So where are all the jobs then?
Join Date: Apr 2008
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Advice on the EU job market.
Because of personal reasons, I am considering going back to EU. However, I am 37 and with my kind of experience + age, I have so far supposed that I would be unemployable to a European airline. Therefore I haven’t really followed the European job market very carefully for the past years. I have been in the African charter business for 4 years. I have about 3000 h TT incl. more than 1000 h twin, but no jet time. I hold JAA ATPL(f) + IR.
I am willing to go anywhere in the EU. I have the funds to buy a type rating, but wouldn’t mind flying turboprops for the last part of my carrier if I should get the chance up there.
Anyone knowing the situation in EU who could give me a bit of advice: Is it worth the money to buy a TR in my age and in that case what kind of TR should I consider? Besides, what kind of jobs should I look for with my hours and age?
Some of you may wonder why I don’t just send my CV to a thousand companies in Europe and see what happens. That might be the next step, but by now I am just in the first stage of considering the idea and I would like a bit of advice to focus my planning.
Any serious feedback is highly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Because of personal reasons, I am considering going back to EU. However, I am 37 and with my kind of experience + age, I have so far supposed that I would be unemployable to a European airline. Therefore I haven’t really followed the European job market very carefully for the past years. I have been in the African charter business for 4 years. I have about 3000 h TT incl. more than 1000 h twin, but no jet time. I hold JAA ATPL(f) + IR.
I am willing to go anywhere in the EU. I have the funds to buy a type rating, but wouldn’t mind flying turboprops for the last part of my carrier if I should get the chance up there.
Anyone knowing the situation in EU who could give me a bit of advice: Is it worth the money to buy a TR in my age and in that case what kind of TR should I consider? Besides, what kind of jobs should I look for with my hours and age?
Some of you may wonder why I don’t just send my CV to a thousand companies in Europe and see what happens. That might be the next step, but by now I am just in the first stage of considering the idea and I would like a bit of advice to focus my planning.
Any serious feedback is highly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Join Date: Aug 2003
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NAL, assuming you've got EU working rights Flybe are well worth a look. Decent employer, they definitely hire people with your sort of profile, and with your hours a command wouldn't be far off. You wouldn't have to pay for a TR either.
Join Date: Feb 2002
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Today's Flight International has quite a thick recruitment section. Of note BA are advertising. This will open up opportunities further down the food chain for the rest of us. Certainly by the second half of this year I can see quite a lot of the smaller operators having to recruit.
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it is latin
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Would love to meet those you talk about whose fathers have got them a job. My family is one of an entirely aviation background. If anything this has seemed to serve against me. I think the amount of money people spend seems to to encourage them to set their sights a little too high. I'd suggest people bite the bulllet and start off right at the bottom even in an administrative capacity. £40k? You were lucky, I've spent double that.
Join Date: Jul 2002
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I qualified in September 2000 from the modular route. I spent 6 months sending cv's to all in sight with no luck. I decided to start improving my cv and got a FI rating and then spent 2 months speaking to every school in the uk and beyond. The only job I found was for a charity flying club that paid fuel so I spent all summer driving 1.5 hours each way and getting pocket money from my GF. After 9/11 and with the winter coming I started applying to schools abroad and got a job in africa this built up my hours and I got experience commercial instructing for 9 months I then went around africa getting Pilot assistant jobs which led to flying as a pilot on light twins and turboprops. I then returned to uk and started the cv game again. While doing this I got a multi and instrument instructor rating to get some better instruction. I then spent a year working for 5 flying schools(including the charity) picking more MEP time. I then got a call from a friend who had para dropping work on a turbine in the US, only for food, beer and a tent no pay. Did this for 2 months then a cv paid off and was offered a air taxi job. Only problem got the message 2 weeks late. When I got there the job was gone. But while there ran into a guy from a IR school who needed IR instructors and I had all the ticks. Did that for 2 years at the same time I did PA work on any jet/turbine or MEP that I could. I also did groundschool on a TRTO. I also went back to the bank again and got a loan for my CRE/IRR.
