Be prepared

You may have come from a school where you undertook integrated instruction or you took the longer self-funded route to a CPL. Regardless, the competition can be tough for that first job and that means that you have to be tougher, more skilled and better prepared in your approach to get that job.

It is not uncommon for employers of new-start pilots, be it basic charter work or as flight instructors, to comment that the new-start is often poorly prepared, both in applying for the job and the dayto- day skills needed. The new-start often has to be mentored for the first few hundred hours to make sure he or she knows what commercial flying is all about.

It is a failing of the system that new-start CPL holders can go to instructor school immediately after they get their licence and become flight instructors with no other general experience. It has beencalled the blind leading the blind.

Have a look at the logbook of pilots who have recently started flight training. It is quite common to have two or three pages of manoeuvres flown, such as straight and level, circuits etc, but have no mention of the departure location. That gets back to the experience, or lack thereof, of the junior instructor.

With young pilots there is often an unwritten expectation of the employer to help turn a kid into an adult. Some have never lived away from home, never done their own washing or cooking and cannot grasp that an 8am flight departure means ready for a key start at 7. 50am.

Getting that first flying job is usually the hardest. The second comes easier.

An interview with a prospective employer can be a make-or-break event. When employers look at the applicant they are thinking how will he/she fare, how will paying customers see this pilot, will the pilot conduct the flight in a professional manner and have the customers happy so they will not only enjoy the flight but get there and back in one piece? Did this prospective pilot turn up for the interview in jeans and a tee shirt or in garb more befitting a professional? Yes, it can be the little things that can swing the decision. The wider the number of types that a new-start has flown the better. The CV or resume. Does it address the CP or CFI by name or is it a generalisation addressed to ‘Whom it may concern’. The internet or even a phone call will obtain the name of the CP or CFI. Has the applicant a knowledge of the aircraft types and operations of the firm being applied to? Regardless of how much or how little experience a pilot has it can be a good move to review the CV every six months. It can be updated as experience grows and even massaged into a better layout with knowledge of how other CVs are presented.

Aircraft. For a low-time pilot looking for that first job they need to get time on more types than just a C152, C172, PA-28 or C182. A tour flight operator will be keen to see time in heavy six-place singles – Cessna 206, 210, Beech 36 and PA-32 series time will be looked upon more favourably than in traineraircraft. It is a rare operator who will take a 200-hour pilot and put him or her straight into a twin. The first job is therefore a single and the job applicant needs to hone their skills to the types that the operator, charter or instructional, is flying.

The wider the number of types that a new-start has flown the better.

They equate to more experience.

If there is a gap between getting the CPL and applying for that first job it is important to keep flying and logging time – even time in a Cessna 152 is better than nothing.

Networking. What a word, but in the aviation game it gets more pilots into jobs than are advertised in print or online. Networking means letting as many people know as possible that the prospective new-start is looking for a position. Do they know someone who is looking for a pilot? If you get a ‘sorry, no vacancy’ with an operator then ask if they know another operator who might be needing a pilot with your skills. Having a good CV and some basic business cards to hand out will assist. Visiting an operator and talking face to face with the boss who hires pilots can be better than simply sending a CV by mail or email. Yes, it takes time and money but history would show that a lot of pilots flying in the top end who have ‘gone north’ got their first jobs that way.

The first job. Sometimes hard to get but the second comes easier with additional experience.