Advice Appreciated

[jjiimmbboo]

Helloo all, I have recently got my FAA CFI Rating at Hillsboro aviation in Oregon and am now looking for that all important first job!

Does anyone know of any places in the US that are hiring or anyone else in the world?! I have 1 year left on my J1 visa (originally from UK) so i would like to make the most of this but i would also love to travel the world and work in different countries.

Could anyone offer advice on good places\countries to start building hours? I currently have 200hrs, all in R22. Eventually i would like to move back to UK, but at the moment i would rather avoid the costly conversion to JAA and find work elsewhere.

ANy advice would be appreciated at this point in my career... I am 23.

Jj

[Revolutionary]

With an FAA ticket and 200 hours of R22 experience your best bet (most likely your only bet) is to stay in the U.S. for the remainder of your J-1 Visa and get a job as a CFI as quick as you can. A good start is the HAI member directory or the *gasp* justhelicopters.com want ads.

[ReverseFlight]

I am also surprised at your haste to part company with Hillsboro - don't they have enough students to keep you flying as CFI ? (I understand they do on the fixed wing side.) In order to move to another operator, you need Hillsboro's written consent.

The US is the only country which can give you this opportunity so my advice is that you should stay there. There are thousands of newbie heli pilots from all over the world who would die to exchange places with you. You should consider yourself really lucky.

Does this still work ?
Time Building with Helicopter Academy for $100/hour! (http://www.helicopteracademy.com/r22/time/)

The J-1 visa : never before, never again.

[jjiimmbboo]

Thanks for the replies...

There is no haste involved here!! I got my CFI licence in October and i was waiting to apply at Hillsboro. Unfortunately i did not get hired so i am now looking into other avenues!

I do realise that i have a good oportunity to work in the US on this visa and i would love to make the most of it but the market for CFIs seems pretty poor at the moment.

I will keep trying!

Assuming i get a job and manage to get close to 1000 hrs instructing over here can anyone give me some good advice on places to visit next? Easy licence conversions etc. A lot of people get jobs in canada which would be nice, any other suggestions.

Thanks

[Gordy]

jjiimmbboo

Forgive me if I come across as being an ass, it is not my intent--however: Why did you wait 6 months to get hired at Hillsboro??? I think after a week, I would have got the message and moved on.

Secondly, me thinks that you should have researched all this BEFORE you spent a whole bunch of money.....

You are currently SOL with so many CFI's out there---If I was hiring a CFI, my first question would be to ask why you waited....

[Phil77]

Gordy:
He says he's got a year left. For some reason he managed to get the program done in six month (?). I guess he felt comfortable over the time left and waited...

granted, back in your days at that place in Titusville (what was the name again? ;-) ) when you taught me, it didn't feel good when Jens told me: "sorry buddy, I just hired 7 guys two weeks ago".
At first the idea to stay where you learned seem to be the only viable option, in hindsight I can say that going some place else was the best thing that could have happened to me! I got lucky to first get the best training and than the chance to look across the fence and network my way into different branches than just offshore (not that there's anything wrong with that, but it appears that that's where a lot of graduates go - incl. the chief instructor!).

But I agree, the year left after waiting six month sound a bit fishy.

[Revolutionary]

Ahhh yes, that place in Titusville. I went through when it was still that place in Concord. I remember seeing which way the wind was blowing about six weeks before I even got my CFI ticket. It was obvious that they weren't hiring (or that they weren't hiring me; my memory is a bit fuzzy on that point).

So I went and bought 150 envelopes; licked and pasted on 150 stamps and stuffed a form letter and resume in each one, intending to send them off to every flight school in the country. However, before I got a chance to mail them I got a call from a school in Mississippi telling me to come on over...

...Causing me to have to cut 150 stamps off of 150 envelopes and leaving me with enough stamps to last another decade...

[Phil77]

Rev.: funny, now that you mention it...

sounds pretty similar what I encountered as far as the first contact goes - although for me it was Pennsyltucky, not Mississippi and in these days one uses email, not snail mail! :ok:

[Revolutionary]

I know.... with the references to Concord and stamps I'm really dating myself...

