Secrets to Landing a Job as a Low-Time Pilot

all right so this week we're going to talk about how to get a job because let's be honest if you're looking out there in the marketplace you see what's going on at the Airlines and you know this whole pilot shortage but what nobody talks about is what's going on for the low time pilots and whether or not it's difficult getting a job and how to actually go and get one so today we're going to talk about how to better position yourself to get that low time job roll the intro all right so we're going to talk a bunch of different ways here I got some notes I took some notes down of things that you can do to help you position yourself better to get that low time flight jump because again we could talk about the airlines but I think that's been kind of Beat to Death um everybody understands at this point that it's more or less a captain shortage than anything else but we're low time Pilots this is general aviation you know how do you get that job as an instructors a banner toe pilot um pretty much anything else that's out there that you want we're going to mainly specific we're going to mainly be specific about how to get a job as a CFI as a flight instructor but this will apply to just about anything else and these are things that I look for when I'm hiring so number one is your resume make sure your resume is completely cleaned up and it's done professionally and looks good one thing you want to do is make sure that you have your flight time and your ratings near the top of that resume because the very first thing an employer is going to do when they're looking at your resume is they want to see your flight time in your ratings they want to make sure you're qualified then they'll move down the resume looking at everything else because if we're requiring 500 hours total time minimum and you have to be at least a cfwi and I look at your time and your ratings and that's not there you don't qualify we're not looking at the rest so get with someone that's already a pilot um see if you can kind of copy their resume the layout from that hire someone um there's professional resume writ out there but make sure they have done Aviation resumés before so they'll understand that your times and your ratings and stuff go at the top so that way it's easy to see number two is get some FaceTime network with people be at the airport talk to anyone and everyone um there's Facebook groups out there for Aviation and pilots and stuff like that get involved in those groups start talking to people make friends because odds are one of those friends that you make is going to be the person that's going to help you get a job but not only that is sometimes these people you're talking to you're not going to know really who they are or who they're connected to you could just be talking to some random person on there strike up a conversation you take it to direct messages private messages whatever these are having a conversation and next thing you know you have a job offer because that person actually makes hiring decisions or they could be a recruiter you just never know who it is that's on the other end of that so conduct yourself accordingly cuz you can go and you can make a name for yourself in that group and I promise you there are hiring managers and recruiters and everyone else in those exact same groups so if you're in there talking smack all the time and being unprofessional in those groups your name's going to get written down then when you want to go and put your resume in whether you qualify or not they're going to remember remember that guy he's that guy that's always clowning the group and causing problems and stuff like that that's not someone we want in the building that's not someone we want to fly with and spend hours upon hours with in a day so make sure you go out there you talk to everyone your network because again people are going to help you get hired as you go up through as you go up through your time and your ratings and all of that stuff um it sucks but that's kind of the way of the world I mean I mean when you got a th000 applications sitting on your desk for two jobs and everybody's pretty much equal but hey you you know the guy that works in maintenance and he's willing to come and put in a word for you guess what okay well nobody else is getting a word put in for them so where's your resume go it goes to the top of the pile so keep that in mind as you're moving forward through your career as a low time pilot all right number three and these next few are going to kind of compound on top of each other and it's be persistent and follow up but you don't want to be over the top that you're annoying um so basically what I recommend is follow up so if you do talk to someone or you do send a resume in or something like that give it a week and then reach out make sure that they received it ask them if they have any questions and then kind of let it go from there um you can let it go another week or two or if if you don't hear anything back you can always call and say hey I applied for this position I haven't heard back and I understand it can you give me any feedback based off of my resume and my position for this type of job obviously it's looking like I'm not a good fit for you guys at this time but can you give me any feedback about where I'm not meeting the standard or I'm not being as competitive as some other Pilots so that way I can go and better myself for the future when I do come back back to you and apply again I promise you if you were mediocre that moves you to the top of the pile because they're going to it shows that you're willing to improve it shows you're a go-getter you're willing to make things happen so you're going to help yourself with that but also you're going to get valuable feedback um kind of like me like when I applied for my first CFI job I applied for CFI and well the problem is is just having your CFI at least in the Orlando market is no longer good enough to get a job you have to at least be an instrument rated CFI the CFI instructor instrument instructor um cfwi you have to have that but then let's take it a step farther what I found out through following up and trying to find out things is