Ops career- questions
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Fantasy island, dee plane boss, dee plane...
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Career
Glen, just curious, what is it you studied and how long ago was it? How many of your job applications have resulted in interviews? If the answer is 'not many' then perhaps your CV needs some work.
You gotta be flexible sometimes to work in ops, the jobs aren't always where you might want them to be, ask anyone who's been in it a while. For those in possession of 'Brass ones', it can take you all over the world.
And it is a career but you need to have the smarts, determination and ambition to make it so. In every profession there are those who make it towards and sometimes all the way to the top and there are others who by bad luck(especially through choice of employer) or other reasons remain in the lower echelons.
Getting a foot in the door in an airline is a step in the right direction but it really is an open ended thing and when a job opens up in ops you can often be part of a very long queue to get it, especially in parts of the world where the job is still not licenced. You could be there for years.
Happy hunting.
D.O.G
You gotta be flexible sometimes to work in ops, the jobs aren't always where you might want them to be, ask anyone who's been in it a while. For those in possession of 'Brass ones', it can take you all over the world.
And it is a career but you need to have the smarts, determination and ambition to make it so. In every profession there are those who make it towards and sometimes all the way to the top and there are others who by bad luck(especially through choice of employer) or other reasons remain in the lower echelons.
Getting a foot in the door in an airline is a step in the right direction but it really is an open ended thing and when a job opens up in ops you can often be part of a very long queue to get it, especially in parts of the world where the job is still not licenced. You could be there for years.
Happy hunting.
D.O.G
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: At the bottom,looking up!!
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Thanks for your thread desertopsguy! What you said makes sense and I know it can be a long line to wait in! Just to answer your question,my CV has had mostly replies of:"thanks for showing an interest in...,unfortunately there are no vacancies for this position" etc etc! One interview I managed to get, was with a major US airline based at LHR.I felt privileged to have been given "a shot" but the outcome was a resounding: "sorry,but we want to try keep this internal"! 
I am a determined soul and will carry on pursueing the "road of many hurdles"!!!
Thanks to you all for all your words of wisdom!
I am a determined soul and will carry on pursueing the "road of many hurdles"!!!
Thanks to you all for all your words of wisdom!
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: UK
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Jimmy
Being in Sales given the chance you'd sell your mother to earn some $$.
Ops would sort it out for you. 9 times out of 10 it would be a straight sell. When it goes wrong you call Ops.
The other key requirement is to make the Crewing Bods the tea, something that waco was preeeety hopeless at.
Mr A Singh Career Crewer
Being in Sales given the chance you'd sell your mother to earn some $$.
Ops would sort it out for you. 9 times out of 10 it would be a straight sell. When it goes wrong you call Ops.
The other key requirement is to make the Crewing Bods the tea, something that waco was preeeety hopeless at.
Mr A Singh Career Crewer
Join Date: May 2000
Location: London
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JimmyGerrard
Some of the posts here are correct about limited career progression within Ops, yes it is there but it is harder to come by than moving in to other areas of the Airline Business.
One thing you have to think about is that with Airlines going bust or merging and being bought up by others the number of Ops departments in the UK is decreasing. If an airline buys another one it generally doesn't need two Ops departments.
This has decreased the promotion opurtunites within Ops in the UK. It is a good role to do though and I certainly enjoyed it but for me it had a limited timescale. Although others are happy to stay in Ops for a long long time so it really depends on what you want out of it. My advice would be to do it for a few years as you already have sales experience which you can add to any Ops experience you will get. But be prepared to move around a bit within an airline if you can and add to that experience, which if you end up enjoying Ops you could then bring back to Ops management in later years.
Some of the posts here are correct about limited career progression within Ops, yes it is there but it is harder to come by than moving in to other areas of the Airline Business.
One thing you have to think about is that with Airlines going bust or merging and being bought up by others the number of Ops departments in the UK is decreasing. If an airline buys another one it generally doesn't need two Ops departments.
This has decreased the promotion opurtunites within Ops in the UK. It is a good role to do though and I certainly enjoyed it but for me it had a limited timescale. Although others are happy to stay in Ops for a long long time so it really depends on what you want out of it. My advice would be to do it for a few years as you already have sales experience which you can add to any Ops experience you will get. But be prepared to move around a bit within an airline if you can and add to that experience, which if you end up enjoying Ops you could then bring back to Ops management in later years.
