How to Ace an Airline Interview by Telling a Good Story

A professional pilot offers tips for when you're given an opportunity to talk about your life and career.

Friday, May 03, 2024 at 12:41 PM ET

Verified

Airlines are starting to be more choosy about who they hire, making job-hunting and interviewing skills important. [File photo/ Shutterstock]

Key Takeaways:

With the easing of the pilot shortage, employers are becoming more selective, making strong job-hunting and interview skills, particularly the ability to tell compelling stories, crucial for pilots.
Aviation panel interviews often feature "Tell me about a time you..." questions, requiring candidates to respond with concise, illustrative anecdotes from their career or life.
Developing effective storytelling is a learnable skill that requires dedicated practice, including refining a diverse repertoire of stories tailored for interviews.
Successful stories should be 2-3 minutes long, structured, demonstrate humility and growth, avoid negativity about past employers, be mostly true, and be practiced to sound natural, encompassing both aviation and non-aviation experiences.

See a mistake? Contact us.

With the easing of the pilot shortage, many employers are starting to be more choosy about who they hire, and job-hunting and interviewing skills are once again becoming more important. No longer can you expect to just show up and fog the proverbial mirror. You need to put time and effort into preparing yourself for the interview.

I’ve written about this process in broad terms before, but there is one aspect I would like to focus on: honing your ability to tell a good story and refining your repertoire of stories for interviews.