Transferable Skills
Transferable Skills
Sitting around almost all of this year with little to no work has left me all with lots of time on my hands and I am curious to know what peoples thoughts are on what they might do if they lost their jobs here in Hong Kong. CX (and I am sure KA and HKE) has a huge range guys are girls both from an experience perspective and a cultural one. When I say experience I don't mean flying time. I am talking about previous jobs, qualifications etc.
What are people thinking they would do back home if they have to return for the short term? Will you come back to Hong Kong when this is all over and you get the call from CX?
What are people thinking they would do back home if they have to return for the short term? Will you come back to Hong Kong when this is all over and you get the call from CX?
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Most pilots I know possess an abundance of knowledge in pretty much all things. Particularly finances, relationships, career advise, investing, real estate, politics, etc. etc.
Just pick one and I’m sUre you’ll be at the top of the field.
Just pick one and I’m sUre you’ll be at the top of the field.
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Sitting around almost all of this year with little to no work has left me all with lots of time on my hands and I am curious to know what peoples thoughts are on what they might do if they lost their jobs here in Hong Kong. CX (and I am sure KA and HKE) has a huge range guys are girls both from an experience perspective and a cultural one. When I say experience I don't mean flying time. I am talking about previous jobs, qualifications etc.
What are people thinking they would do back home if they have to return for the short term? Will you come back to Hong Kong when this is all over and you get the call from CX?
What are people thinking they would do back home if they have to return for the short term? Will you come back to Hong Kong when this is all over and you get the call from CX?
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I suspect that the noble seniors here can have their pick of high paid employment in various fields with enormous salaries and perks. The younger worthless snowflakes will probably all end up destitute homeless drug addicts, serves them right!
Join Date: Aug 2020
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What a great question! What would I do? Hmmm.... Sleep on a normal schedule... Avoid going to India... Avoid going to China... Do what I want, when I want... Live longer... Spend time with people I choose to spend time with... Save money on useless union dues... and best of all... enjoy a life NOT having some greedy, vindictive twats always trying to take things from me. That's a start, anyway!
Back onto the subject. I think the average pilot really have no transferable skills unless one has some sort of business on the side or a skill that is kept current. Just a quick browse on any jobs website will show everything out there require background “relevant” experience. A degree from 20 years ago is not worth much nowadays. Whatever this COVID outcome is, I for one will not be complacent anymore and find myself an area of interest outside of aviation and keep learning.
Join Date: May 2018
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Sitting around almost all of this year with little to no work has left me all with lots of time on my hands and I am curious to know what peoples thoughts are on what they might do if they lost their jobs here in Hong Kong. CX (and I am sure KA and HKE) has a huge range guys are girls both from an experience perspective and a cultural one. When I say experience I don't mean flying time. I am talking about previous jobs, qualifications etc.
What are people thinking they would do back home if they have to return for the short term? Will you come back to Hong Kong when this is all over and you get the call from CX?
What are people thinking they would do back home if they have to return for the short term? Will you come back to Hong Kong when this is all over and you get the call from CX?
Over the past 20 years I have been stunned several times by reports of airline pilots applying for jobs which I consider them grossly overqualified for. The first occasion was in the late 90s when there were reports of a Melbourne based Ansett Captain who was driving a taxi after being laid off, and most recently by ex-777 Captain applying to drive a train. I have always viewed our profession as being largely cognitive, with a small (but critically important) esoteric set of manual skills being secondary. A similar analogy would be a surgeon...yes, he requires a manual skillset, but his value largely lies in his experience, his ability to perform calmly under pressure, his technical knowledge etc. The core cognitive or 'soft' skills of a competent airline pilot include excellent time management, a high degree of EI, conflict resolution, task management, broad and flexible communication skills, environment control, exceptional prioritisation, leadership etc etc etc...and oh by the way, we can fly aeroplanes. I suspect that for the driver of a taxi or a train, these cognitive skills are far less important, and that manual manipulation and the associated spatial judgment etc form a proportionally MUCH larger requirement for success.
Research completed in the past two decades is clear; these non-technical attributes, in particular leadership and emotional intelligence, are far more important for success in almost all industries than technical skill. (Industry is slow to transition though...a quick view of the job ads on LinkedIn still seem to prioritise technical skill and industry experience over character traits and EI.)
