Director General of IATA and former CEO at Aer Lingus, British Airways and International Airlines Group, Willy Walsh interviewed on RTE Radio 1’s Business programme on Saturday, February 5 told an interesting story about himself.
In his final interview for the job as a cadet pilot with Aer Lingus he was asked by one of the interviewers, a pilot, if he had ever heard of a gyroscope. The 16-year-old Walsh said he had. The pilot then asked him what it was. Walsh told him he did not know what it was. The pilot rebuked him and said that he had just said he knew what it was. Walsh quickly replied that he had said that he had heard of a gyroscope but never said he knew what it was.
There were five people on the interview board, two pilots, two people from the then Aer Lingus personnel department and a psychologist. He got the job and at that interview. Four voted yes and one voted no.
Later as CEO of Aer Lingus he checked back on his file and saw the remarks of the pilot who had asked him the question. The pilot referred to him as ‘a. cocky little....'
What four people saw as confidence, one saw as cockiness. It’s a fine line between the two.
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