have said when my record is clean?
Sorry, but I crashed my B747 with another B747 in Tenerife in 1977?

Reactivity

The people doing the hiring at Atlas know that a "clean record" is not a per se indication of competence. The guy who crashed didn't have that many (if any - I don't remember all of the details) failures on his record. He had a habit of quitting before reaching the point of failure, and then he lied about it all later. We only know the details of his experience now due to the research done after the fact.

publius

That does not clarify being over-suspicious about someone they do not know. There are always better ways of finding out people in HR, and their way of doing it is not one of the best. They are extremely over-suspicious and highly stressed on the HR side. and we all know why is that.

Elevation

We're not the airline for you. Perhaps other places will ask you fewer questions? Either way, we're not a good fit for you.

The guy who crashed in 2019 had multiple failures on the records we received as well as failures here. Despite hiring hundreds of Mesa pilots we claimed we didn't know how to read Mesa's records (which we did receive). He also concealed some problems at other airlines that he tried to play off as periods of unemployment.

To our airline's credit we recognize that we have a reputation as an airline that will take anybody. We have a recommendation process that pays people 5k for a hire, so theres incentive to recommend as many people as possible. So with a reputation as a place that will take misfits, and a giant pilot recruiting effort, it makes sense that our HR folks may want to be extra cautious. There are few filters.

publius

Their filter has been adversely affected by that guy and that crash, and it is irritating. No one wants to get filtered from a point of view of an accident. They are not looking for skilled pilots, they are looking for pilots who will not crash. Their perspective is not correct. I don't want job offer from a company with a HR rep saying `Is there anything you would like to say now, we are gonna do background checks anyway, before we come with a job offer.`. How to answer this question: yes or no? Which one of these answers could be a satifying answer?

Birdsmash

If you are this worked up already before being hired then you find Atlas will drive you absolutely bonkers afterward. Pull the plug now and search somewhere else for employment.

publius

Correct... thanks.

dera

As someone who was hired after the crash - nonsense.

Based on your reaction and comments, sounds like our HR did a great job to weed you out. I wish you success elsewhere.