That first job up north

[mikewil]

Just looking for any comments people have on the conditions that newbies subject themselves to in the annual pilgrimage up north (Australia) in the search for their first job with a fresh CPL.

In my opinion, the circumstances which they find themselves in when searching for their first job are not far short of degrading. Other posters on this forum often offer advice to pack the car and head up north in the search for that first job, and work at a local service station or woolworths supermarket while frequently visiting the operators of clapped out and arguably unsafe Cessna 210s begging the chief pilots to let them fly them for less than a hungry jacks employee gets paid to flip burgers. Some end up being lucky enough to get a job after a month or two, so they can finally be treated like dirt and paid virtually nothing to fly an aircraft which should no longer be in service, while living in accommodation which is close to the worst living conditions you will find in Australia. Some even have stories about sleeping in the back of their car while up north.

I fail to understand how anyone can come back from this experience and justify it by saying “you will look back in this and appreciate them as the best experiences of your aviation career, where you made some of the best life long mates”. While you may make some life long friends and have pretty interesting stories to tell in years to come, that still doesn’t justify why the industry operates like this.

Flying is a skill which people spend many thousands of dollars on by the time they have their CPL, MECIR, ATPLs and whatever else they add to the list. Why is it that such skilled people are content with degrading themselves to the conditions that I have described earlier? Why is it that chief pilots in these charter companies don’t even have the decency to have a look at a resume or take a phone call from someone wanting a job? You actually need to be there begging for a job for months on end, to sometimes come home with nothing. This sounds like what happens on farming properties where unskilled workers go knocking on doors and beg farmers for some manual labour work on their farms.

In general pilots are respected as looked upon as highly as any other jobs out there…dentists, doctors, architects, psychologists, accountants…while people starting out in all these jobs have to start on lower wages than the seniors they still don’t have to live in a hovel in the middle of nowhere and beg for a job from someone that refuses to accept a resume or phone call.

Any thoughts on why aviation is the one industry where starting out in the profession is so degrading?