Opinion: Are second-career job seekers overlooked?

• Second career candidates.
• Already engaged aviation talent who cannot complete their first-choice career path.

If we go back to the statistics around careers, we know that most people will have five different careers and 17 different jobs in a lifetime. Snagging second or even third-career candidates seems like low-hanging fruit. The second area of talent is a group that is already ‘engaged talent’. Those who dropped off after entering pilot training, for instance. They’ve started pilot training or made it into a cadetship (no mean feat), but we lost them part way through. Do we let them wander off, or perhaps redirect them to other careers within the industry?

A recent client told me: “100 aspiring pilots started in his flight training course and only 40 finished’. That’s a huge drop-off rate. Not everyone will be interested in redirecting to other roles in the aviation industry as they head to plan B, but could we retain 10 per cent of those who are interested in staying in aviation by having pathway conversations about alternative roles? That same Boeing projection showed 716,000 new maintenance technicians and 980,000 new cabin crew members will be needed to fly and maintain the global commercial fleet over the next 20 years as well. With those numbers, we need a multi-pronged talent strategy.

I asked that pilot why fellow students failed to complete the course. Here’s what they said:

• Leaving aviation for another industry as they decided it was not for them.
• Medical reasons; failed to get Class 1 medical status.
• Did not perform to standard and failed to pass the first year.
• Subjects the cohort found most difficult to pass were maths and physics (especially if they had not done advanced maths previously).

Aviation is something people feel rather passionate about, so encouraging those in points two, three and four to stay in the industry in a different role seems doable. I have digressed a little from my focus on second-career candidates but felt it worth pointing out that a bird in the hand … you know the rest.

Let’s dive into finding out why my two-second career subject matter experts decided being a pilot was the right move for them now. This will also provide key insights into marketing to and engaging with future second-career candidates.

Future Pilot One is a woman who already works in the aviation industry and is heading into an airline pilot cadetship. Her pilot career was delayed due to COVID-19. The financial outlay was also a hurdle when considering this career change. On the upside, after several years as a cabin crew member, she has saved enough money to be financially stable throughout her pilot course and feels more in touch with the industry and its expectations.

Initially coming from a farming family with zero relationship with aviation, she found it extremely helpful to have the opportunity to engage with pilots directly to understand the industry. This has cemented a real interest in aerodynamics and uncovered an unexpected key motivation, which is the high level of responsibility around safety and duty of care a commercial pilot needs to have. Future Pilot One tells me there are real advantages to coming into this job with some maturity and life experience: “I am surer of my ability; I know I can rebound from hurdles and failures and am financially stable.”

There were those outside the industry who were not as positive, saying becoming an airline pilot was extremely hard. The inference was that it was ‘too hard’ for her. She chose instead to listen to the pilots themselves who supported her. “It is hard but make a goal, be consistent and just keep going, don’t give up and you will get to where you want to be”.

Future Pilot One’s key tips for preparing for this new career are:

• Talk to actual pilots doing the job to get the real picture of the career.
• Write down your goals, plan and organise your finances.
• Utilise all the online study material to help with the written exams.
• Purchase a flight simulator; Future Pilot One has a Cessna SIM she can operate at home.
• Take practical steps to study wherever you are. “When I am away on a trip, I use a laminated sheet of paper that displays a Cessna cockpit that I attach to the wall in my hotel room so I can practice chair flying.”
• Take physics and maths online courses and practice questions online. “Even though I achieved these subjects at a merit level in high school, I still feel I needed to refresh my learning.”

Future Pilot Two has had a few careers after an extremely high-performance role on the global stage. He also faced some personal hurdles that impacted his life dramatically. After all of that, he still went after the toughest job in aviation – an ADF fast jet pilot and officer.

My question to him was: why now?

“Joining the ADF provides a sense of purpose that very few other environments can emulate. The camaraderie, unique training and multiple possibilities throughout Defence allow for several careers and progressions within the one organisation. The RAAF expends a considerable amount of effort into cultivating lasting careers for its pilots.”