Things picked up a guy I flew with a PA was involved with a start up bizjet company and they needed someone with a training/examining background. I flew jets there and when we needed a AOC got involved in writing it. This led to involvement with my present company. I now fly a G550 and HS125 it has taken 10 years and I pay off my last bank loan in 3 years.
So good luck never stop improving your ratings and experience, never turn down an opportunity as a PA and if you do the jobs no one else wants you could find you become one of the only people with the qualifications and experience.
Things picked up a guy I flew with a PA was involved with a start up bizjet company and they needed someone with a training/examining background. I flew jets there and when we needed a AOC got involved in writing it. This led to involvement with my present company. I now fly a G550 and HS125 it has taken 10 years and I pay off my last bank loan in 3 years.
So good luck never stop improving your ratings and experience, never turn down an opportunity as a PA and if you do the jobs no one else wants you could find you become one of the only people with the qualifications and experience.
Join Date: May 2002
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SURE
African Drunk,
I agree with you.... BUT GET PAID.
If you do not get paid or work for peanuts, I will not want to hear you bitching about the low paying jobs later down the career.
I met many people that they will whore themselves now and then later on say "I can not believe how little they are paying...." It is because of your whoring around for free you dumb Fu
ck!
I agree with you.... BUT GET PAID.
If you do not get paid or work for peanuts, I will not want to hear you bitching about the low paying jobs later down the career.
I met many people that they will whore themselves now and then later on say "I can not believe how little they are paying...." It is because of your whoring around for free you dumb Fu
ck!
Join Date: Feb 2008
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People like Always Moving make me laugh. Another one of those "if only" people i.e. if only people wouldn't work for free, if only people would not pay for TRs, if only people would not pay for line training....and on it goes.
I am afraid this business is highly competitive, that is the nature of the game. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
I am afraid this business is highly competitive, that is the nature of the game. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Join Date: Jan 2002
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In aviation, organisations do not pay pilots according to worth or ability. They pay according to profitability. If you fly a 747 you are responsible for helping a company turn over a fortune and if they stay in business they are probably profitable so they pay the pilots well. If you fly for a gliding club or a struggling aerial survey company you can't help the company make a pile of cash - all you can do is help them scrape by. The payment you get are the hours in your logbook and the future value of those hours. Flying piston twins around public transport single pilot is one of the most demanding, pressured, and risky flying jobs you can have but you get paid a pittance because the company you work for doesnt turn over much money and pilots accept that. Its good fun though and you get to scare the crap out of yourself in icing and when its much too windy to land and no-one gets to know about it but you and you learn so much from it!
Buying a type rating can sometimes help you leapfrog some of the stages that people go through in flying but it can't buy you the experience you would have got by instructing at every level; instructing, towing gliders, ferry flying, and all the other badly paid jobs.
Work for free if you have to because that gets you the jobs that are paid. Pay for a type rating if you want to but bear in mind that there are no guarantees. Also bear in mind that its extremely rare to fail a type rating - you pay for it and you pass and companies are well aware that the only hurdle involved in getting a type rating is the money. The best you can hope for by paying for a type rating is that you will enhance your chances of being invited to interview and that gives you the chance to get a better paid job. My company is in the process of changing our interview process and it will involve at least two interviews, a profiling stage, and for some pilots a simulator assessment. The ability to hand fly, fly raw data, be able to make good sound decisions, and show multi crew abilities are very high up our requirements for pilots and you dont get that by doing a rating in a 737.
One last thing - I read every single CV that I am sent. I'm trying to file CV's correctly in order to keep track of how people progress and I am going to make sure I carry on doing that because I know how hard it is to get a first job in aviation.
good luck
Buying a type rating can sometimes help you leapfrog some of the stages that people go through in flying but it can't buy you the experience you would have got by instructing at every level; instructing, towing gliders, ferry flying, and all the other badly paid jobs.
Work for free if you have to because that gets you the jobs that are paid. Pay for a type rating if you want to but bear in mind that there are no guarantees. Also bear in mind that its extremely rare to fail a type rating - you pay for it and you pass and companies are well aware that the only hurdle involved in getting a type rating is the money. The best you can hope for by paying for a type rating is that you will enhance your chances of being invited to interview and that gives you the chance to get a better paid job. My company is in the process of changing our interview process and it will involve at least two interviews, a profiling stage, and for some pilots a simulator assessment. The ability to hand fly, fly raw data, be able to make good sound decisions, and show multi crew abilities are very high up our requirements for pilots and you dont get that by doing a rating in a 737.
