United Airlines Assessment Tests, Recruitment Process & Interviews Online Preparation – 2024

About United Airlines

United Airlines is the third largest airline in the world and has over 93,000 employees across all its brands. It has destinations in over 70 countries and over 200 destinations in the United States (United is a US based airline).

The airline has jobs doing everything from flying planes to fixing planes to working in the corporate office. United Airlines offers great benefits to employees, which makes the hiring process very competitive as the airline receives hundreds of thousands of applicants for open positions each year. Some of the benefits of working for United Airlines include:

• Unlimited standby travel and travel discounts to any destination the airline flies to.
• 401k with a company match
• Vision, dental, life, health, and long-term disability insurance
• A competitive salary

 

What Is the Hiring Process at United Airlines?

The hiring process is very efficient and standardized – all applicants for the same position will have the same hiring process. The exact process varies depending on the position. For instance, pilots, cabin crew, and mechanics will have to take more assessment tests and have more interviews than baggage handlers.

Anyway, here is a general outline of the hiring process at United Airlines.

 

Initial Application

The hiring process at United Airlines begins by creating a profile on the official United Airlines job portal. United Airlines usually hires through the job portal, but not always. Applicants upload their resume, CV, cover letter, and relevant licenses to the job portal. They can also manually add any relevant experience to their profile.

After United Airlines receives this information, they screen it for certain relevant keywords. Applicants that have profiles with relevant keywords will proceed to the next section, so make sure your profile has relevant keywords in it.

 

Assessment Tests

If United Airlines finds your application relevant, then they will send an email asking you to take an assessment test. The assessment test you will take depends on the position, but it is important to do well on it. The airline receives a lot of applications for every open position, so they can choose the applicants that do the best on the assessment test. It is important to prepare for the assessment tests for this reason.

Personality Assessments:

• Becoming United Virtual Job Tryout (VJT) – The VJT is an assessment given to those applying for cabin crew positions and other customer facing positions. It is a mix of a situational judgment test (SJT) where certain scenarios are presented and the applicant must choose the best response and other assessments. The other assessments include a listening/memory portion in which a recording of a hypothetical customer is played and the applicant must remember what the hypothetical customer said. This test is done online, but taking notes is allowed and strongly encouraged for the listening/memory portion of the test.
• Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) – All applicants at United Airlines will have to take a Hogan Personality Inventory test. United Airlines wants certain personality profiles for certain positions and will not hire applicants that do not match the personality profile for a particular position. Answer honestly while trying to understand the personality that United Airlines wants for a particular position. Practice tests with explained answers can greatly help to better understand the personality profile that the airline wants for certain positions.
• Hogan Development Survey (HDS) – The Hogan Development Survey (HDS) will measure the test taker’s less desirable traits such as mischievousness, boldness, and excitability. Again, every position has a different personality profile. Just like with the HPI, you should be honest while understanding the personality traits that United Airlines wants for that position.

It is important to note that experienced pilots will have to take the HDS and HPI.

 

Aptitude Tests:

• Mechanical Aptitude Test – Airline technicians and mechanics must take the Mechanical Aptitude Test. It is 40 questions with half of it a general knowledge portion that covers ATA chapters, regulations, and flight control surfaces. The practical part of the test will test the applicant’s practical knowledge of airplane maintenance. This could include riveting, fluid line identification, the amount of torque to apply to bolts, and other relevant topics. Applicants have 60 minutes to take the test. It is strongly recommended to take practice tests and review common ATA chapters before taking the assessment.
• Employee Aptitude Survey (PSI) – This is a catch-all test that pilots with no previous piloting experience are required to take during the hiring process. Applicants have 55 minutes to take this test and it has 10 sections that include:
  • Numerical Ability
  • Visual Pursuit (this involves accurately tracing a line)
  • Visual Speed and Accuracy
  • Numerical Reasoning
  • Verbal Reasoning
  • Manual Speed and Accuracy
  • Word Fluency Test
  • Symbolic Reasoning
  • Verbal Comprehension
  • Space Visualization
• PSI United Airlines Leadership Inventory Test – The Leadership Inventory Test is the other test that those applying to pilot positions with no previous experience must take. This test will determine the leadership ability of the applicant as well as the applicant’s decision making as a leader and orientation as a leader. This test is tough as it tests many different aspects of leadership. Practice Leadership Inventory Tests for pilots will guide you on the personality traits that airlines are searching for when hiring pilots, so it is certainly worth taking them.

 

Virtual Interview (HireVue)

The next step in the hiring process is a HireVue interview. This is not a live interview. Instead, the applicant will video record themselves answering questions on the HireVue platform. Recruiters from United Airlines will review the recordings and determine which applicants to interview face-to-face.

 

Face-to-Face Interview

The face-to-face interview at United Airlines will occur at one of the airline’s hubs for cabin crew and pilot positions. For these positions, it is an all-day event with applicants participating in group exercises, individual exercises, a one-on-one interview, and a panel interview.

Face-to-face interviews for other customer service, maintenance, and other positions are done at the airport or office (corporate or call center). The STAR method will work for answering most of the interview questions.

 

Conditional Offer of Employment

Candidates that pass the face-to-face interview will receive a conditional offer of employment pending a drug test and background check. If the candidate passes the drug test and background test, then they will begin the onboarding process at United Airlines.

 

How to Pass the United Airlines Assessment Tests?

The assessment tests at United Airlines for cabin crew, pilot, and maintenance positions are difficult and will require preparation to ensure a satisfactory result. The best way to prepare is taking timed practice tests (all psychometric tests at United Airlines are timed) that have explained answers.

You should then review the explanations for any questions that you struggled to understand. You should focus on fully understanding the explanation and the proper methodology to come to the right answer (if applicable).

Also, this applies to all the tests you may face in the hiring process, including the personality tests. Practice personality tests will have explained answers that will help you answer questions in a way that matches the personality profile of the job you want at United Airlines.