Replies to Covering Letters & CV's

[Jonnie Walker]

Hi,

I'm a low hour modular fATPL with MCC and have recently started sending out the CV & covering letter to a few select operators; mainly the British Regionals etc. I've had a few responses, including postcards from Titan and Loganair and personally addressed letters from GB and Highland. However, from the vast majority I've heard absolutely nothing - not even an acknowledgement!

Is my CV and covering letter so bad such that it gets binned straight away, or is this a common problem? I'm starting to think I could save myself the postage and subsequent waiting for a reply by binning the letters myself, cutting out the middle man!

It would be great to hear any views and experiences.

JW

[The Clown]

This is normal.
Most of the airlines get so much letters, hat it isn't possible to respond to all of them. it also happened to me that I got a letter a couple of months after I had written to them.

Good luck in finding a job!!

[expedite_climb]

Almost 4 years ago I sent out 55 or so CVs. I received replies similar to what you say, personal letters, standard letters, postcards.

I got replies from about 1/3 - 1/2 of the companies. A note - for 3 of the 4 interviews I did the first line of contact was a phone call, often at very short notice (Like can you come in two days!). The 4th - I was emailed an application form, and then they rang me.

To give you an idea, my company had pre 9/11 over 1200 CVs on file. (Large UK charter). (Although judging by the people you will have met during your training some of those will have 3 heads! i.e. unemployable)

[wheelbarrow]

expedite_climb,

I am one of your colleagues at the UK charter mob.... I received a rejection letter 6 months after passing my 757 line check for the company!!! And I know others who did too!

it's a laugh isn't it?!? Goes to show the amount of people applying though........:O

[boeingbus2002]

Hi JW,
I sent CVs and letters to the airlines you mentioned too, however no reply from the scottish ones you mention!! So somehow some get lucky and some dont...perhaps my CV was worse than yours!!

[witchdoctor]

I think it is worth bearing in mind the huge numbers of letters, cv's and phone calls these people get. It is probably worse at present than it has been for some time due to the huge backlog of people in the system.

The smaller companies in particular just haven't got the resources to reply personally to maybe 200 - 300 letters a month, especially when you consider that it will often be the chief pilot who has to do the replying himself.

As for the bigger companies, the numbers are even worse because everybody has heard of them - some of the smaller guys get off lightly because not all wannabees reserach the market or want to live out in the boonies flying something that hasn't got jets.

I can imagine the various operators must get pretty cheesed off with the endless stream of enquiries, and if you ever contact the guys at Emerald over in Liverpool, they will give you some rather refreshingly honest feedback as to how much of a pain in the whatsit we all are.:}

That's just the way it is at present, and probably always will be. Just log the guys who don't respond, and remember not to send them a stamped, addressed envelope for reply the next time you write.;)