Originally Posted by
+TSRA
It's been said that your first 1,000 hours is the hardest to achieve, primarily because of what you point out, that it's impossible to get started if no one hires you. I generally suggest to new pilots that if they want to go the instructing route, that they flight school they go to agrees to hire them after the flight test is done and stay there until they hold their Class 3. Otherwise, it can be difficult to find that first job.
Specific to you though, there are a few things that could be going on.
First, quite a lot of aviation in Canada is not what you know, but who you know. Indeed, except for my current job, all the jobs I've ever had came about because I knew someone at the new company. My first instructing job was from the company that I did the rating with, the second was from a gentleman who had done my CPL training and suddenly had need of a new instructor. I got the job simply because I was transiting through the airport and bumped into him. Had it not been for that, I wouldn't have got that job. The third job came because an Air Cadet instructor of mine started working a side gig at the same time as I moved back to Canada, so he got me a part time job. That led to enough hours where a friend of mine from high school hooked me up with a job in Yellowknife. One of my chief pilots from that job moved down to Calgary and offered me a job down here. Heck, even when I applied to the airlines, I had a good word put in by the chief pilot and director of flight ops because I had worked with them both in the past.
The reason I lay all that out is to show you just how much contacts in this industry are key and how keeping in touch with the people you come across is sometimes much more important than sending out 200 or so resumes. If you honestly feel like you've hit a wall, maybe it's time to start reaching out to people you know who have found jobs or even your previous instructors. See how they're doing, if they've heard of any gigs that might be around, even if it's not instructing to start. Once you've done that, keep in regular touch with those people. Like I said about my second job, I wouldn't have known about it save for a chance encounter with my old boss. Sometimes those chance encounters happen by accident, other times they happen because you've kept in touch with someone and you're front of mind. The process of needing an instructor and hiring an instructor can be done in almost one day, and it used to be the rule rather than the exception that you were hired because you knew someone at the school, so a lot of this is right place, right time, right person.
Second, aviation is cyclical. You may have heard about the seven year cycle of boom and bust with the business cycle, and that's where there are huge movements (or large periods of stagnation) of pilots through the ranks. But there is a smaller annual cycle when it comes to instructing (and other parts of the industry, like bush flying). A lot of instructing jobs used to come up in early to mid spring when the weather started delivering more fair weather flying days. Then as summer hits, all the jobs are taken and no one has need of instructors, so if this is when you're looking, it can seem as though there are no jobs out there. Come autumn hiring picks up a little as people move on to bigger and better things, but often that's where mostly senior pilots are replacing senior pilots. Come the winter there are few companies hiring en-masse, and it can seem like the summer again. One issue that you're likely facing right now is delivery of aircraft at the airlines. Or rather, lack thereof. Both Boeing and Airbus have fallen well behind their delivery schedule, and this impacts hiring at the likes of Air Canada and WestJet. This has a cascade through the rest of the industry where all of a sudden pilots at Jazz and Encore are not moving, which means no one is moving into those companies to fill the gaps, meaning no one is leaving their instructing or charter flying roles. Anyone just starting out or looking for an instructor job could find it hard to obtain one because of lack of movement.
The good news here is that there may be light at the end of the tunnel, specifically with Boeing. They seem to be slowly delivering more aircraft and eventually that means the likes of Air Canada and WestJet will start hiring again. That'll be the spark needed to get the industry moving again. I have it on good authority that Team Teal will be hiring upwards of 400 pilots starting at the end of this year once the Sunwing merged pilots are fully trained, so that'll get the ball moving in relatively short order. Air Canada is likewise short of pilots, although that gravy train is or will slow down as we approach the peak of their retirements.
The thing to do right now is not give up. Keep knocking on doors, go back and knock on some of those old doors, and start calling people from your past. All you need is that one opening but, as I said, that is the hardest opening of your career to get.
The problem with the FTU I got my instructor rating through - they are not hiring.
They were the only one available to do the instructor rating with unless I wanted to wait a whole year.
Those cycles may not be an issue for a 20 year old, but for a 35 year old with 2 kids, it is extremely bad. I can't just relocate a teenager from everything and everyone she knows, and the old I get, the less likely I will become for any company. Not to mention, if I am forced into a different industry to make a living, it can be impossible to go back to this low income, and right now I have my own business to supplement, but it won't last forever.
I hoped to secured anything as soon as possible, to start building the time, while the kids are still young and relocating won't effect them as much.