Very relaxed atmosphere. I will say this.if you are a low time guy/gal, get your resume in here. They are hiring mainly to fill the spots for the Saab FO's that will be going to upgrade to the CRJ-900 and the left seat for the Saab. SO if you want to go there and think that you can get into a Capt position from the beginning, this is not the place. There are pilots that have been here for a while that are patiently waiting to upgrade. I mean 5-6 years as FO's. The interview was scheduled for 12PM. There were 4 other guys at the airport where we all met up and took the shuttle to the Pan Am building. There were two other guys that came in afterwards. SO total was about 7-8, I do not remember the exact number. For the guys that were there, all were either charter or instructors. There was a guy that showed up in a gray suit, with a gray sweater over his suit shirt, I only saw him in the presentation room and that was it. Please wear a dark colored suit, tie, white or colored shirt that is not too flamboyant. Present yourself for the job! Anyway, we waited for about 20-30 minutes for the Chief Pilot to come out and he took us back to the room for the PP presentation. Nice atmosphere, great rooms. These guys that have stayed with Mesaba are going to be the tip of the spear when it comes to operating the CRJ-900. I mean the ones that stayed with the company throughout the BK ordeal. They will give you a slip with the times for the different sections for the interview. Test, Fingerprints, sim, HR/Tech/ and YOU WILL DO A DRUG TEST! They give you paper with the directions to get to the CSM building for the test. They also provide you with two cards (Give to the driver it is their pay and it includes a tip)! One to the drug test and one to the airport. The sim.well.for those of you that may have done the 10 day instrument where the guy shows up at your house with the simulator and the printer to draw your course and holds and approaches.well that is what it is. No visual display, but it was great to get back to the basic 6 pack. The dude prior that put on the post about HPN, awesome info. I practiced the HPN SIDs/STARS/ and ILS, VOR, NDB to HPN and it was dead on. If you use MS Professional addition with some type of a yoke you will nail it. DO not use the rudders and it has a lot of right pull that you cannot trim out. Stay on your game. You may also get the ILS into TEB. So look at that one also. The test is 25 questions, if you study the turbine pilot's manual, and the ATP written info that will hit it. There are many gouges on this site, Q&A. download them and study them. Use all resources. HR/Tech, mine was about 30 minutes. TMATW...What kind of leader are you.describe a terrifying event related to flying.how do you handle confrontation.it was like a tennis match. One asked questions, I would answer, they would write, and then the other one would ask another question. RELAX, Think about you answer.Know that aircraft you are flying or the most recent twin/complex that you have flown. Tell me about a team that you were a part of and how did you work with others.

Good Luck to all. Memphis is the junior base for FO's on the Saab, but you will be able to get DTW. For the guys from DTW (See Navigators can fly!), Appleton and OPF..I hope you get it!

They flew into MSP for a 9:00 interview. The shuttle took me over to the pan-am training center; which is also mesaba's. I was then brought into a conference room with the chief pilot and a person from HR. They where very nice and made the interview alot less stressful. They asked some basic HR questions like why mesaba? tell about a stressful situation in the cockpit and how did you handle it? Any problems with a boss? Dont answer no because everyone has a little problem with the boss sometime. Why do you want to move on from you current job? Basically stuff like that. Make sure to answer honestly. I then took a 50 question appitude test. They give you 12 minutes to take it and no one every finishes. Then I took a ATP/IFR exam. It was pretty easy. If you up on your IFR knowledge you should be fine. Last I was taken to an ATC 810 sim. I guess the sim they usually use was down. Anway it was pretty simple. The instructor who administerd it was very friendly. I did a couple of steep turns to get used to it and then he made me do some simple VOR nav stuff. What radial im on stuff like that. Then I shot the ILS into white plains. Down to mins and then a missed approach to the NDB and hold and that was it. Then they sent me to get a drug test and that concluded the interview. Hope this helps.

