How to get a job at Northwest Airlines.

Do you work at Northwest Airlines? How did you find the job? How did you get that first interview?

Any advice for someone trying to get in?

I will like to work for you all and I found out by the worksource.

i worked at northwest for 3-1/2 years in the reservations dept. it was terrible. there is a very antagonistic atmosphere there. it's management vs. labor, the company vs. the customers. very dysfunctional and hostile. the management will give themselves large bonuses and salaries and cut the pay of the union labor. i belonged to the IAM which is a dysfunctional group as well. don't be fooled by their slogans or what they say coming out of bankruptcy - the work is hard and the pay is low. and the flight benefits have been cut back from what i understand because of the crowded flights.

af in Los Angeles, California said: i worked at northwest for 3-1/2 years in the reservations dept. it was terrible. there is a very antagonistic atmosphere there. it's management vs. labor, the company vs. the customers. very dysfunctional and hostile. the management will give themselves large bonuses and salaries and cut the pay of the union labor. i belonged to the IAM which is a dysfunctional group as well. don't be fooled by their slogans or what they say coming out of bankruptcy - the work is hard and the pay is low. and the flight benefits have been cut back from what i understand because of the crowded flights.

You are 100 % correct

Please give more information in reguards to
northwest airlines careers.Thank you

abused in Hibbing, Minnesota said: You are 100 % correct

I was a flight attendant for NWA for ten years and absolutely hated it!!! I did my best to keep a positive attitude expeceially to the customers. I have it up a year ago. The person who was a customer service agent hit the nail on the head about management vs. labor unions. It is my understanding that right now new hires are constantly quitting. Apparently NWA lied to them during the interview process. I still have friends there and are looking for other carees. Becareful with NWA. They will screw you in a heartbeat!

Host said: Do you work at Northwest Airlines? How did you find the job? How did you get that first interview?

Any advice for someone trying to get in?

How do i apply with northwest? and who can i call for an interview?is there a number to call?

latoya said: How do i apply with northwest? and who can i call for an interview?is there a number to call?

Go to nwa.com, then scoll to the bottom of the page and click on "About Us" and you'll see the link for "careers".

Host said: Do you work at Northwest Airlines? How did you find the job? How did you get that first interview?

Any advice for someone trying to get in?

Please explain how to become a host?

I got hired by NWA a couple months back and start training soon. I am very excited about it. I hear great things about the company. The only thing I am wondering is if they are going to merge with Delta...I hear the paperwork is already in order.

I did not like NWA background procedure, if I sign a release form, it is the job of the background company to go and gather all of the info they need to satisfy NWA on behalf of my background. I do not mind answer a question here or there, or even providing a said document to satisfy the background check, but I am not going to do their job. I have nothing to hide, and found a few of the HR people for NWA to be very uncooperative with a no care attitude. I personally do not have a desire to work for NWA. I will stay at Federal Express, Where I have been for five years.

Virgil,
You will have the same experience if not worse with every other airline.

Mike said: Virgil,
You will have the same experience if not worse with every other airline.

I'm starting to believe that Mike. It is not like they are paying me a great salary, a lot of concessions were made on my behalf. I never thought I would have to see money being deducted out of my check for union fees, and buying uniforms.
I don't have a problem with those things, but at least, compromise in some of those areas

I guess Federal Express has spoiled me, and to be truthful honest. I thought about leaving that job at one time in my career, that would have been a foolish move.

That has been the most stable job I have had in Memphis, and I can't say enough good things about my manager at FedEx. We have our good and bad days, but I would go to bat for that guy anytime, and that says a lot coming from me.

As well as on my job before that, I have been blessed with two nice managers, that I would take licks for any day.

Virgil,
I know what you mean. I am wrestling over what to do myself. I am wanting to keep my current career which has no benefits but pays well. The airlines are overwhelmed with Flight Attendant applications and can pay what they do because of that. UAL gets 200,000 apps a year just for that position and only ivite back 2% for a second interview and hire just a few of those.

If you can get through training and all the bad parts...such as moving, reserve, its all worth it about three years into it. Pay gets better, you start holding a line and the benefits are great. You already probably have that with Fed Ex...so you have to decided how bad you want to be a Flight Attendant.

If nothing else comes out of it. I have the satisfaction that I was asked to go to training in one of the most competetive jobs out there. The background check they did on my so simple, called a few jobs and checked my high school. I was done in a week and a half.

Good Luck

We both seem to be in the same boat. Wow, I wish I had some sound advice to give you. I guess the only thing I can recommend or suggest, is don't leave a good or great job for something that is not proven. My grandma one said, " just because it looks like gold from a distance, does not mean it is going to be gold when you get up close to it."

I have allowed myself to have my time wasted pursuing jobs that don't pan out. So, I'm definitely not leaving Federal Express, I just have too much invested, and judging by the way it looks, I'll just have to man up and deal with what's in front of me. I hope things work out for you as well.