Future Pilot Two acknowledges that joining the ADF after such an accomplished civilian career will reduce his current earnings, and the tensions growing around the globe are, of course, of concern. Those are not the only hurdles, and it seems everyone has a point of view:

• “You’re too old.”
• “You’re making good money, why bother?”
• “I hope you’re good at maths. You know only 1 per cent of people make it, right?”
• “It’s the hardest role in the ADF to get into. Don’t bother.”

For him, the benefits outweigh the hurdles:

• Receiving a world-class education in aviation without accruing significant student debt and earning a salary while studying.
• Medical coverage and housing subsidies.
• A higher starting salary if applicants have completed a tertiary degree.
• Access to the latest technology and global collaborative exposure: the F35, the recent acquisition of new C130Js, advancing P-8 Poseidon capabilities, the delivery of Australia’s first unmanned aircraft, and growing collaboration with foreign militaries in joint exercises and training.

Similarly to commercial aviation, if the desire or motivation is to be part of a high-performing environment that offers both intellectual stimulation and physicality plus ongoing learning, then few careers can match that of a pilot. The ADF offers an additional layer where pilots get to embed themselves in the mateship, be ambassadors for their country, and contribute to the greater good.

I’m a firm believer that maturity has enormous benefits to being more of a ‘sure thing’ when it comes to employment and performance in any role. The benefits Future Pilot Two brings are somewhat similar to Future Pilot One, and he adds proven leadership ability, heightened ability to manage competing priorities and stressors, and the experience to replicate theory in a practical setting.

These lived abilities do not negate the need for preparation to succeed at each different aspect of training. Future Pilot Two prepares first by refreshing the absolute basics:

• Ensuring anaerobic and aerobic fitness.
• Taking a refresher course in mathematics, aviation theory, and aviation-specific mathematics.
• Seeking the opinions and expertise of people in service across all areas of the ADF.
• Taking several general aviation flights.
• Signing up to Defence Connect, RAAF Magazine and several Defence-related news outlets.
• Simplifying his life as much as possible. Pilots course will not be an easy ride, and minimal distraction is desirable.

Here are Pilot Two’s key tips for aspiring ADF pilots:

• Step up early. If there are any early opportunities to garner any leadership experience, or experience in working in simulated high-pressure environments – take them.
• Stay forever curious, listen intently and know what to expect. Aviation is an endless pursuit of learning, and my journey has been positively shaped by standing on the shoulders of giants.
• Understand your ‘why’ and ensure you’re in a comfortable living situation throughout the initial stages.
• Don’t be afraid to highlight what you bring to the table, but also be honest with yourself about what you lack.

I think Future Pilot Two finished this line of thinking quite gracefully, so I’ll add that verbatim.

“The pilot profession is something that many people can experience with the right amount of effort, determination, resilience, and patience. It is not an easy pathway, but it is achievable. The biggest hurdle, I would say, is medical incompatibility. Whether that means a candidate is incapable of pursuing the pathway in totality or does not meet the medical standards that the ADF wishes to see in its candidates – and thus falls below the threshold of ‘acceptable risk.’ There’s often an element of luck that you can’t prepare for and are at the mercy of. In addition, if a candidate fails to progress through a certain stage of the recruitment process, the mandatory waiting period (if applicable) prior to a re-attempt is difficult for some.”

The benefits of second-career pilot candidates are tangible, so let’s run through them:

• The ability to prove they can meet training standards.
• The maturity to handle high workloads and competing tasks.
• The life experience that helps assess and mitigate risk.
• The ability to recover from hurdles and manage stress.
• They are a great support source for younger pilots in their cohort.
• They have well-developed and deployed transferable skills.
• They understand what motivates them, what weaknesses they have and how to manage those.

Securing more second-career candidates is certainly a viable talent stream in this time of shortage. I could not find any specific statistics on second-career aviation job seekers, so it is tough to know how big this potential talent pool is or indeed how many we have in the system already.

I will say that it was not as difficult to find aspiring second-career pilots to interview for this piece as I had expected. Trawling through my database I found a diversity of transitioning second-career pilots that I had all but forgotten. They have come from healthcare, education, media, engineering and sporting careers, vets and tradespeople, finance and accounting, to name a few.

The commonality we see in this snapshot of past careers is process-driven personalities and runner-up to that, hands-on capabilities.

The next big questions have to be:

• How do we find them?
• What does our engagement plan look like?
• Who is going to drive this?