One last thing - I read every single CV that I am sent. I'm trying to file CV's correctly in order to keep track of how people progress and I am going to make sure I carry on doing that because I know how hard it is to get a first job in aviation.
good luck
Join Date: Apr 2008
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I wonder how the market for pilots is today if you don’t have been working as a pilot but if you now have the TR for Boeing 737 300-900 and a total flight time around 1500 hrs?
Easy, it's CLOSED!!!
Easy, it's CLOSED!!!
Join Date: Jun 2008
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Jobs available in Australia
Check out the Rex site at regionalexpress.com.au - About Rex - Career Opportunities. They are looking for pilots. They will be conducting interviews at Lanseria Airport, South Africa from 30 June to 04 July 2008. Ad has been in all the major RSA newspapers. Entry level requirements not to stiff.
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help yourself by being in the right place at the right time
sorry if this is a repost, I don't have the time to read the whole thread, but thought i would chip in with a tip....
I used to work the ramp at a London airport about 4 years ago. There were 5 guys there all fATPL low hours. All are now in jet jobs.
Why? They were working the network, in the aviation scene, and heard about jobs coming up. If I was a wannabe now, as soon as I got my ticket I would be applying to be ground crew/dispatcher at a busy airport where turboprop/small carriers fly out of. That's a great way to get to know the pilots and get them to put in the crucial word in the ear for you. You never know, the four striper you are chatting to on the ramp might be the guy or gal who will be doing interviews in a few weeks and if they like you, you won't be an anonymous CV in a pile......
I used to work the ramp at a London airport about 4 years ago. There were 5 guys there all fATPL low hours. All are now in jet jobs.
Why? They were working the network, in the aviation scene, and heard about jobs coming up. If I was a wannabe now, as soon as I got my ticket I would be applying to be ground crew/dispatcher at a busy airport where turboprop/small carriers fly out of. That's a great way to get to know the pilots and get them to put in the crucial word in the ear for you. You never know, the four striper you are chatting to on the ramp might be the guy or gal who will be doing interviews in a few weeks and if they like you, you won't be an anonymous CV in a pile......
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Best Advice i've seen, well done ssschmokin!,
Thats exactly what i did, worked on the ramp for a few cold winter months, then on to dispatch, got to know the right people and got my CV on to the right desk,
Starting a TR in a few weeks!
Happy Days.
Thats exactly what i did, worked on the ramp for a few cold winter months, then on to dispatch, got to know the right people and got my CV on to the right desk,
Starting a TR in a few weeks!
Happy Days.
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absolutelly agree with above. I work in business and only finished my fATPL few weeks ago. Got two job offers but didn't accept any yet waiting for one interview I was waiting for the last year, hopefully will happen in September.
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lc aerobatics
The jobs are few and far between, my advice for what its worth is to take any job that is offered, you need to keep flying and consolidate the skills you have learnt.
This winter will be bad for job seekers, hopefully improving if and when oil prices come to a reasonable level.
Many carriers are about to lay pilots off and the few jobs around will go to experienced pilots and SSTR's.
The jobs are few and far between, my advice for what its worth is to take any job that is offered, you need to keep flying and consolidate the skills you have learnt.
This winter will be bad for job seekers, hopefully improving if and when oil prices come to a reasonable level.
Many carriers are about to lay pilots off and the few jobs around will go to experienced pilots and SSTR's.
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This Winter
I agree this winter will be tough in most parts of the world, but was looking at Airline Pilot Jobs - Jobs for Pilots Flight Deck Jobs Flight Crew Vacancies Worldwide and there still seem to be a fair few of the middle eastern airlinesthat are actively recruiting and not showing any signs of cancelling orders for new aircraft.
Emirates, Gulf, Qatar, etihad etc all on there....No UK carriers though!
Emirates, Gulf, Qatar, etihad etc all on there....No UK carriers though!