Northwest really needs a management change and the union needs re-stucturing.
I had worked a short while only becuase the probation period is too long (6 months) and it makes it hard for anyone to make it through especially if the other employees are disgrunted by having to travel further to work and low pay at
(9.00) or if the trainer doesn't make time. I recently reapplied for Nashville
and was notified that I did not have the experiance foe the job. That's a bunch of bull and I truly believe that upper management really needs restucturing to survie.

Lawrence Leach in Flint, Michigan said:
I meet a few of their managers or supervisors during my initial interview, could not really read them They did not complain, but talked about the amount of demands place on them to do the job.
Some of those managers or supers had been with NWA for a while.
I guess they got into the game when the airline had some money to throw at them.

I still did not like the 9hr pay rate, anything less than that would not even be an incentive to work for any airline.

virgil yancey in Memphis, Tennessee said:

The other thing I noticed, was the way HR personnel treated the company doing the background checks. I got a sense that they were really riding the background company hard.

However, I can tell when a person is truly genuine with regards to how they talk to me over the phone and through emails. Some of the NWA HR personnel acted very fake, a few were very nice,on the phone, in person and thru email, but there were those others, that were the exception in the NWA HR Dept. So, some of them in the HR Dept, need to work on their interpersonal skills for sure.

Especially in this day and time. It is hard to find good workers, and it is even harder to find good workers that will put up with being on probation for 6mos,getting paid 9hr, paying union dues, paying for uniforms, working on changing schedules and weekends. Those are some things a person really need to evaluate before pursuing any job with an airline

I don't understand what this 9hr pay thing is you are writing about? I got my call today to go to class 10. I am not calling them back until I figure out a bit more.

Mike said: I don't understand what this 9hr pay thing is you are writing about? I got my call today to go to class 10. I am not calling them back until I figure out a bit more.

9.09 per hr is the pay rate. You will have to sign a form to consenting to that payrate, and that you understand that you are on probation and part of a union with dues due.

Mike said: I don't understand what this 9hr pay thing is you are writing about? I got my call today to go to class 10. I am not calling them back until I figure out a bit more.

Remember the gold analogy, evaluate everything. I should have initially before going thru what I endured, but lesson learned, no bruises.

The payrate for me was $18.55 an hour for the first six months and $30 a day for training. I am still waying my options.

I trained and didn't mind the pey rate myself, the problem was making it though the six months except that management could have been more flexable about
3 tardies over a period of time in the dead of winter. But it was hard because HR shut down two airports and replaced them with contract employees.Made hard on the people I worked with having to drive more than an hour to work. The crew was a great bunch to work with. But HR and the Union need to adjust to the times and make changes in thier policies.

Mike said: The payrate for me was $18.55 an hour for the first six months and $30 a day for training. I am still waying my options.

And you're right, you have to weigh out your options, the good, the bad, and the ugly. It was easy for me, once I really started looking at it. When I was being fingerprinted, and they started talking about the money being deducted from my pay, Oh, the bells started ringing in my head.

Let's say you pay union dues for the first six months, now remember you are on probation for 6mos, if you do anything, pick your nose, scratch or tick your manager off, chronic late for work, etc, you are gone. Will the union fight for your job thru arbitration? Probably, probably not, and the money,
you paid in dues to the union, do you get that back? I doubt it.

One of the reasons why Memphis has such high crime rates in this city, is the criminals are not willing to work for low paying jobs.I am not saying that low pay is the only contributing factor, but it does not help our economy nor does it help people who want a decent paying job, and some must succumb to a job paying min wage or a little above, or paying you the type of wage you would be making, but how much money will you actually be bringing home? Like I said, and what you stated, you have to weigh your options.

I am confused about the 9 hour thing a couple people mentioned.

Mike said: I am confused about the 9 hour thing a couple people mentioned.

Its' their rate of pay. $9 per hour.

Again, I don't get that...My rate of pay for FA is $18.55 an hour with $30 a day during training. I have no idea where this $9 an hour pay is coming from. Did you apply for a different position?

Lawrence Leach in Flint, Michigan said: I trained and didn't mind the pey rate myself, the problem was making it though the six months except that management could have been more flexable about
3 tardies over a period of time in the dead of winter. But it was hard because HR shut down two airports and replaced them with contract employees.Made hard on the people I worked with having to drive more than an hour to work. The crew was a great bunch to work with. But HR and the Union need to adjust to the times and make changes in thier policies.

That is thing I noticed how, rigid they were with certain things like that, and I am not going to work weekends, and
work at night, work for $9per hour, no shift diff added to my pay, work in inclement weather, they got to be flexible. I will give you an example. On My fedex job, when we got snow here a couple days ago, my manager said, hey if you late, I will not mark you late, just start out in enough time to where if you get here safely, no big deal. I mean common sense, says, that don't take the flexibility to extreme, don't show up at work two hours late, and work for three hrs, and expect to go home, that is not fair to the team.

