Now's the time to get ready for the hiring
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year or so, there’s a pent-up demand for pilots, and the time to get ready for the hiring boom was yesterday. Yet, when I ask pilots if they have their “stuff” in order, I often get deflected by excuses.
“I haven’t updated my logbook in years,” is a popular one.
“Yeah, I’ve got to get my transcripts in order,” is another.
“I have a friend who’s going to give me some of his interview prep books after he gets hired at XYZ Air.”
Truth is, the lousy excuses need to be addressed now, if you’re really interested in furthering your career. Otherwise, the motivated individuals will get hired before you, and they will enjoy a faster rise through the seniority ranks at airlines and corporate flight departments than you will. They will enjoy more pay, better schedules, quicker upgrades, and rack up more in their retirement accounts. Getting yourself ready for an interview should be the next priority after taking care of yourself and your family.
Set a goal to update your logbook weekly, if you’re flying a lot. It only takes about 10 minutes or so. If you fly 25 hours a week and go a month without filling out your log, the time to complete the logbook ratchets up to 40 minutes and the motivation factor goes down proportionally. That’s how you got in the logbook predicament in the first place. Invest the 10 minutes per week, and your logbook will not be an issue.
Filling out your logbook more often also keeps the flights fresher in your memory and provides answer fodder for future interviews. I like to place short notes next to flights in which something memorable happened—an important lesson learned, or a mechanical failure in flight, for example. These notes are great for answering those “tell-me-about-a-time” questions that interviewers love.
Like logbooks, online applications are also time-consuming, but recruiters at airlines and flight departments consider how often you log in and update your information as a sign of your motivation to work for their company. I set a goal to update all of my online applications every time I completed a page in my logbook, or once every two months or so. It took about 30 minutes to update them all. Your time may vary depending on how many applications you have out there.
While you’re on the Internet, peruse hiring websites like airlinepilotcentral.com, fltops.com, and mypilotcareer.com to find the latest information and prepare your answers to the example questions that are posted. Even if the questions are dated or are no longer used, exercising your brain to recall flights to best answer a similar question is time well spent.
Gather your high school and college transcripts. Sometimes retrieving this information can take weeks, so don’t hesitate to get those items in hand. And if your driving record isn’t too impressive, attempt to have the violations expunged. In most states, if your record is clean for three years or more, you can wipe your record clean and avoid any interview questions about your leaded right foot. If your record can’t be expunged, note the earliest possible date that this can be done—and mark your calendar to do it then. Also prepare an answer to explain your violations if you get an interview before you can expunge the record.
Most everything is computerized these days, but it’s still a good idea to prepare several copies of a current résumé and keep them with you in a folder, in your car, or anywhere that they can be retrieved quickly. You never know when an opportunity might come knocking and having that résumé ready to go is a good thing. As with online applications, plan on updating your résumé every time you complete a logbook page.
Finally, utilize any and every aviation contact you have. Keep an open eye and mind when at the airport. Don’t be afraid to chat up the pilots who just pulled up in a Citation and dropped their passengers. Point them to the right restaurant and they’ll likely appreciate it. Got that résumé ready to hand them as they leave? Troll Facebook to find pilot friends and former coworkers and see what they’re up to. Aviation is a small industry, and it’s only a few degrees of separation between you and someone at a company you’d like to fly for.
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