Ladies and Gents,
Firstly allow me to take this opportunity to thank PPRuNe and moderator HWB for providing me with a platform for me to voice my opinions, thoughts and advice. I’m sure you will all join me on applauding them for the service they have provided for free.
Secondly, HELLO!! I was very fortunate for HWB to allow for this thread to be reopen for me to provide an update of my status on my return to the UK.
I have always criticised and mocked those fools who return home to the UK expecting it to be as sunny and as warm as it was on their holiday. They return back to the UK wearing shorts, t-shirts and flip flops. Well let me say I have too joined the ranks of those fools, arriving back just over a month ago wearing the same stuff.
As you may be aware I came home bearing no fruit from my travels. As much as my family were pleased to see me as I was to see them. I couldn’t help notice the disappointment in their eyes as they saw the disappointment in mine. I spent the first few days locked in my room trying to come up with a new plan of action. I made a list of all possibilities open to me everything to resending the 1300 CV’s and cover letters, following up phone calls, sending over 400 CV’s and cover letters to engineering companies and many more. After taking a few days of being captive to my bed I broke free from its chains and did everything I have mentioned above and more.
Time is a funny thing after a while of doing nothing sometimes you find yourself doing things which you hadn’t dreamed to do if the circumstances were different. I found myself looking at pay to fly websites, type rating websites. But I quickly brushed them out of my head. I would love to fly but not at the price of paying for a type rating or paying to fly. I don’t wish to look back at myself in the future and say that I had a hand at screwing this industry up.
It’s been just over a month that I have been back home and have not heard of anything not even a whisper. I am planning knocking on a door that I wish no one has to ever knock on (job centre). I always thought of myself helping to pay into the system to help others but find myself pondering the idea of being the one who needs help.
My friends and am sure allot of your friends at your age have all got married, settled down, got a house and the usual happy family stuff. Leaving me to watch them all pass me by, while I live in my parents house at the age of 27 borrowing money of them.
I do look back and think was this flying thing really the right choice for me? But the truth is that it is!! I know I’m having a crap time at the moment and probably will do for allot longer but once I reach my destination I will then know if it were the right choice.
I have been following up a lead in Zambia, which I feel I have destroyed as I have been doing something I was afraid of doing which was pestering them. The lead I had was amazing and the person I was in contact with was so helpful and friendly, not just in trying to get me a job but also in all aspects of advice. I do still have hope that something comes through and comes through quick.
My day goes by faster than I can blink and when I look back at what I have done during it I find that I have done nothing what so ever. I’m at a loss now more than I have ever been in my entire life. I now don’t know what to do. I will at the start of the following week start travelling from the top of the UK and work all the way south stopping at every airport that I know has some sort of connection to aviation and apply there.
But fear not my friends, me and you have come a long way since we began this journey, but I’m afraid will still have some distance to go. I have come across a thread I think called “a glimmer of hope maybe” there has been many of these types of threads in the past on PPRuNe but never by someone like WWW. I am sure many of you have come across his posts and am sure you have as much respect for him as I do. But WWW has been famously known to forecast the economy and its trends, and the surprising thing is that he has a vision of things picking up which for us is great.
Anyway I wish all of you are well and you all still have the same amount of courage, determination, strength and hope as you first set out in your careers. I know that at the moment we are going through our lows. But like many people say “every dog has his day” all we have to do is wait for ours.
I would however like to ask you all in fact beg you all that if you have it in your hearts, to please PM me any contacts or leads that I may be able to follow. And I promise that I will follow up every lead you send me.
For now I wish you well and the best in all your endeavours.
Kash360.