It is a shame though, there are good people that don't mind busting their hump on a job, I'm one of those people, but I want fair pay, an honest management staff, and an some other team mates pulling their weight too.

Mike said: Again, I don't get that...My rate of pay for FA is $18.55 an hour with $30 a day during training. I have no idea where this $9 an hour pay is coming from. Did you apply for a different position?

Yeah baggage handler position.

when i hired in the rate was 9.00 an hour for ramp or ese people it could be more for mechanics or other flight personnel

Lawrence Leach in Flint, Michigan said: when i hired in the rate was 9.00 an hour for ramp or ese people it could be more for mechanics or other flight personnel

That is just it. If you can get into the job that you truly desire first, versus going into a job that you don't desire and took thru you know what during the whole entire process.

I initially wrote a cover letter stating that I didn't mind paying my dues, meaning coming into a situation and working my way up thru the ranks. I actually took that comment out of my cover letter. I'm not willing to do that anymore, and generally you end up on the short end of the stick too.

I just wanted to post my two cents about my Northwest hiring experience. I was a professional pilot and flight instructor before I went into law. Professional aviation remains one of my interests.

I attended a NWA cattle call eighteen months ago. The recruiters were interviewing for fuelers, I believe, and CSRs and QSRs. QSR is a lower-level, part-time customer service person - lower than CSR - with training being OJT instead of in MSP.

About 200 people showed up for interviews. Some of these people were dressed so horribly it was hard to believe they were interviewing for a job. I wore a suit and shined shoes that day, and carried my materials in a briefcase.

I had to wait for about five hours before I was interviewed, which, I know, is typical for these events. My interviewer was a former NWA flight attendant. We hit it off. She asked most of the usual questions, including "tell me about yourself," "why are you no longer working at XXX law firm," questions about dealing with customers, and, of course, questions about safety. It helped that I had re-read a book on airlines the week before and could explain why I would want to work for NWA fairly easily.

I thought I did well in the interview, but I never thought I'd be called. My client background wasn't exactly congruent with airline customer service. A week later, to my great surprise, NWA offered me a QSR (p/t, see above) job. Starting pay would have been $9.40 an hour. I turned it down because I wouldn't have cleared $100 a week after taxes, uniforms, union dues and gas. Also, no health insurance for a year. It wasn't worth it. I felt I was worth more elsewhere because I had been paid more elsewhere. I could have cared less about the pass privileges.

I am sure I was offered a job because I was about the only candidate who had bothered to dress professionally. Ultimately, I really wasn't all that impressed with Northwest Airlines, but the truth is no airline is that great to work for anymore.

Displaced Legal Professional in Denver, Colorado said: I just wanted to post my two cents about my Northwest hiring experience. I was a professional pilot and flight instructor before I went into law. Professional aviation remains one of my interests.

I attended a NWA cattle call eighteen months ago. The recruiters were interviewing for fuelers, I believe, and CSRs and QSRs. QSR is a lower-level, part-time customer service person - lower than CSR - with training being OJT instead of in MSP.

About 200 people showed up for interviews. Some of these people were dressed so horribly it was hard to believe they were interviewing for a job. I wore a suit and shined shoes that day, and carried my materials in a briefcase.

I had to wait for about five hours before I was interviewed, which, I know, is typical for these events. My interviewer was a former NWA flight attendant. We hit it off. She asked most of the usual questions, including "tell me about yourself," "why are you no longer working at XXX law firm," questions about dealing with customers, and, of course, questions about safety. It helped that I had re-read a book on airlines the week before and could explain why I would want to work for NWA fairly easily.

I thought I did well in the interview, but I never thought I'd be called. My client background wasn't exactly congruent with airline customer service. A week later, to my great surprise, NWA offered me a QSR (p/t, see above) job. Starting pay would have been $9.40 an hour. I turned it down.

I also questioned the logic, once I started adding everything up in mind, i know money and I made straight A's in math, and I have taken a lot of math in my time, and it just did not make sense to me. It was like I was working for free. I'm drawing that same conclusion, ALL airlines are that way.

Unlike Displaced Legal, I didn't go to a cattle call for NWA. I simply went on their website about 3 weeks ago and just finished (and passed) my phone interview today. I go for f2f next week. Everyone with NWA has been lovely to me. I have been to the open calls where I was just as shocked at some of the dress and behavior of the people I saw there. Unbelievable! I'm hoping that when NWA says conservative, professional dress, they mean it. This may not be where I want to end up staying, but if it will get me in the door.....In the meantime, I'm glad I'm not waiting on Delta considering what appears to be going on now.

