Best qualifications to add to your freshly minted cpl/ir?

[Obs cop]

As the title says,

What can the owner of a new ink wet ir do that employers value?

Is a joc or fi rating worthwhile? Do additional academic qualifications hold any sway?

Cheers,

Obs

[paco]

Try learning a language

Phil

[Obs cop]

Phil,

I must admit, I hadn't considered a language but that makes a huge amount of sense.

Thanks,
Obs

[Jerry Lee]

I heard somewhere that learning arabic could be helpful to find job.
I suggest you to learn german.

[welliewanger]

An FI rating is the qualification most likely to get you a job. It'll also teach you loads. The JOC is useful, nice to have. But I'd definitely recommend the FI. You never stop learning as an instructor.

Now I think of it, I knew one operator which had a policy of only hiring FIs on their larg biz jets. He reckoned that the FI experience made them more "switched on"

[mad_jock]

Joc is worth next to nothing because there are no jobs going

FI these days is also worth next to nothing just because there are so many of them about.

To be honest from you handle of OBS COP if you are a police observer you have already tick so many boxes compared to you usual knumb nuts wannabe

[johnnyDB]

the question should be more in the lines of ratio of value for money/ chances at a job. 'cause if it's just planely best rating, i would have to go with 'space shuttle'-rating :ok:

[Obs cop]

MJ,

Thanks for the vote of confidence, however I am an ex RN observer and current plod. Unfortunately police air observer roles are very few and far between.

I am hoping my cv is a little more appealing than an average wannabe.

Obs

[mad_jock]

With that back ground there are a few operators that would appreciate your previous experence. I have sent a PM

[lander66]

Learning a new language could be a huge waste of a huge amount of time if you don't ever get to actually use it. Only learn one if you have a guarunteed job abroad or if you really enjoy learning it. Imagine learning German because you hope to get a job in Germany or Austria and then ending up with a job in another country. Of course it would still look good on your CV to be multi-lingual.

[paco]

lander66 - only 21% of the world speaks English - you are automatically excluding yourself from the remainder if you don't bother. On that basis, Spanish would be the best choice followed by French or German depending on where you want to live.

Learning a language is a cheap upgrade for a low-hour pilot.

Of course, if you only want to stay in that 21%........

Phil

[MagicTiger]

About learning Spanish!
It is not as simple as where would you want to live the majority of Spanish is spoken in South America - where most Europeans don't stand a chance in hell to get a job unless they can get a work permit in that specific country!

Why not Portugese, Brazilian airlines are hiring?
I also know Colombian airlines hiring, but unless European is married to someone from that nation, there is not a peanut in hell that will get a job with low hours in South America, so why learn Spanish (or Portugese) if you can't apply for the majority of work there?

There as to be some substance to advice given, I could apply for job in South America, because my wife is from a country there, but this is not a simple step, it gets pretty complicated. License conversions, skills tests and theory test all in Spanish + this is not for free, expect another few thousand pounds - and than you can apply for jobs there.
Many there bond you for 3 - 5 years, and pay your TR and as a FO you might complain about what FR pays you, well half the FR salary - and you see what you get.

Of course it is much cheaper to live in South America! (some wise person who has never been there might say!)
No it isn't, if you want to live in a decent house, in a safe area, and have a normal standard of life. A Toyota is not going to be half price of price here in Europe, a can of beans will not be sold for 5 pence either.
(Of course the Burritos and Tequilas on the corner shop will be much cheaper than in the UK, but you can't just live of this, can you?)

So in the end you can learn as much Spanish as you want, but you can only have a chance to work for a Spanish airline, or you have to find someone to marry, go and live 1 year in that country, convert your license - might be cheaper paying your own TR in the end.

I do agree it is useful to know multiple languages, but it is very limited what use you might get out of it, even if Spanish is spoken equal to English in the world, it will not significantly help you get a job, unless of course you have the right to work in the specific country you target. There must be a plan if you want to improve your CV, a goal / a target - why do I want to spend months learning Spanish unless I intend to go and live there, at the level we require to be able to do technical interviews and tests. It is not just a porky pie level, you need to get a little in depth in the language. Not just hello, where is the nearest hotel Miguel!

I would say within EU, Germany is probably the strongest economy, so if they do hire "foreign" pilots, I would assume that would probably be the better option.

[lander66]

Phil,

Thanks for replying. I think it is a lot harder to choose which language to learn if you want to live and work in Europe, clearly in the Americas, Spanish is the best language to learn but in Europe there are so many to choose from! I don't see the point in guessing which language would be most useful.

I am not in that 21% as I can speak another language fluently but I wouldn't think of learning a new language without having any idea which would be more useful in terms of getting a job. I may be damaging my employment prospects by not doing this but with the time spent learning the language I could do other things to boost my employment prospects...

Louis.