Flying Hours: How many before you feel safe from long term unemployment

[imnotwhoyouthinkiam]

How many hours do you need as a pilot before you can feel safe that there's always going to be a job out there for you. 3000? 5000? All jet of course. And what about your position? Captain with 5000+, F/o with 3000+?

[sharksucker]

I believe there is no real answer to that, depends on the individual: would you relocate for a job, would you temporarily accept to go a step back?(I.e: fly a prop again/ sit right again), accept a lower pay?
There are guys out with thousands of hours of command on a heavy jet and can't find a job..
My advise: never burn bridges, keep on with good networking and be flexible in your lifestyle and you will be fine..

[The Dominican]

Past the age of 58 it becomes more difficult to find a job and some guys are not familiar anymore with the art of the interview, mainly because they probably have stayed at a particular job too long and they go to an interview thinking that their resume should be the only thing the interviewers should concentrate on; regrettably that is not enough, the people who interview you typically have as much if not more experience so just your resume is not going to get you the gig its only going to get you the interview, you need to sell yourself when you are going after a job at any experience level. Lets say that you are going for a DEC position on a 777 and you have lets say 12,000 hours of total time and at least 3,000 on the 777, that would be enough experience for you to not put too much effort into it because your resume speaks for itself right? Guess what is the experience level of the rest of the pilots going for the same job? they will have resumes as impressive as yours so the guy that knows how to interview well will have the advantage

[imnotwhoyouthinkiam]

^^I'm sorry to say Dominican but I find that a bit disrespectful in nature to people who have earned that kind of experience and are so close to retirement. In the case of guys at that age who have been flying jets for 20+ years I too would expect to be offered jobs rather than have to compete for one. And in most cases such senior pilots are offered jobs, the interview is a formality. Any airline that treats their senior pilots with an attitude such as yours, i.e. screw you, you still have to prove your worth, simply isn't worth working for.
I can understand if the pilot in question is competing with other pilots to get in, but where in the ME and South Asia do senior pilots at that age have to compete? I'm sure most airlines are dying for that kind of experience. There's only a finite number of experienced pilots in the world and the reality is that its a sellers market right now and it should be the airlines prerogative to sell themselves to such pilots not the other way around. Its what they deserve after being **** on most of their lives in this industry.

[The Dominican]

I wholeheartedly agree with you in the sense that a pilot that has earned his experience should be given priority when looking for a job, but I expressed my comments not based on the way I think it should be (and again, I agree with you) but the way that it is, if you look at the hiring trend in contract work throughout the world, guys that are more advanced in age have the most difficult time to land a job, some contracts even express very clearly on their minimums requirements that they have an age limit to apply, it varies from 55 to 58 years of age. Also at that stage (a captain position for a wide body A/C) is very competitive because most people applying for that type of job would have approximately the same level of experience, so guys that just walk in thinking that the resume is "enough" and take the interview process as a formality like you said, it is proven time after time that don't get the job. Very sorry that you took offense to my comments but looking at it without pride nor prejudice that is the way it is.

[fatbus]

The Dom is right , the people doing the interviewing and hiring are the new young HR types and those that interview the best impress the HR types the best.

[imnotwhoyouthinkiam]

Dom, you just came across as bashing the old guys, and yes I took exception, no harm done. I see your point.

Yes, old guys are probably stubborn, fixed in their ways and being that they're pilots and at the top of their field they do expect the majority of the world to bow down to them, as this has been the norm for them since they reached the top end of the seniority ladder.

There's two viewpoints: 1) that the old foggies need to come back down to earth, (but based on the number of hours they have it would seem that they've spent most of their time up in the air).

2) the young HR departments are...well just that, young, and full of themselves and their belief in their methods.

Frankly I am against the less human and more robotized interviews you get these days. I know of people who read and know enough about modern HR techniques to fool the interviewer, or at least know what they want to hear. So at the end of the day you get guys who are not who they made out to be in the first place. Having said that the interview is not the only thing that'll get you the job, and no doubt you're real personality will shine through at one point or another.

[troylee]

keep on with good networking and be flexible in your lifestyle and you will be fine
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