I have my f2f with them tommorrow I hope everything goes well with them, I wish you luck as well.

Would you be so kind as to write back on here when you get done and let me know how it went for you? Wishing you all the luck in the world!

Yes I will let you know how it goes for me tommorrow.

Thanks and sincerely - Good Luck tomorrow. Smile, be yourself, and wear a watch!

freshfacedFA in Wisconsin: "Everyone with NWA has been lovely to me."

Please don't misunderstand; I really liked my interviewer. I'm not saying any NWA person was rude or mean to me in any way at my cattle call.

As I waited to be interviewed, I mulled over how to handle the interview. I finally realized it was an aviation interview! I'd been on a few of those, as a pilot and CFI, so I handled this one accordingly. E.g., an airline's number one mission is safety. Number two is service. Etc. I was very comfortable speaking with my interviewer because she was an aviation person. Despite the wait, the experience wasn't bad. Just the job, in the ultimate analysis, didn't offer enough.

I don't doubt in the least the company-management contention stories others have posted. Northwest and its labor unions have a rocky history.

"I have been to the open calls where I was just as shocked at some of the dress and behavior of the people I saw there. Unbelievable!"

It is. My cattle call was during the summer. I recall that with the exception of one gal who was dressed professionally (I recall she was a newly retired state employee), many of the women were dressed in shorts, tops and open-toed shoes. Perhaps sandals as well. I saw men dressed in casual shirts and pants - which I could believe for ramp and fueler positions, but not for CSRs.

I remember that during the introduction the HR people told the group Northwest was hiring something like ten or fifteen CSRs and one or two QSRs that day. Once again, I heard that 200 people showed up that day. We were told some selectees no-show training, or something like that. I could not believe that.

Finally, I recall something about CSRs being taught how to calculate an airplane's weight and balance. Also airport idents (airport codes). I was surprised that agents would need to know W & B because I've thought of that at a major as being a pilot and dispatcher duty. Anyway, all FWIW........

I have a telephone interview with Northwest Airlines this week. I applied for a customer service position. My interviw will last for atleast 15 or 20 min. Can anyone give me some tell me what type of questions will be asked?

Read my posts, above.

ok, I see. It's no different. I make 9.40 now @ Mesaba...It's just not worth it. But I have to pay the bills. I'm trying to find another job before I leave Mesaba Airlines . Also, what is QSR?

Displaced Legal Professional in Denver, Colorado said: Read my posts, above.

Thank you....Good advice is very helpful

Displaced: I didn't intend for my comment to sound as if I was saying that you implied NWA personnel were rude. Sorry if it sounded that way or typed that way. It was just my impression. As for the dress of some - I have the cutest pair of conservative type heels, but they have a slight "peek toe" opening. So, what did I do? I went shopping. I just couldn't dare show up in those. They must not think. I want to go in there confident in what I'm wearing so I can concentrate on the interview itself. I also had to buy a new skirt since I haven't had one to my knees in ages - lol.

Actually - I hope the first several interviewees before me wear thong bathing suits and have cellulite junk in the trunk. That way - even if I am nervous or burp - I'll look damn good compared to them and I'll get an offer. Make sense? The CSR and QSR interviews must be very different. Thank goodness.

freshfacedFA in Wisconsin: "I didn't intend for my comment to sound as if I was saying that you implied NWA personnel were rude. Sorry if it sounded that way or typed that way. It was just my impression...."

Not at all. No worries.

I think the CSR and QSR interviews were one and the same because they had the same duties. The QSR was below CSR in the org chart, if you will.

virgil yancey in Memphis, Tennessee: "I guess Federal Express has spoiled me, and to be truthful honest. I thought about leaving that job at one time in my career, that would have been a foolish move."

FedEx **is** a good company. One of my best flight instructor students got on there. She is now a DC-10 captain and check airman.

Displaced Legal Professional in Denver, Colorado said: virgil yancey in Memphis, Tennessee: "I guess Federal Express has spoiled me, and to be truthful honest. I thought about leaving that job at one time in my career, that would have been a foolish move."

FedEx **is** a good company. One of my best flight instructor students got on there. She is now a DC-10 captain and check airman.

Thanks, I enjoy working for FedEx too. A lot of people would always say, why you work for FedEx? As it stands now, it is stability. I don't have to put up with any recruiters, my manager does not hassle me, my performance reviews have always been on point, so that was why I started evaluating these airline jobs a little more closely. I'll stay where I'm at, and I'll just concentrate on doing some extra thing to make a little bit more money as well.

I am really confused about something. I am definitely scheduled to go to Chicago next week for a f2f with NWA. Just a few minutes ago I went on to their site and now there are no flight attendant openings appearing at all. What's up?

Freshface,
They are not hiring anymore....at the moment...except for the ones they are already interviewing...they need to get us in the air.