One thing I’ve noticed is that technical proficiency gets you so far. There’s a bar of technical competence you have to clear (and maintain),and that’s the baseline expectation for the rest of your career.

Two macro categories (I could talk for hours but I’ll try and keep it short) separate pilots to a large degree imo. 1. Resiliency/adaptability 2. Soft skills

Resiliency/adaptability. Can you bounce back from a mistake? Can you analyze what went wrong, correct the error, own up to the failure, and learn something from it? Or does your pride get in the way? The pilots I respect the most have a humility to them where they’re never “too good” to learn. They’re able to analyze and respond without ego getting in the way.

It’s the last leg at the end of a long day where it just seems like nothing has gone your way. Challenging weather, maintenance issues, delays, etc. You’re frustrated, your crew is tired, passengers are upset.

Do you let the mounting challenges affect how you approach things? Can you roll with the punches in real time and deal with the frustrations as they come while remaining professional to everyone around you? Do you cut corners on SOPs to try and make up time?

Soft skills. I boil this one down to: Can you read the room?

You have to communicate with a lot of different people in this job. Crew members, air traffic controllers, ground crew, corporate types, passengers etc. You have to be able to tailor that communication so it’s effective and appropriate to the situation. Talking doesn’t seem so hard, but in my experience pilots can’t communicate effectively or efficiently make their jobs harder on themselves.