So...to answer your question indirectly, I think a great option for a lot of the very smart, very talented airline crew I've flown with would be to spend US$1000 having a HR specialist convert their skills and experience into a stunning CV, and start applying for management positions in a variety of industries where technical knowledge is less important. Ops management or ops consulting roles would be a good fit for many of us.
Cheers!
P.S. Of course, my lower priority on manual skills may just be a psychological defence mechanism because I can't fly very well
Join Date: Aug 2007
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I think some of you are missing the point. As a Pilot and Aviator, you do have a unique set of skills and whilst these skills can easily transfer into many different jobs and careers outside of Aviation, it is not always easy to do so in real life, especially when the world is having a wobble. Unfortunately, as I have learnt since I Retired in late 2017, you can’t just walk into many jobs and announce that you are indeed worthy of some exalted position.
Not long after I returned to Retirement life here in NZ, I thought it would be nice to find some sort of part-time job, in which I could fill in the Winter months, when it is not that pleasant at times out on the golf course, or out on friend’s fishing boats. I thought it would be good to go do some easy driving of a mini bus and take Special Needs kids to school, or Driving Miss Daisy, where you have a car and take people to places they need to be and bring them back again. I only wanted to do something like 20 or so hours a week.
The catch with this, is that you can’t just front up and do it, you have to get a `P’ Endorsement on your Driving Licence, to be allowed to carry passengers somewhere. Now I thought that would be easy, but here in dear old NZ and their Bureaucracy, they wanted me, amongst other things, to get a Police Clearance going back to when I was 14 and all the places I have lived since then. Having lived in the UK from 1979 to 1984 and then Hong Kong from 1984 until 2017, do you have any idea how impossible that is to do?? I ran into a complete administrative brick wall, trying to get these approvals and clearances and after a time, I ran out of energy and gave up.
I let it go for about a year and then I thought, Bugger it, I won’t let these administrators do me in and I tried again. It was again impossible to make any headway with the overseas side of things and even though I tried to explain my background, experience and qualifications, as a Senior Captain for over 30 years, the NZ authorities would not budge initially and just stonewalled it. I don’t know how many letters I wrote, without any acrimony on my part, including enlisting the help of my local MP and I eventually managed to go by an alternate process and use References of long standing, to supply what the NZTA wanted. It took over a year, before I was finally given the P Endorsement, which I have not used as yet, as I have been playing more golf. You can’t drive buses or taxis either without one.
There are of course many jobs you can go and do, but for most, if not all jobs that involve moving people, or things around, you need to have a Licence. You can get a Heavy Duty truck licence if that is what you want to do. If you want to be a Real Estate Agent, as some here in NZ are doing from Air NZ, even Car Salesmen, you have to get a Licence, Diploma, Certificate, or something first, before you can be let loose out there. Train drivers need to go through training and whilst it wouldn’t be hard to do, you still need to actually do it and you can’t just say that you were a wonder to behold in your Aviation career and let me loose on a TGV or whatever.
Obviously we have Managerial and Leadership skills, able to solve problems etc etc, but most companies and businesses are not going to just employ you, unless you have a suitable Degree, or some sort of previous experience in that field. If you think you will just be able to walk out of your aeroplane, when you are furloughed, laid off, or whatever fate befalls you and walk into some plush and highly paid job, I unfortunately have bad news for you, as many are starting to find out now.
So in summary, whilst you may be skilled, experienced and well qualified in one field, Aviating in this case, it does not mean that those skills will be easily and readily be appreciated when you try to get employment in another area and some of you may be in for a rude awakening. It is what it is and in hindsight, although I never needed it during my career, I think it would have been very prudent to have got some useful qualification, in a field you could fall back on, should something like Covid 19 happen again and the world changes. Even if it is only for a few months, or a short term, it would be sensible and smart to be prepared for the future, so you can continue to earn an income of some sort, in case it happens again, which it probably will.
Good luck to you all.
Best Regards,
PH.
Not long after I returned to Retirement life here in NZ, I thought it would be nice to find some sort of part-time job, in which I could fill in the Winter months, when it is not that pleasant at times out on the golf course, or out on friend’s fishing boats. I thought it would be good to go do some easy driving of a mini bus and take Special Needs kids to school, or Driving Miss Daisy, where you have a car and take people to places they need to be and bring them back again. I only wanted to do something like 20 or so hours a week.
