[Stephen_Young]

I’m going to go ahead and copy and paste something I said in a group chat. The full content was in regards to high vs low hours but this is the relevant bit: “But as has been mentioned to death, what’s a priority for one board isn’t necessarily a priority for another. And that includes boards at the same unit over different years. Every individual pilot has something specific they’re looking for and you just have to do the best you can and hope you get lucky with the specific combo that specific group of pilots on that specific board that specific year is looking for.”

Control what you can control, your age isn’t one of those things. I’ve been dinged at interviews specifically for being too old, as was said above some people have been dinged for being too young. You won’t know what the “right” answer is until you get there. There’s no sense in getting hung up on what you can’t control. That being said, there is generally a correlation between age and maturity. That’s just how time works. I’ve heard pilots on boards express concerns about maturity. Everyone should be doing their best to present themselves as professional, mature, well informed, and competent, but it’s especially important for someone around your age as some people (emphasis because it’s certainly not all and I don’t want to generalize) will be predisposed to assume you’re not as mature as older applicants. Not advocating for or against it, our brains are just programmed to group and assume and for some that group is “young people” and that assumption is “immature.” It’s on you to prove otherwise.

Like I said, do the best you can, control what you can control, and shoot your shot. The upshot for you is you have way more opportunities than someone pushing thirty to catch that “lucky combo.”