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Hansard
13th Dec 2006, 10:02
Just sent my CV to a certain airline for the 20th time in 2+ years. They interview people regularly (including many with the same experience, hours, background, etc. as myself) Their criteria remain a mystery to most wannabes and the successful candidates are a mixed bag. Does persistence pay or is it time to take the hint???

Has anyone out there stuck with it and succeeded after multiple attempts?

Just a general, light-hearted enquiry from a jaded wannabe!

Luke SkyToddler
13th Dec 2006, 12:04
I have a cardboard box full of somewhere between 400 and 500 airline rejection letters, accumulated over the course of 4 or 5 years applying before I got my first break (now flying airbus for a major airline).

I'm going to wallpaper my office with them when I build my dream house in another year or two, and every evening when I sit in my big leather armchair I'm going to have a smug grin on my face and extend a big fat middle finger to that wall of rejection letters :)

Dreaming about that day was what kept me going through all the years of unemployment and sub minimum wage instructing and pain-in-the-arse and grief ...

Keep it up dude and NEVER give up, getting the job is just a big game of last man standing.

CPL_Ace
13th Dec 2006, 12:04
Have you done anything other than send your CV? - sounds like you're really into this airline. I've done the same thing with an airline to no avail. Then I tried ringing to ask if they'd received my latest CV. Some people meet this with a little bit of shortness and others fully understand your situation. On one occasion I asked and the lady actively fished my CV out from her pile while on the phone and gave me some clues as to when they'd be hiring again and what I should do.

One other thing I started doing was addressing letters Dear Sir/Madam. WRONG!!:= It shows a lack of background work on your part. Stay away from mail merge was the advice I was given. I've no doubt I'm showing you to suck eggs but if I'm not, there are some useful links on here that I've read. They talk about popping your head round doors at the airlines and networking at bars local to the airfields!

nuclear weapon
13th Dec 2006, 14:43
I have two rejection letters so far with one saying i dont meet thier current requirement but they'll keep me on file so thats 2.5 rejection letters. I am also waiting for ryanair and flybe to get back to me. Having observed those that have gotten jobs that I know I can confirm that getting a job is 80% luck an who you know. My observation has debunked some myths.


*Airlines only take integrated: Complete lie I know a lot of modular students who have gotten jobs.


*Airlines only employ those with first time passes: Incorrect I personally know a lot of pilots who have first time passes in everything and over a year without a single interview one had to do sstr with gecat to get a job. I also know people who partialled in ground school and flight test and got jobs on jet.


*Airlines only employ people in thier twenties: This is the most common lie I've heard 75% of those that I know who got jobs in the past year were all over thirty.


Bottom line while it is almost immpossible to put a finger on what the airlines want I still think the best way is having a good friend who is a training capt. I knew two chaps whose cv was bumped up this way. Infact one whose dad is a training capt with a major airline had an interview slot two weeks before he did his ir flight test. I am sure you are wondering how he filled the application form he's currently flying jets.


This is sad as i know a lot of very good pilots that seem to fit the generic criteria on the surface first time passes, gets along with different people, right age group (if there is such a thing with the so called shortage). I knew a couple guys that I along with other students in the school called very good pilots yet it took them two/three years to get a job.


Good luck and hang in there. Every rejection letter you get brings you one closer to the one that will say yes.


I have complied a list below of your chances of getting a job with a fresh atpl based on my three years of training and observation which isn't scientific.


Your dad is a training capt with an airline: 95% chance
This reduces to 70% if it is your brother or close friend.


You have deep pockets to pay for type rating and 100 hours: (97.5%)


you decide to go via ctc: 35%


You dont know anyone significant:20%
This goes higher in proportion to the numbers of cv's you send and if you are flexible to relocate i.e to Africa or Asia.


Ryanair online: 50%
I regularly talk to thier man in charge in amsterdam and he told me they've asked for over three hundered next year. If you can withstand bad T&C's then this is a good option For twenty grand you get a type rating and 300-400 hrs.

nuclear weapon
13th Dec 2006, 15:18
I was reffering to the initial form filling stage or stage 1.i.e percentage of those that fill the application for to those that come out at the very end getting type rated.

scameron77
14th Dec 2006, 05:34
I'm aware from speaking to CTC Cadets that not everyone who makes it to Hamilton is sucessful, despite a rigerous selection some cadets don't make the grade.

Therefore I'd suggest that not every Cadet is 100% guaranteed, upon completion of the AQC then thats a different story.

speedrestriction
14th Dec 2006, 09:44
...whilst you watch less experienced people take the jobs from under you.

Disappointment is inevitable as long as you believe that you have more of a right to a particular job than someone less experienced/able/personable than you.

sr

Jinkster
14th Dec 2006, 16:07
Hansard,

How many hours do you have?

When did you last fly?

How old are you?

Which companies have you been targeting?

- I was lucky enough to get 3 interviews within 2 months (BMI regional, Cityjet and Ryanair).

Currently on the 737NG Type rating with one of the above companies. I wasnt lucky enough to pass through Cityjet and turned down BMI Regional 4 days before starting with other operator!

Good luck to all and YES it can be done!!

Jinkster

Anotherflapoperator
14th Dec 2006, 17:22
From what I can gather from other threads and gossip, the qualifications needed for Flybe are a valid licence, one head and a pulse. They are desperate for pilots as turnover is huge...

I got my F/ATPL in 1991 and spent six years paying my loan off without anything to show for it but a file full of rejections. At least most were polite. Manx was the only company to offer me an interview, and thankfully they offered me a job which I'm still in 9 years later.

Now Flybe are buying us, I'm trying to move on and am having about as much luck as I did when I had 255 hrs, let alone nearly 6,000!

Just keep on trying and good luck.

MackMeeter
17th Dec 2006, 23:05
I can offer no more helpful advice than anybody else has here. It took me 2.5 years of applying before I got my first job. I have a box full of rejection leters just like most, although my favourites adorn my toilet wall in a picture frame -the best one being the rejection then offer of employment with one company spearated by 4 years!

If you want it badly enough it will happen, just hold your nerve and keep the faith. You do however need to make you own luck. Keep a spreadsheet on who you've applied to, how you applied and what the result was, when to contact them again. Sounds a bit anal but it works. Build up those contacts, the aero club bar/cafe was alaways a good one, there's 5 airline blokes I know of still hanging about at the club I used to instruct at, you'll be suprised who you get chatting to! Its a fine like between being actively in contact and a pain in the backside unfortunately, you just have to use your own judgement. Don't be discouraged by stories of Johnny Oxford getting their first job in a 757 after 16 months of first setting foot in an aircraft if you're plodding away at modular because there are plenty integrated studes who don't get anywhere at first. We've all had to pass those nasty exams and do the flight test regardless of the route we got there (those who know me will know how difficult it was for me to say that!).

Stay positive, maximise your chances/opportunities and try not to take the knock backs personally, good luck!! :ok:

Vortex Thing
19th Dec 2006, 19:24
Just started with jet operator after 3 yrs of applying counted 293 applications of which less than 20 had ever replied.

35 years old today.

Saw numerous people older, younger, less experienced, more experienced get jobs with airlines which never replied to me so all the above IMHO holds true. It is a lottery just keep plyaing it or you can't win it.

Good luck VT