People make their own luck.
I was hired by the school where I’d trained right out of training. Yeah, so you had it easy I can hear you think. Well, stacking the deck in my own favour certainly helped. For one thing, I knew that seasonal companies hire away the more experienced CFIs in early spring, so I timed my training to graduate at that time. For another, I didn’t fill the hours between gaining the CFI and meeting the requirements to teach in the R22 with jollies with friends, but spent the extra few bucks per hour on an IFR trainer and a CFII, and gained the IR and CFII ratings. When my school’s CFIIs got turbine job offers, who do you think was well placed to replace them? Lastly, I budgeted for not only training but several years of starvation-wage existence as a low-time CFI. Quite a few contemporaries had to take a lot of time off to wait tables and such, in order to pay the bills.
The 300 hour requirement I suspect is an insurance requirement. But since a helicopter sitting idle for lack of a CFI is a drain on any flight school’s finances, they might decide to waive this requirement – for the right candidate. It is up to you to convince them that you are that right candidate.
Most Chief Instructors are very busy people and yet another resume to them is nothing but a piece of paper. At best it will go into the same file as the other several hundred resumes. On the other hand, almost every Chief Instructor has at some time been in the same situation as you are now, so as a person you will have their sympathy and where possible, their help. The way you go from being a piece of paper to being a person deserving of their attention, is to see them face-to-face. So get off your butt and get on the road. (BTW, during your training cross-countries, did you visit at any flight schools at your refueling stops?)
When you go visiting flight schools, remember that you are in fact going on job interviews. Don’t make cold calls – phone ahead, tell them that you are in the area and you’d like to talk with them, and ask when would be a convenient time for them. Be pleasant and courteous to everyone – if the receptionist has to tell the Chief Instructor “This a*****e on line one says he’s a CFI and he wants to talk with you” your job interview is already over. When you go in to visit, dress as if going for an interview – like a professional. A tie is optional, but a T-shirt and jeans won’t cut it. To illustrate the difference this can make: a few years ago a fellow CFI and I visited the HAI convention. We both had about 1500 hours at the time. There must have been hundreds of other CFIs there, easily identifiable by their Air Force-type flight jackets and jeans, looking cool. On the other hand, in my jacket, shirt and tie I looked, in the words of my companion, like “a nerd going for a job interview”. He preferred to look cool. But about one hour later I had an invitation to interview for an overseas flying job with one of the exhibiting companies – a flying job on a type I had never yet flown that never required shirts or ties but had an official minimum requirement of 2500 hours total time. My colleague and the other Tom Cruise wannabees went back to instructing.
Finally, a couple of personal tips. I don’t personally know you other than from this thread so my impressions could be wrong – I hope they are. Still, one never gets a second chance at making a first impression, and if you impress a Chief Instructor who doesn’t have any openings but who knows a friend of a friend who just had a CFI quit, he may well get on the phone for you and you’ll be in.
First, get a positive attitude. Look at the title of this thread. It’s not “CFI job hunt; any hot tips?” or “CFI 300 hour requirement” but “Why can’t we get a job?”. It sounds like moaning. If this attitude comes through in personal interviews I fear your chances of securing that first job will be low.
Secondly, practice your English and find out how to use a spell checker. You are applying for a teaching position in an English-speaking country, teaching technical subject matter in English, and so far you average at least one grammar and one spelling mistake per sentence. In a teaching context this is distracting and will interfere with a student’s learning, so any responsible Chief Instructor will take a dim view of a poor grasp of the language.