Starting Out, Help.
 

I have a great desire to work in ground/flight ops but I am finding it difficult to get my foot in the door, can anyone suggest anyway in, please!


There seem to be a lot of jobs out there but possibly also a lot of more qualified people than me.

I have a keen aviation interest but no ground ops experience. I have been working as a weather forecaster for the past 2 years, would that benefit me?

Any help most appreciated.

It ain't gonna be easy. I'm not trying to put you off but a lot of airline recruitment verges on the nepotic.

Firstly, your wx forecasting experience should stand you in good stead if you go for airline ops. Wx monitoring does form a large part of ops bods life, especially at this time of year.

In terms of getting a foot in the door, it would help your cause if you know somebody who already works for an airline. Get them to put in a good word for you, if they can.
Secondly, if you are going to send in your CV try and send it direct to the ops / crewing manager rather than HR. They will 'put it on file' and it will never be seen again.

If you want to stay in Scotland then your options are fairly limited. Manchester and London are the main bases for most big airlines in the UK. Having said that there are a number of small aircraft and helicopter operators around at the regional airports.

Try surfing for airline recruitment websites, there are a few of them around.

Lastly, prepare to go in at the bottom in order to get your foot in the door. There are quite a few ops & crewing bods who started their aviation careers as post boys or office gofors.

One thing most ops managers are wary of is pilot wanabees coming into ops as a quick route to flying. If you don't harbour intentions to be a fly boy then make that clear in your application.

Oh and one last thing. Ignore some of the dinosaurs that lurk her on Pprune. They are just bitter and twisted about life. Closet aircraft spotters the lot of them. ;) :p

I second Big Tudor' comments.

kamala747 drop me a PM and I'll put you in touch with some Ops Managers around the UK.

I will be prepared to be shot. I started my airline experience as a ramp operator i then moved in to passenger services and then took my tests for operations. Now i will say this, servisair are pants but recruit often with some scope to move in to dispatch, they are not the best but probably an easy way in and a chance to get experience, then you can look for bigger and better. Good luck.

Good time to be looking too - a few airlines in the LGW area are on the look out at the moment for alot of Ops staff if your prepared to move....house prices a touch different than North Of The Border though!