Handling the hiccups

Some airline cadet candidates have reported feeling disadvantaged with the focus on gender equality as part of the hiring criteria whilst at the other end of the scale, type rated pilots with thousands of hours have received the, “your application has not progressed,” email.

I will say straight up that most hiccups are manageable, but I also want to assure you that I hear you. Your concerns are real and valid.

While you cannot force an airline to sort out their recruitment, training or Human Resources challenges you can control your attitude and your plan. After all the only person you can control is you.

The issues or ‘new style hiccups’ are compounded by the current climate of airline growth and the high demand for pilots and ancillary staff. Logical thinking would have us believe that some of these issues are less likely to occur because growth is good, it provides opportunities and industry movement. Agreed… in theory.

The reality? The growth has created a whole bunch of new career challenges. While most are not deal breakers your attitude will have a great deal to do what occurs next in your career. Irrespective of how you are being affected by the current recruitment climate, there are three things that you do have control over and they will affect the next phase of your flying career:

• Are you taking responsibility for your actions or part in the outcome?
• Do you have the tenacity and resilience to move forward?
• Do you have a failure or change management plan?

I’ll address those new ‘big three’ individually.

First up, what does it mean when an airline rejects you?
Well, it’s not personal, really it’s not. I cannot stress that enough. I also realise it feels very personal, this is your career, your life.
However, they don’t know you so it can’t be.
Airlines have a set of key criteria by which they assess and rate your application and following that, during the assessment day, they rate your performance on the day. Again – I stress, on the day.

Understanding those criteria is key to preparing effectively and performing well during the Assessment Day. There are of course no guarantees but it goes a long way to giving it your best shot.

A rejection post assessment day pure and simply means, at this stage, you have not met enough of the airlines criteria. That doesn’t mean that you cannot meet them in future.

If you didn’t get a look in past application and you meet or exceed the requirements, then that comes down to internal recruitment objectives. These change regularly within an airline. Read the airlines response/rejection notification carefully, quite often it is not a flat out ‘no’. Trust me, if it is flat ‘no’ there will be ambiguity about it.

Regardless of the reason for the result, any candidate should have a Plan B firmly in place; you might call it a ‘Failure or Change Management Plan’. Plan B’s help regroup and regain some of the control you lost with the rejection. It might look something like this:

Ask for feedback from the airline (some will provide this now)
Debrief on the result with someone you trust
Accept the areas you need to improve
Action those areas
Plan to reapply, research new opportunities or progress within your current role (if available)

What if – you are stuck on a hold file?
As an industry, hold files are longer than any of us can remember. We are coming up on 12 months in some cases. Feels as if your career is on hold? Of course it does. Remember that a hold file means you have been successful. It also means that the airline has a backlog of training spots or a lack of resources in that area. We all know the latter is a huge issue right now for most carriers. Ensure you:

> Keep abreast of the airlines plans
> Communicate with them regularly (ask for updates). You might not always get the reply you want but it cannot hurt to ask
> Keep your eye on other opportunities
> Review your decision every three months, ask yourself;
> ‘How long can I afford to wait?’ or
> ‘How long do I want to wait?’

How do Cadetship gender quotas affect me?

I had this very discussion today. A well-respected jet pilot who has been mentoring cadet candidates voiced concern about the gender equality quotas disadvantaging one sector or the other. His concerns were valid. I countered by adding that encouraging women into the industry is one way of bolstering the pilot numbers coming into aviation. It forms part of the plan to eradicate the experience shortage we currently have within pilot ranks. He felt that some women might get a yes, or more relaxed consideration simply because of gender in order to meet those targets. I can understand that, it might happen. However airline recruitment and training processes soon weed out those who are not 100% committed and motivated. Becoming a commercial pilot is not something you can attempt half-heartedly.

There are also more cadet programs opening in 2018-2019 than in the previous four years, i.e. more opportunities. If you don’t succeed in one then have a go at another one and ensure you get the right preparation to improve your chances. My Mentor Pilot also talked about the cadets not understanding the level of preparation and maturity of approach required. Cadets, your parents are not being assessed. If this job is for you, and I hope it is, I would like to talk far less often to your parents. I’d like to talk to you, go ahead pick up the phone. No drone-parenting permitted.

Aviation is an interesting space to be working in right now. It has its own peculiar evolving challenges, but it is never dull. While writing this article a theme became clear – communication. It is key to reassessing your career hiccups, delays and frustrations. Communication will help regain perspective and enact ‘next steps’. This morning I spoke with six pilots for probably 25 minutes each – no, not coaching them, just communicating the state of the industry, interpreting their situations and sharing their frustrations. That’s ok, that’s what we are here for. Never hesitate to get in touch, and remember – communicate, deal with the facts and have a back up plan.