Getting Hired

You've got thousands of pilots vying for a few hundred available jobs each month. Those are formidable odds. How do you compete? If you're reading this article, you probably have the drive within you to be among the lucky ones. Those numbers reflect applicants for airline jobs where the data are more readily available, but they are similar for corporate flying and other jobs that aren't tracked with statistics.

Pilot hiring has always been a fickle business. In rare cases, who you know may take precedence over skills and experience when it comes to landing a job. Life isn't always fair, after all. Some hiring departments make a false impression and let the perfect candidate walk out the door. Others misread an applicant and hire a problem child. Outside of those extremes are the vast majority of applicants. Many pilots think that flight hours are the most important thing to possess when trying to land a job. Hours and experience are important, but not as important as basic people skills such as honesty, integrity, and humility.

Honesty

Honesty is likely the most important trait that an applicant can have. If you can't be trusted, nobody will want to hire you. If you, the job applicant, are asked a question that you don't have an answer for, don't--under any circumstances--make one up. The chances of being caught in a lie are high, and if caught, you could be marked for life. Likewise, lying on your application, fudging flight times, or trying to sweep that landing incident under the rug can be caught in a background check or logbook review. Interviewers are on high alert for these types of transgressions. Don't go there.

Integrity

Aviation is a small world and the "loose lips sink ships" phrase takes on new meaning. Believe it or not, those colleagues whom you dislike now may save your bacon later. You simply never know who might be sitting across the interview table. Recruiters will respect you more if you reserve judgment about others if asked.

"Tell me about a time you flew with a pilot whose skills were sub par?" If you launch into a tirade about the stupid pilot tricks of one of your colleagues, you've only proven that you are the type of pilot they don't want. Instead, tell them about a time a copilot or one of your students had a hard time grasping a concept and was considering giving up. But when he finally "got it," he resumed his lessons with the vigor he had before. It's also good to end the story on a positive note and relate what you learned from the experience.

Humility

So you can't answer one of the questions on the technical interview? 'Fess up and say so. Nobody wants to hire a pilot who can't admit when he's wrong. Egos have no place in a cockpit. The days of the tyrant captain went away with the Boeing 707. Today's captains are managers of a crew, and interviewers want to see that you are capable of managing others without leaving a trail of disgruntled coworkers because you make rash decisions. When there's a crisis in the airplane, it's a team effort to resolve it with the first officer, flight attendants, dispatcher, and others. It should never be a hasty decision by the captain alone unless time is critical. Showing your humble side will do wonders for your chances of getting hired.

Persistence could also be added to this list. It took me two tries to get hired at my first-choice airline. It's easy to get lazy and justify your current job as "a pretty good place to be." Meanwhile, seniority numbers are being handed out every day. Every seniority number leads to a better schedule, more pay, more time off, and other benefits. If your dream job shoots you down, keep trying. Nobody will fault you for being persistent in the pursuit of your goal.

Pete Bedell is a Boeing 737 first officer for a major airline and former technical editor of AOPA Pilot.