Airlines - what do they want?

[hifive11]

I am after a general view to my conundrum and would imagine many others may have the same problem with this question.

Firstly, please forget (for the time being) about 'buying a type rating', CTC ATP, Easyjet and Ryan Air schemes etc.

There seem to be two schoools of thought out there from the airlines.

1) "We will not touch you if you have anything other than the basic training and (F) ATPL as we want to mould you to our requirements".

2) "Go out and get an instructors rating and hour build and build and build, then we may be interested"

It is difficult enough for anyone to get an interview these days, so if 50% of the CV's get thrown in the bin because of the selection criteria, which way should the rest of us go? I imagine there are still many of us who are not prepared, or able to pay for the training to get a foot in the door?

I know that ultimately this boils down to my own personal choice, but would be interested in hearing other views.

I have always known that it will be a hard and daunting road to the first job but must admit I didn't expect such diverse views from the airlines themselves.

It would appear that you are damned if you do and damned if you don't, the ultimate no win situation!

Hi5
:confused: :confused: :confused:

[mad_jock]

Its how long is a piece of string.

Each airline is going to be different.

The selection criteria will depend on a large extent on how the Chief pilot became a Pilot.

I don't think you can set yourself up to be perfect for all airlines.

TP operators seem to like Stick and rudder types so go for FI's. Jet operators like to mould there pilots and as most of the flying is on auto's don't really mind low handeling hour pilots.

The qualifications are the same for everyone. The hours flown are just hoops to cut down number of CV's they have to plough through.

But the biggest thing I have seen is...

If you are a knob or not.

They are looking for people who can get on with there collegues not cause friction, not go into tantrums all the time. Not have preduces working with age, colour, sex.

MJ

[Bealzebub]

Yes mad-jock has a point about the chief pilot. You are dealing with people. The people who make up an airline want to profit ! Their company needs to profit if it is to survive, and the individuals from the board of directors down to the apprentices all want to thrive on the profits of the business. It doesn't matter much if your business is selling furniture or operating an air transport company the same rules still apply.

With an airline business you need pilots. They cost money and quite a chunk. As well as salaries there are all the recurrent training costs, uniforms, medical costs, insurances, etc etc. An employer therefore wants one thing more than anything else. They want the best they can get for the best price. Like any other business the laws of general economics come into play. Such things as supply and demand, investment availabilty, points in the economic cycle all matter. Each company will have a relative position of strength and weakness within its own market sector and its own economic environment.

This all means that, for some companies they will seek and be able to attract experienced pilots from other companies. Others may wish to attract inexperienced pilots for entry level positions at low cost but perhaps higher financial risk. Others will seek a broader balance of the two. Others will rationalize and make do with the existing workforce. Others will make pilots redundant or cut back through natural attrition.

Those companies that are recruiting will either recruit by way of advertising or from their own resource ( commercial recuitment agencies / training employment schools / database ). from the availability they will select by their own criteria the relatively few people they wish to interview.
At the interview they will already know from your CV what your broad experience levels are and they will have a good idea of your background experience. If that didn't interest them sufficiently you wouldn't have got to the interview stage. The primary thing they now want to establish is personal interaction. They want to see in a very short time period how you articulate, what sort of personality they think you are, how able they feel you are to satisfy their requirements, how well you will fit in to the existing operation, if they like you as a person on first impressions, how well you may come recommended, will you be effective, and very importantly how mature are you.

Being human they won't always get it right. However this is a time honoured way of selecting employees and whatever tests you set, it is the interview that will ultimately decide candidate selection. They will probably have had a lot of experience in candidate selection and more often than not this method will work for them.

Bearing the above in mind, interviews will only be offered to a few based on differing selection criteria. Your job is to present yourself in the most attractive way you can. It is partly a game of skill and largely a game of luck. For the former keep improving yourself and for the latter the more you play the better your chances.

It doesn't matter to an airline how much you have invested in your career, or where you went to flying school. If they could get away with using machines to fly the planes they would. As an entry level pilot you don't have much to sell them except yourself as an individual. They want you to be as productive as possible, as inexpensive as possible and as little trouble as possible. In summary Tidy, keen, likeable and mature !

[GDSD]

I like the 'whole feel' of your post here. I believe that too many people get bogged down with a huge range of criteria - that are (if generally satisfied) irrelevant.

Personally - I would prefer to work alongside someone that - 'could do the job well' - but contributed in a positive way to my life and that of my employer.

There is always a market for 'good guys' (male or female). Aviation is no exception.

[ravenx]

I think the simple response to "what do the airlines want "is "blood".

I'm sure ryanair will be changing their advertising soon to

Wanted Fatpl with 737 AND type rating.

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

At the moment I know of someone who has down the Integrated thing, then applied everywhere and got nowhere. He has just done a FI rating and has instantly got a job.

He is over the moon and rightly so. After a year of misery and regret he has got a spring back in his step.

He toyed with a 737 rating. I think he clearly made the right choice.

Good luck,

WWW

[aardvark keeper]

I don't really know about the FI thing. Give me 3 to 4 months of very good weather from now and I'll hit the 3000 mark. Unless I get anything soon, I'm starting to think that CPL / IR upgrade from BCPL, that I couldn't afford 4 years ago would have been a better option than the FI rating.

Obviously 9/11 has played a big part of which I, like everyone else has suffered but at 2750 hrs, with an ATPL I've not had a sniff and have lost that 'spring'

Dont get me wrong, but I long for the day of being a very part time FI and that RH seat with a sensible wage.

As for airline requirements, beats me!