First Job in Australia
 

Hi Guys, this is my first post - woo!

I am finishing a CPL in a few weeks in Melbourne (weather permitting) and am wondering what on earth i am going to do next.

The options appear to be either instructing (although told that after investing A$15,000 in a rating i have to bring my own students to the school and will be paid per flying hour) or doing an Instrument Rating and trying to move into CHTR (consensus is that this is a waste though as i wont get a job to use it).

Does anyone have some advice around options? Are there any websites that have opportunities for brand new CPL pilots?

The industry appears to have dived whilst i have been training so maybe i missed the boat.....?

Cheers - JT

So many threads on this already, yes you have missed the boat but hopefully another will turn up in a few years.

No you have not missed the boat you are still in it , but I must say it is taking on water pretty fast , hopefully we can start bailing the water quicker in the near future. Just bge carefull were you put your money as it could be costly in the long term. Instructing , not a safe bet but you could generate some money and keep the hours building up.

ab33t - whats it like in the UK, similar situation?? I got a UK passport so going there is an option too i guess..

Its even worse in the UK than OZ and you would need your JAR licence to stand a chance or join the extremely long queue of very experienced pilots looking for work.

JT77

To answer your question, you haven't missed the boat because you have gained a qualification. However unfortunately your new licence is unlikely to result in the immediate employment you would have hoped for when you started.

Worldwide there are the very occasional jobs popping to the surface as people retire or leave the profession for other reasons. Unfortunately for you these jobs are being taken by experienced pilots because it is much cheaper and efficient for an airline to absorb such a pilot instead of training up a new guy. They also get the experience that comes with the package. And all this is happenning at a time when ALL airlines are trying to save money.

In the UK there numerous qualified pilots with literally thousands of hours in command that are - or just about to be - in the search for employment. You may have seen on the news that bmi will be making around 125 pilots redundant - all Airbus trained and even the most junior ones will have at least 3 years line flying under their belts.

That said the industry is notoriously cyclical. The recession just worsened a depressed situation. It will come back but you will see from other threads in this site that it not the time to spend good money to gain qualifications you may not use.

Obviously when every apsect of the industry is trying to remain trading the training schools will try to give the situation a positive spin. They will be making tremendous offers to attract more students in order to remain afloat. Your task is to decide if you NEED to buy that product now with little prospect of seeing a return in the short term.

Good luck!

HWB

HWB - Thanks for the snapshot of things in the UK.
You are right, the industry has done a 180 since i began training but i'm sure it will upswing again. Probably a good chance to do what is necessary now to ensure we're all in the right place when demand picks up again!
Cheers - JT77