[Gordy]

Phil and Rev---talk about dating oneself---I was in both locations at one point in time....

[Revolutionary]

Yup, you were the chief CFI or Chief Pilot when I was there, if I remember correctly.

[Gordy]

Yup---all of the above depending upon which year you were there...

[HELOFAN]

Gordy, would you think its bad to be applying for cfi work 6 months after finishing or 6 months after finishing and applying for work at the place he finished?

I hope thats clear?

The reason I ask is I am in a similar situation where I am about to leave for overseas work in my old profession for 6 months to earn some coin as I am absolutly flat broke and there seems to be no CFI positions about my local area.

If I was offered a position again in another state I simply dont even have enough cash to drive the car to another state let alone all the other expenses involved.

The point of taking off for 6 months is so I can come back and afford to not be paid a great deal starting off being a cfi. Yeah I am that broke.

So when I return I wonder if potential employers will look at me and wonder why I am only now applying for work when I finished my CFI 6 months ago, and then I will have to explain it was not for lack of interest but lack of money........would that look bad in the eyes of an employer?

JJiimmbboo sorry for highjacking your thread mate.

HF

[Revolutionary]

Helofan, I think your question is pretty relevant to JJiimmbboo's situation so you're not highjacking the thread at all IMO. I don't think a six month hiatus will raise too much of a red flag at any interview, especially not if -as is the case with you- there's a very valid reason. Flightschools know that they're hiring people with woefully empty resumes anyway; that's how they get away with paying pennies.

In JJiimmbboo's case it's more of a question of a perceived lack of a go-getter spirit, but on the other hand; his post here shows at least some pretty good initiative!

[SASless]

If you are standing in the door when a vacancy appears....ready to go to work....odds are you will be next in line.

[Gordy]

HELOFAN,

Like revolution states, there is not a major problem with applying six months after one got your CFI as long as there is a valid reason for it. If you were to sit on your ass for six months in hopes of getting hired at the place you trained....then there could be a problem----Again, as Revolutiony states---this would show a lack of "go-getter spirit" as he put it. Waiting for six months to apply for a job does not look good. It could, (note "could" not would), show a lack of "situational awareness".

Without opening this subject again, but please do NOT offer to work for pennies, you need, and should be expected to be paid the going rate for your services.

For "ReverseFlight"----Are you sure he needs Hillsboro's written consent to work somewhere else? Unless the rules have changed, all he needs is a form flled out by his new employer that basically acknowledges that he is on a J-visa.

SASless--Your one liners crack me up sometimes, you should have started it with "Grasshopper---"....you and I should write a book.....

[212man]

I'm really dating myself

Better trade in those stamps for kleenex then........

[HELOFAN]

Thou shalt not hold a "Will fly for food" sign during an interview.

I agree, thats a partial reason for making sure I have a decent bankroll, so I dont let myself be put in a worse position my an employer....not that they do that...no...I just want to have gas in the car so I can leave.

IT almost sounded to me like...... I will let you decide......

A long long time ago ... on a planet far ..far ...away....

SASLESS(Yoda): Ready, are you? What know you of ready? For 800 years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained! A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one, a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away to the future, the horizon. Never his mind on where he was [pokes HELOFAN]. Hmm? What he was doing. [paces around] Adventure. Heh! Excitement. A Jedi craves not these things. [turns to HELOFAN and points with his walking stick] You are reckless!

GORDY (Obi-wan): So was I, if you remember.

SASLESS: [still looking at HELOFAN(Luke)] He is too old. Yes. Too old to begin the training.

HELOFAN: But I've learned so much. I will be back in 6 months I promise.

SASLESS[looking toward the sky] Will he finish what he begins?

HELOFAN: I won't fail you! I'm not afraid.

SASLESS[grimly] Oh! You will be. You will be.

HELOFAN: But what about a job after my training? Will I ever get hired on as a Jedi?

SASLESS: Hmmph, If you are standing in the door when a vacancy appears....ready to go to work you are....odds are, next in line you will be !!.

