Alternatively, I will take questions about the Goodyear Blimp recruiting process or my choice to accept there.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2427950&forum_id=2#24540980)

During orientation, they'll give you a Goodyear bombardier jacket and you'll wear it with the Goodyear logo facing outward so any other lighter-than-air aircraft crew members in the know can see it and you'll just know that they're either impressed or envious. And then you'll try to figure out the best way to ensure that you're sworn in as soon as possible after receiving your pilot's license because then you'll get a call sign that says "Goodyear 1" with your actual name after it. You'll be giddy at the thought of casually calling yourself that (mid-conversation) in front of some acquaintance from undergrad you've lost touch with.

You'll start flying and you'll notice that there are an awful lot of "Farewell" emails and somebody will tell you that the farewell emails can only contain 4 names at a time per company policy because the board decided sometime in 2004 that emails indicating ghat 6 or 7 crew members were leaving the blimp in a two week period might cause some unhelpful whispering. You'll talk to a mid-deck blimp stewardess who is super-psyched to be serving drinks on the Goodyear blimp and you'll find out that she (not a lot of he's) lateraled from some Zeppelin that frankly you never would have considered serving on (too TTT for you). When you get back to your pilot's quarters, this will trouble you a bit, you'll wonder if your own escutcheon is being blemished by the presence of this type of person (i.e., non-elite) on your Goodyear blimp. But that feeling will pass as you'll find plenty of other like-minded first year pilots who equally relish the prestige as you head for a drink at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (bombardier jacket logo facing outward).

Then you'll get staffed on your first NFL Postseason and you'll fly late night after late night and then on the weekend and on to the next weekend and then on to the weekend when you had planned to go to a friend's wedding. And you won't go because the blimp has to get flown and you have dues to pay (or so you'll be told). You'll get a little bit upset about this turn of events, but the arrival of some bit chin' aviator sunglasses with "GOODYEAR" written on the side will soften the blow.

You'll meet more and more laterals from lighter-than-air aircraft that you would never work for (some you've never even heard of - some who were hot air ballon operators!). You'll note in the farewell emails that some of the junior and midlevel crew members leaving Goodyear are going to those very balloon companies, giving up live overhead coverage of America's top sporting events to give shivering couples a hot air balloon tour of the Shenandoah Valley. Survival of the fittest, you'll say. But late at night, when the Chiefs and Steelers are playing a never-ending defensive slog, these things will bother you. But you'll tell yourself you're just tired and frustrated and anyway you have the Capital One Bowl to cover.

You'll have lunch with Chris Berman and he'll tell you that your blimp piloting is good and that he's viewing your overhead coverage to get insight into which secondary coverage teams are playing well. You'll notice that some of the senior pilots visibly roll their eyes at each other when this comes up, but you won't mind that much because, really, what other blimp crew regularly has lunch with the Monday Night Football team.

A few months will pass, a few Red Sox - Yankees games will happen, you'll have to re-schedule a vacation but you'll tell yourself that is to be expected.

About a year in, a couple of your fellow pilots will crack and start talking about how much the job sucks. They'll very likely have gone to Stanford Graduate School of Blimps. You'll joke that they couldn't hack it when they leave the firm for a supply chain management gig at the American Helium Society, or an academic position in an Aeronautics department, or go to a lighter-than-air crew in another city.

Things will go on in this pattern and you'll notice the fact that you're working a lot harder than your friends who went to "peer" blimps. At first you'll be proud of this and brag about it, but after a while you'll find yourself downplaying it. At least when you have the time to get out of the airport and socialize with your blimp school friends.

Something will happen: Mike Ditka will scream at you, a senior pilot gunning for management will blame you for her mistake, the air traffic controller will tell you that the approach you meticulously planned for John Wayne International Airport in Orange County just won't be able to happen (he'll be really sorry and tell you a funny story about the approach to Oakland International Airport that he missed during the 1989 World Series). Doesn't matter what, but you'll get really pissed and you'll start to take some of the 4 or 5 calls from headhunters that you'll receive every day at that point (vultures smell blood). They'll give you the names of blimps that you laughed at in the days when you posted on the XOXO board, but you'll consider flying for them. But you won't leave because then you'd have to give up your bombardier jacket. And stop wearing the aviator shades. And the MLB Playoffs are only x months away so you'll dart thinking about it then.

Until one day you won't be able to take it any more and you'll find yourself arranging to meet with people from Countywide for a position in their college athletics blimp. And you'll worry that the XOXO crowd will see you.

And you don't believe any of this will happen, but I suggest you print this out and keep it on top of your control panel so late during the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl when Clemson is blowing out the MAC champion, you can add to the list of reasons to be miserable this fact: somebody told you this was going to happen, and you thought that person was crazy.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2427950&forum_id=2#24540983)

you only got it because you knew the guy's sister

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2427950&forum_id=2#24540984)