that's not even good enough at this point in the Orlando market you have to have 200 hours of given of dual given time so you have to have two 100 hours in your log book of instructing along with having a cfii to even just make the basic competitive level here in the Orlando market now I'm sure there's some places that will hire you with less but just talking around to other schools and stuff that seems to kind of be their Baseline right now so the problem is is well how do you get that 200 hours of dual given time if you can't get a job anywhere and well that's the problem right now at least we're seeing here in Central Florida with pilots and flight instructors and people trying to build time and stuff like that where do you go and get it because no one's willing to give you a shot from the beginning to help you get to that point so you got to kind of find other avenues to do it number four is a personalized email so when you send any it could be a personalized phone call cover letter whatever so when you send your resume over you want to have a personalized email cover letter whatever it is personalize it from you to that school don't just be a copy and paste you know and send it everywhere um tailor it to that school what their needs are that you can see and how you can help with that because that's the other thing too is it's not just a you need me situation it's an I need you situation so yes the school understands how they can make your life better they're going to give you money they're going to let you fly planes and it's going to build your time and then they know you hit, 1500 hours you're out the door you're leaving they got to go through the process all over again it's a revolving door schools know and understand that but you will get those people that'll stick around and just kind of be lifetime cfis that's just kind of what their jam is but again nobody really knows what your goals are what it is you want and how you can benefit the company by being hired there if you don't tell them so personalize that email tell them what you can do for the company cuz they already know what they can do for you but what can you do for that company what are your goals what are you looking for spell all that out for them so that way they can get to know you and understand you and what you want to do and that will help them make a better decision on whether or not you're a fit for that company so if you are someone that's not chasing 1500 hours because you don't care about the Airlines because you just enjoy flying and enjoy teaching and you want to be a lifetime CFI put that in writing let the school know that because I promise you that means something to that school that's one less person if they stick to that word that they're going to have to turn over but don't lie if you go in there and you say oh I'm going to be a CFI for life I have no plans to leave and then you hit, 15500 hours and you're immediately out the door well now you're building a bad reputation for yourself and wor is going to travel now I understand things change circumstances change life happens so it's one of those things where if that's your plan you want to be a lifetime CFI but hey I don't know um you have a big medical bill do or something like that you really need the money so you have to go to the Regionals or go get that jet job and stuff like that talk to the school let them know what's going on they're going to be understanding what stuff like that but again you have to let them know don't don't damage your reputation because that will hurt you down the line number five and this goes with number three with the personaliz email and letter and stuff like that do a thank you card or a thank you email to the hiring person um the recruiter whoever it is that you spoke to within that company even if you don't get hired send a thank you card or an email or whatever for them taking the time to at least look over your email I promise you that simple little gesture makes you stand out because no one else out there is doing that so again that can also be considered a follow-up like we talked about in number three it's going to help you stand out it's going to help you get that resume kind of looked at again because now you're saying hey it's been a month or whatever it is and they get an email from them saying from you saying hey thank you for the opportunity to interview or reviewing my resume obviously wasn't a fit but again thank you for your time it doesn't have to be anything complex but I promise you when they get that email they're going to go oh who was that again they're going to go look at your resume again and guess what you might get hired based off of that thank you email that thank you card whatever it is you send them you never know it doesn't hurt you're being a good person at that time or at that point doing something like that but you're also still going above and beyond what everyone else out there is doing and again the reason I have this list and I'm making these things is because I decided to go out there and start my own flight school and I see what's coming through and a lot of it's not good and I understand why a lot of people are not getting hired for jobs so when I have someone come through that does a lot of these things guess what they go to the top of the stack of people that I would hire when I get to that position and where I need to take on help for doing different things whether it be more instructors office Personnel whatever so it's one of those things like go that extra step and a thank you card thank you email even when you don't get it guess what it's going to raise you higher in that list because it's going to make them go look at you again and be like oh wow all right this is a really good person this is someone we can want around here that we could spend time with and we can kind of put resources into number six is the obvious one stand out with your resume and with everything it is and everything you do and we're talking ratings um rentals stuff like that so a lot of this if you've noticed all kind of fits together um don't just be that pilot that is a CFI or CFI and that's all you have you've only flown a Cessna 172 and you want to go get this job