The catch with this, is that you can’t just front up and do it, you have to get a `P’ Endorsement on your Driving Licence, to be allowed to carry passengers somewhere. Now I thought that would be easy, but here in dear old NZ and their Bureaucracy, they wanted me, amongst other things, to get a Police Clearance going back to when I was 14 and all the places I have lived since then. Having lived in the UK from 1979 to 1984 and then Hong Kong from 1984 until 2017, do you have any idea how impossible that is to do?? I ran into a complete administrative brick wall, trying to get these approvals and clearances and after a time, I ran out of energy and gave up.
I let it go for about a year and then I thought, Bugger it, I won’t let these administrators do me in and I tried again. It was again impossible to make any headway with the overseas side of things and even though I tried to explain my background, experience and qualifications, as a Senior Captain for over 30 years, the NZ authorities would not budge initially and just stonewalled it. I don’t know how many letters I wrote, without any acrimony on my part, including enlisting the help of my local MP and I eventually managed to go by an alternate process and use References of long standing, to supply what the NZTA wanted. It took over a year, before I was finally given the P Endorsement, which I have not used as yet, as I have been playing more golf. You can’t drive buses or taxis either without one.
There are of course many jobs you can go and do, but for most, if not all jobs that involve moving people, or things around, you need to have a Licence. You can get a Heavy Duty truck licence if that is what you want to do. If you want to be a Real Estate Agent, as some here in NZ are doing from Air NZ, even Car Salesmen, you have to get a Licence, Diploma, Certificate, or something first, before you can be let loose out there. Train drivers need to go through training and whilst it wouldn’t be hard to do, you still need to actually do it and you can’t just say that you were a wonder to behold in your Aviation career and let me loose on a TGV or whatever.
Obviously we have Managerial and Leadership skills, able to solve problems etc etc, but most companies and businesses are not going to just employ you, unless you have a suitable Degree, or some sort of previous experience in that field. If you think you will just be able to walk out of your aeroplane, when you are furloughed, laid off, or whatever fate befalls you and walk into some plush and highly paid job, I unfortunately have bad news for you, as many are starting to find out now.
So in summary, whilst you may be skilled, experienced and well qualified in one field, Aviating in this case, it does not mean that those skills will be easily and readily be appreciated when you try to get employment in another area and some of you may be in for a rude awakening. It is what it is and in hindsight, although I never needed it during my career, I think it would have been very prudent to have got some useful qualification, in a field you could fall back on, should something like Covid 19 happen again and the world changes. Even if it is only for a few months, or a short term, it would be sensible and smart to be prepared for the future, so you can continue to earn an income of some sort, in case it happens again, which it probably will.
Good luck to you all.
Best Regards,
PH.
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Couldn’t agree more Kotuku. In my experience the US pilots are very adept at this and quite often have a secondary qualification to back them up. It’s almost a given that at some point in their aviation careers they can expect to be furloughed!
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Personally I doubt the snowflakes will go through unaffected.
I guess the smart snowflakes will use the past 6 months to gain a useful qualification outside of flying, while the not-so-smart ones will party, hike and surf everyday until the letter arrives.
After sitting around hotels for the best part of my professional career, I'll sit it out and do similar in a beach house. There will be flying again if so desired IMO. With training resources absorbed with re-validations and limited sectors available for training of new hires in the industry, experienced pilots will in all likelihood eventually be in considerable demand.
Plenty I know in a similar position. Boredom will drive a few back from a very early retirement though a percentage will never return.
Plenty I know in a similar position. Boredom will drive a few back from a very early retirement though a percentage will never return.
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Down side is that they are almost all 'self employed' jobs now with a payment per delivery - once you've paid for your van/ petrol etc it isn't much above minimum wage, and if you are off sick, no pay
Younger pilots who worked in another field before aviation might be recent enough in it to get back into it, particularly if there is a shortage in that area. Cabin crew with nursing experience would be well placed as the shortage of nurses can be such that the health authorities actively seek out and retrain those who have been out of the profession for several years.
Once your past 50 though, your past it. Earlier this year I was considering my options should I be laid off, and they weren’t that numerous. Driving jobs inevitably cropped up or possibly some government job with the usual public service benefits and job security.
Too old and out of condition for anything really physical and not really up to learning an entirely new skill set, best left to plod along for another decade until retirement.
Once your past 50 though, your past it. Earlier this year I was considering my options should I be laid off, and they weren’t that numerous. Driving jobs inevitably cropped up or possibly some government job with the usual public service benefits and job security.
Too old and out of condition for anything really physical and not really up to learning an entirely new skill set, best left to plod along for another decade until retirement.