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Foreword

We are very pleased that you have chosen to use SkyTest® Airline Interview – The Exercise Book to prepare for your airline selection test. The psychological interview towards the end of a selection process ultimately decides whether a candidate will be hired as a pilot. In other words, a successful application stands and falls with the interview.

We presented the theory of interview-based suitability diagnostics for commercial pilots and air traffic controllers in our book SkyTest® Airline Interview. The handbook gives applicants an introduction to this interesting topic and helps them to better understand the meaning and purpose of the interview.

SkyTest® Airline Interview – The Exercise Book looks at the final part of the selection process from a practical perspective. In this book you will find the tools for targeted preparation for your upcoming interview. To succeed, you must not only avoid pitfalls, but also pick up on the intentions behind the questions and tasks posed with your responses. SkyTest® Airline Interview – The Exercise Book chronologically takes you through typical sections of a selection interview with an airline. The book gives you deeper insight into common interview questions. Examples and exercises will help you to respond spontaneously and confidently in future interviews.

Almost all those applying for a pilot position must discuss their qualifications and motivation at interview. This book is therefore aimed at pilots with professional experience, those who have just graduated from flight school and applicants who are still at the very start of their flight training. As the selection procedures are very similar, this book is also suitable for air traffic controllers to use in preparing for interviews.

In buying SkyTest® Airline Interview – The Exercise Book, you have chosen a product from the SkyTest® series. SkyTest® has been providing user-oriented training software and specialist books to help people prepare for selection tests in commercial air travel since 2003. All SkyTest® products are compiled with great care to see you on your way to the cockpit. We wish you every success in your recruitment test.

1 Introduction

Airlines have high standards when it comes to selecting their pilots. The often multi-stage tests usually begin with a computer-based cognitive and operational performance test.

The following chart shows the characteristics often sought by airlines in their pilot selection tests:

Table 1: Basic aptitude evaluation

Applicants who have demonstrated their basic suitability for the pilot profession will then be invited to undergo subsequent psychological tests with an interview. In the past, these interviews were more focused on technical and theoretical topics. However, modern selection processes go deeper. Today, the interview should not just provide information about qualifications, but more about the applicant’s motivation and probable future behaviour in their intended work environment.

Reaching the interview means you have made it to a select pool of applicants. The airline is now particularly interested in seeing the applicant's social skills and personality-related characteristics.

Table 2: Psychological suitability assessment and interview

Various approaches have been developed and optimised for use by airlines in order to carry out the psychological suitability assessment and interview. As a rule, airlines carry out what are known as half-structured, mixed interviews, which essentially follow an internal guide and progress on the basis of biographical and situational questions. As part of the selection process, the interview is regularly accompanied by psychological analytical methods, such as group exercises or computer tests. The supplementary tests are there to ensure the results of the final interview are correct.

We examined the theoretical approaches behind the methods of interview-based selection diagnostics in pilot tests and their practical implementation in selection processes in the SkyTest® Airline Interview book. SkyTest® Airline Interview – The Exercise Book was specifically developed for the purpose of targeted preparation for meeting the interviewer.

The book will help you to find answers to possible questions about your professional career or biographical background before the interview. The verbal and syntactic presentation of your answers during interview is at least as important as confident content preparation. There are notes on this in the individual chapters of this book.

2 Before the interview

Invitation to interview requires more than just successful participation in any cognitive and operational performance tests. You must also pass two formal hurdles – the written application and, in many cases, a preliminary telephone interview.

Foreword

Contents

1 Introduction

2 Before the interview

2.1 Application letter and CV