now there's nothing wrong with any of that but again how are you standing out from the rest of the pile you're really not so go out there and get some unique things go fly some different aircraft get into flying clubs where you can fly some different aircraft um if there's a school that offers a rental program get some faas time with them get into the rental program go and rent the plane and just fly their planes get familiarized with their Fleet do things like that because again we go back to number two the networking and getting FaceTime and stuff so if you're renting from a place that you want to work they're going to see you they're going to see your pre-flight procedures they're going to see your postflight procedures they're going to see how well you take care of the aircraft how quick you are to pay your bill you know those type of things what what type of person you are because you're also going to be interacting with the office staff if you're doing stuff like that but then when we go to the ratings go get some unique stuff that's going to stand out go take that aerobatic lesson go get your tail wheel endorsement get your high performance and complex endorsement go and get all of these different things and make sure you put them on there because if you come in there and you can say hey you know what I got 10 hours of aerobatic training with a ton of spin recovery and unusual attitudes and all this different specialized training that you can go and get and all these different courses it's going to help you stand out because if I have a resume in front of me and there a CFI and they're 200 hours given and you're a CF ey and you're 200 hours given but you have tail wheel and you have floats SE plane you've done aerobatics courses you've done some fairy flying you've done some a flying and the other person is just a cfwi with the same amount of time given who's my better hire I'm going with the more diverse background because you can bring more to the school to the company with all of those different things so again diversify that background and that resume with that and number seven which is the bonus one um just because it's what I did if you an entrepreneur or you have that kind of Drive in you and you're just not getting a job doing what you want to do start your own company it's what I did I didn't have the money to go for cfwi initially when I got my CFI I'm doing it now but I didn't have the money for it so I'm just a CFI and like I told you earlier in the video you can't get hired in Orlando unless you're at least a double ey and most of them want to see 200 hours of dual given well I didn't have either of those and I'm not just going to sit home and do nothing I love to fly I love to teach and you've seen that with some of my students in the videos on this channel already so I went and I started my own company sure some people will go out there and they'll just do independent cfis and that's a great route to go I took it a step further formed an LLC and started my own company because I want to have the ability to grow should I get to that point if I don't ever get to that point that's perfectly fine llc's really aren't that expensive to kind of get into get registered and get the bank accounts and stuff it doesn't cost a ton of money but it protects myself it protects my name it protects my business name so if I do want to expand down the road I have the opportunity I already have that Foundation set to be able to build from but again now if you go that route you go the independent route you start your own company doing things like that you have to know how to Market but again those are things you can learn and you have to know how to go out there and find students for yourself and again there are ways that you can learn that for free online I actually plan on making a video on how to be a successful independent CFI here coming up in the future um I'm just still working on putting that together so again watch that video here in the future but again don't be afraid to step out on your own and start your own company for doing whatever it is you want to do if you want to be a faery pilot and you can't get hired by a company to Ferry airplanes for them start your own Ferry pilot company again just make sure you're in compliance with the fars and everything else that you're supposed to do but there's really not a lot out there stopping you from starting your own company to do what you want to do as long as you're not trying to become a 135 or a 121 operator the barrier is very low to being able to start your own company and do these things I know flight schools out there that are owned by people that aren't Pilots so you don't even have to be a pilot to open a flight school now obviously you need to hire a Pilots to run a successful flight school but you don't have to be a pilot to open a flight school it's just a business so you kind of have to look at it from that aspect is same thing with being a ferry pilot you can open a ferry pilot company you don't have to be a pilot you're going to have to hire Pilots to do the fairing at that point or Banner towing or anything else but you can go and start your own company for any of these things so that's what I have for today on how to stand out better when you're trying to get a job as a low time pilot I help it I hope it helps someone if it does please let me know in the comments below if there's anything I missed that you have if you have some other advice that you'd like to add to this for other people you want to help people please drop that in the comments below also and I'll see you next week

Channel: Pilot Joe

Views: 2,784

Keywords: pilot, pilot school, pilot training, aviation, flight training, flight school, part 141, part 61, cessna, cessna 172, pilot vlog, aviation vlog, general aviation, life of a pilot, pilot life, day in life as a pilot, pilot job, how to become a pilot, private pilot, student pilot, become a pilot, commercial pilot, private pilot license, flight training videos, private pilots license, flight, flying, learn to fly, pilot training video, becoming a pilot, pilots, job

Id: n-m2rR7Bi04

Length: 19min 23sec (1163 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 15 2024