Haha thanks man. The wait - it's been an interesting ride
I've been in the pool shy of 4 months. I interviewed last year. Been in touch with people who had less exp who interviewed after me that were in the pool not even 2-3 weeks.
The name of the game is that the wait times in the pool vary so much due to many different reasons, that trying to figure out why someone waits and someone doesn't becomes something you can drive yourself insane with hahah
Here are the reason's for long and short wait times that I've heard for both WJ and Encore. I don't know how accurate they are, but take it with a grain of salt - they seem to make sense:
- Interview scores
- Good references / poor references
- (Encore), you did extremely well on your interview, but they would like to see you with a bit more time before you take that left seat with them, so they keep you in the pool to gain more hours (hence why some people are in the pool north of the normal time line to get a call). The way I understand it, people who anticipate sitting in the right seat for 2 or 3 years at Encore (say a 2000 hour pilot with navajo and 704 time) may get a call before a 3000 hour pilot with 2000 hours 705 time, cause they want the 3000 hour guy to maybe get another 500 hours before they join, but will still upgrade ahead of the previous guy who will be waiting 2-3 years for their turn. WOW, worst run on sentence ever, but does it make sense? LOL.
- Demand at Encore, so if they anticipate a lot of their senior guys flowing through, perhaps they will hire a more experienced class that can replace the additional roles at Encore that are normally held by the experienced guys flowing through. You know Training Captains, ACP's, Sim Instructors (not really sure what the additional roles are at Encore).
- Trying to award you a base close to you so you don't have to move across the country. Try to give BC/AB/MB people YYC, or give ON/QE/NB people YYZ, etc.
- More experienced people being the obvious choice and pushing other people with less exp down the pool.
- WJ trying to have a good relationship with your company, so they don't take many people at once. Or if they know you have a training bond, they take you closer to the expiry of your training bond? Not sure about the latter, but I've heard the first one quite a bit.
- Etcetera
If it's any consolation I know of 4 people who were PFO'd on their initial interview, waited a year, reapplied, and when pooled only waited a few weeks for a course. So this whole pool/pfo process is in my opinion something no body should ever take personally. As it does not at all define the abilities and values you bring to your work place. Sure, some people would obviously get a PFO, but it's my opinion that there are a lot of good guys and girls who don't get the chance that should be, as proven by the people who get pfo'd initially and then hired a year later. But! No one is entitled to anything in this industry, so just take the chances as they come, and hope they amalgamate into the right path for your career
I've heard of one person who had their candidacy expired after 12 months. This individuals wife worked at WJ and was constantly bugging HR why they haven't hired her hubby. So a boundary of professionalism was crossed and I think that's why this person didn't get it. Other than that, it's even been DaveP's word that they utilise everyone in the pool. You're usually in the pool cause they want you, not cause they feel sorry for you
The wait sucks! But it builds character, so the attitude remains
onwards and upwards - tailwinds and blue skies. 
How long have you been in the pool metal?
