Hi, I am new to this forum and have been researching stories similar to mine about driving records and how they affect an applicants chances of being hired at a legacy carrier or LCC. I am currently 22 years old, and I have 3 tickets on my record.
one in 2018, one in late 2021, and one in mid 2022. I do not have a criminal history and do not plan on having one. My biggest concern is the fact that I forgot to attend my state traffic school after getting my latest ticket (2022) and I received a suspension until I attended said traffic school. I took care of this immediately and the suspension was removed ASAP. I am embarrassed that this blemish is on my record and it has been stressing me out for a couple weeks. My question is will this have a large impact on my chances of getting hired at a airline. I plan to drive like a granny and do not plan on getting any more moving citations until I apply in late 2023 or 2024 for a regional airline and for as long as possible after that frankly. If anyone could tell me how to go about this, and how this affects me from their own (similar) personal experience, I would greatly appreciate this, thank you!
Clint,
As someone who’s participated in the hiring process at a Regional I can tell you this most certainly can (and should) effect your hiring. You should be embarrassed. In simple terms you’re irresponsible and don’t follow the rules. What’s worse is when given remediation for your digression, you “forgot” making the matter worse and this didn’t happen 6yrs ago when you were 16, it was last year when you were 21, and supposedly an adult.
So it’s airline interview time:
“Clint, we have hundreds of applicants here who seem to have no problem obeying traffic laws and have never gotten a single violation, you have 3 including a suspension which was caused simply by your carelessness. This indicates to us not only are you irresponsible, but don’t even care about your bad behavior. What’s worse is you say you’re commited to driving like a “granny” which a) is disparaging to older women, some of whom are members of our pilot group, and b) indicates that you somehow believe you either have to behave like an extremely overly cautious individual, OR break the law, so you’re incapable of moderation. With that in mind Clint, why should we trust you with our passengers, your ability and willingness to follow the FARs and our $20mil airplane?”
Adam
Clint,
When you apply for any flying job, they will run a background check including your drivers history. Everything will come to light and could absolutely be noted on your application. Could it affect you getting an interview, maybe. Will it be a deal breaker, probably not but only if the rest of your application and interview is strong. However, you need to think about how you would answer questions like Adam posed above. How you respond could indeed be the reason you get the job or not.
Hannah