Interview:
An interview at the Recruiting Centre will be with a Military Career Counsellor, MCC. A Personnel Selection Officer, PSO, would only interview a serving military member who was looking at changing trades or profession. In military language, Officers have professions, Non Commissioned Members, NCMs, have trades. Don't shoot the messenger that's just the way they call it.
So if you are being interviewed at a CFRC (Canadian Forces Recruiting Centre) you should be interviewed by 2 MCC. They will be looking to develop a psychological profile on you, determine your suitability for your profession of choice and your potential as an officer and leader. Anyone wishing to do a profession such as pilot, must be officer material first and foremost. Whether folks agree with it or not that's the way our military is. There are very few countries in the Western world that still allow pilots to not be officers but Canada isn't one of them.
Being a pilot in the military will mean you are an officer first and must have the potential to lead men eventhough you may not have command of any units for a while as a pilot. Pilots also carry out a variety of secondary duties which must be assigned to an officer. On a line squadron these may include:
Administration Officer (less and less nowdays)
Flight Safety Officer
Public Information Officer for your Squadron
Standards Officer
Training Plans Officer
Just to name a few examples, there can be many more, some extremely trivial, others more important and relevant to your work.
In the interview don't be surprised if they ask the same question several times, at different times and re-worded. They are trying to test your intellect and aptitude a bit. They will also try to root out any racism tendencies in people or blatant prejudices. They will come right out and ask you if you have ever done drugs, the accepted level is what the majority of us would say such as, yes I tried a few doobies in High School.
The best part about this type of interview is that you just can't study for it. If you are a decent, hard working, reasonably intelligent and socially well adjusted person you will not have any problems. So just relax, be yourself and be truthful.
It is not unusual for someone to not so much fail the interview but to NOT be recommend as an officer. In other words they may interview you and along with their assesment and your written tests you could be told that you are not accepted as an officer but could apply for several NCM trades.
Remember, chill out, dress for success, it makes a huge impact for anyone wishing to be an officer. A nice suit and tie is not overboard, if you only have an old suit from your grade 8 dance, don't wear it! If you don't have a suit don't sweat it, but do dress in neat clothes. Dress pants, dress shoes with socks that match the shoes and high quality golf shirt would be the lowest form of dress I recommend for Officer applicants.
Hope this all helps, good luck.
Oh yeah, DO NOT BE LATE, WHATEVER YOUR REASON, a nearly quaranteed failure point.