:E
HF

[KrisRamJ]

Hey jjiimmbboo, I was in a similar situation to yourself back in April 2006, I'm from the UK and I did my training at the aforementioned school in Florida, I figured out upon completing my CFII that I wasn't going to get hired on so I started calling/emailing schools and ex-CFIs and friends, trying to get work, it took 2 weeks to find a job but I managed it in the end & got hired at a school in Colorado. It was horrible to not get a job after working so hard on training but in the long run it worked out a lot better for my flight experience.

I managed to get a job flying an AS355 in the Caribbean after my J-1 ran out but that company closed last October due to the downturn and I'm now back in the UK studying the JAA, not that there's any work over here :ugh:. I do have 1100hrs and 100hrs of twin time though, so all is not lost. It's a tough business this, for sure. But I'm guessing you didn't choose to be a pilot because it seemed like an easy option.

Bottom line - start using that J-1 visa ASAP. Right now start emailing and calling schools until you get a job as a flight instructor over there, then do that job to the very best of your abilities because the better impression you make the more chance that a golden opportunity may appear.

Worry about what to do after that later. At the moment the job situation is screwed, but once the economy starts recovering (next year please? :sad:) we should be in better circumstances. From now until your J-1 runs out, remember: "it's all about the flight time."

[jjiimmbboo]

Thanks for the replies and advice/information.

Let me explain the 6 month bit! I got my CFI in October 8th and i think Hillsboro hired 7 CFIs 3 or 4 days before my checkride! That was a real blow but i assumed they would be hiring again before xmas and at the time i didnt have enough money to carry on with CFII. They didnt hire before xmas and i went back to the UK for a month to see family and friends. After christmas i came back and had a few weeks of hassle moving into a new apartment, then started training again on my CFII beacause i had acquired enough funds to continue.

I have a job working in dispatch at Hillsboro which pays for rent and food. I guess i hoped this would give me a bit of an advantage when applying for a job there, so i waited until they were hiring again hoping i would get a job there. It was probably a bad idea to wait around so long but i thought i had a really good chance and i really liked the other employees and would have loved to carry on working there.

I think it was late february that they hired 3 new guys and when i didnt get hired it definately knocked my spirit and enthusiasm a bit and i stopped studying. I am now within a few weeks of getting my CFII so hopefuly i will be more employable and find a job soon. My motivation is back!

[KrisRamJ]

Definitely keep at that CFII, mine paid for itself several times over. Then get the hell out of Hillsboro, it sounds to me like it's sapping your confidence. I started to have the same thing in FL.

My friend Rene got in his car and went on a roadtrip around the USA to get a job, he ended up working at Boatpix. It may be worth giving them a call, or Ocean Helicopters, I've heard good things about them. There's a whole load of schools in Florida that could be good. Check out this link for a list of schools:

Find a Helicopter School (http://www.justhelicopters.com/CareerDevelopment/FindaSchool/tabid/231/Default.aspx)

The important thing is to get working asap

Good luck mate

Kris

[windowseatplease]

I sympathise with anyone looking for a CFI job in the USA right now. If the school you trained at doesn't hire you then it can be an expensive and time consuming process getting that crucial first job.

My advice is NOT to just cold email/post CVs out. Phone up schools first and get talking to the person that does the hiring/chief pilot. Schools get TONS of CVs in the mail/email.

[choppadan]

I think I've seen a few adverts for Boatpix advertising for Pilots. I'm pretty sure they're always keen to find instructors.

Here we go, just found this:

BOATPIX has summer R22 contracts when the weather starts warming up and people start using there boats. We are looking for interested parties for Jacksonville, Pensacola, Chicago, Port Clinton Ohio, Newport Rhode Island, Seattle and Morehead City, North Carolina. There are some opportunities for displaced instructors from schools that have closed that have funded students that are interested in training and then a job guarantee. We always have instructors that are closing in on 1000 hours and can leave quickly and need to be replaced quickly. Review our website and then call me at 561-346-2816 Tom McDermott, President, BOATPIX.COM, INC. and Manager of Helicopter Academy. Helicopter training. (http://www.HelicopterAcademy.com), LLC


They're not everyone's cup of tea, but I spent a bit of time with them, and it worked really well for me.

Good luck what ever you find.