First sent a fax and a real resume and cover letter in October when I hit 1000/100. Updated every month until December with certified mail packets of
my resume and cover letter. The last update in December was accompanied by
the on-line application. If you can tell, I was persistent. In December
right after Christmas, I received an email from Erin Shobe telling me to send
an updated copy of resume and coverletter. I sent her an email telling her
she had a copy received on December 15, per the registered mail return card I
got. Didn't hear so I called and left a message. Next day, on Jan 3rd, got a
call from Scott Lindsey and played phone tag all day. Finally got a hold of
him and scheduled the interview for Feb 1st. I flew out there on Jan 31st and
stayed at the Country Inn. Word of advice... if you stay here, make sure when
you call for a ride from MSP you are calling the RIGHT COUNTRY INN!! I ended
up at the one next to the mall of America and should have been at the one in
Inver Grove Heights. So, when you get to the airport, call the # on the
letter Mesaba sends you about hotel info for a ride. Anyhow, got to the right
hotel and had a nice room in a nice little hotel. There is a sports bar in
the parking lot, a 16 plex movie theater and an Outback near by. The next
morning at 715am sharp, Wings was there to pick us up. The high temp that day
was a nice brisk -7 F!! The previous gouges were dead on with what will
happen. Erin Shobe was prompt at 0800 and talked to us about the day and our
paperwork and bennies and stuff. Watched a really great video on the company
and took our 2 exams and started on the PDI. The wonderlick was what I was
expecting and the knowledge test is still right on par with the other gouges.
the PDI was goofy but sort of interesting at the same time. Be consistent and
honest. Don't answer what you think they'd like to hear. Dan (Sheehan?) from
DTW talked to us at 1000 for an hour about life as a Mesaba pilot. Everything
from bidding to training and pay. Good info... take notes. There were 14 of
us interviewing. 12 men and 2 women. All ages and varying backgrounds from
freight dogs to instructors to retired military. I was surprised at the
diversity. My interview with Dan was at 1140 and was a really laid back get
to know me session. All the questions again, were similar to all the other
gouges. At 1240 I had the interview with Erin which was similar with a few
different questions. Again, be consistent. I then had a break until 1600
when I had the simulator. It was the Elmira 6 SID out of SEA, vectors to the
VOR approach missed into the hold over the NDB and then vectors to the ILS
full stop. Again, very pitch sensitive and roll sensitive. We have ASTs
where I instruct so was able to practice quite a bit. Get some if you need
it... I was done by 1630 and on my way to MSP. Over all if you go in there
with the confidence that you're going to get the job and that you really want
to be there, you'll get the job. Of course, you have to have everything else
that comes with the FO package but I went into the interview convinced I was
going to get the job it made the day go by quick and very painless. We were
told to expect a letter within 2 weeks. I got a call the next day by Erin
offering me a Feb 19th Saab class. I accepted and cannot wait to be apart of
this awesome company!!

Just did the interview at Meseba-01/11/01. Pretty much everything is the same except they are using Seattle DP and approaches for the sim eval. The sim was an AST-300 which wasn't so bad as long as you don't touch the rudder pedals. Take off on a DP using runway 16, VOR 16 to the published hold, then onto the ILS 16.The guy who does the sim eval sits behind you and writes notes the whole time. Its a little unnerving.Make your call outs and do your check list. The interview was relaxed and puts you at ease. HR interview with Erin and technical interview with Fran (great guy). A wonderlick and a personality test along with a timed instrument/general knowledge test was given. Read the AIM and FAR's and don't sweat it. Like everyone else they are hurting for pilots and are hiring. Assignments are the SAAB or the AVRO depending on need.The compensation package is good and they are a great company to work for. I got my call the day I got home for an offer of position. Start class in Feb. Good luck.P.S. Tip the van driver(she will give you the gouge)

Still the same profile as listed before. Had the Seattle almo 8 dep then vor 16L and hold then vectors ILS. The sim is not
bad at all and very straight forward trim it out and it will fly hands off.
Phran and Erin are the interviewers, Erin is strictly HR so don't talk to
much aviation lingo with her. Both interviews are very relaxed and the same
typical hr questions as listed before. Three written test one psyco, one
aviation related which anyone who qualifies for this job should have no
problem with, and a iq test with math and some vocabulary problems. I felt
very good in both interviews and nailed the sim but didn't get the job. I had
about 1630 Total with 230 ME and 130 Turbine, maybe 4 traffic violations
were to many..