impossable or just improbable

[Bomber ARIS]

Amen.

[Ivor E Tower]

I have to agree with the last few posts. Attention to detail with your CV says a lot.

There`s someone who posts here almost every day (not lately however) who`s spelling and grammar left a lot to be desired. I understand that when posting comments you can sometimes slip up etc. However having received his CV it was just the same. Hence why he struggled to find his first job.

You read the CV and make an initial decision on the person with regard to appearance and grammar. That is unless you are desperate in which case you`ll take anyone with the ratings.

[skidkicker75]

many thanks for the replys guys.
As you have all stated when doing a CV its is of the upmost importance to get spelling and grammar correct. My point, however,(and this may be naieve but i am new to all this) is that this is a forum where we all come for advice and entertainment, and as such i did not believe that i would be critisised and picked up on spelling and grammar.

Now that i know, in future i will try to be a little more particular over my attention to detail.


Just as a side point my computer does not have spell check, i only have the most basic word pad on here so appologies if i have screwed up again.

My flying is better than my spelling

again thanks.

[UwantME2landWHERE!]

......ware as its offen bene said my spelin iz twise az gud as my flyin....

[MaxNg]

Coyote

Your spelin aint bad but rer gramer sux

"A good mate of mine is CFI and Chief Pilot and a hell of a good pilot and spelling isn't his strong point either"

Oh and by the way

The mark 3 never had a "15 Axis Photon Controller" it was a MK14a (TSO NASA1000099x/4) to be exact.

MaxNg

[The Rotordog]

skidkicker75

To those of you that have criticized my spelling and grammar, firstly i was in quite a hurry to get to post out so did not have the time to be meticulous over spelling.

One thing you'd do well to learn about pilots is that we *never* use the excuse, "I was in a hurry and that's why I screwed up." We're a little strange that way. When we find ourselves being rushed, we deliberately try to slow things down. This carries over to our outside-the-cockpit attitudes, i.e. what's the rush in posting? Was your teacher going to catch you on an aviation website when you should have been studying Economics? Mom fixin' to yank the power plug on the computer because it's past eleven p.m.? We tend to sneer at those who use "I was rushed" as an excuse. But like I said, we're a little strange that way.

Second i wasnt aware that just by posting a thread on the site that i was being interviewed for a job or appraised on my intilect.

...A common misconception. Dude, you are ALWAYS being appraised on your intellect in life. Always. Every time you open your mouth or put pen to paper (finger to key?). Learn it. Deal with it. Your friends/peers may not care how you speak, but they're probably not going to be hiring you for a job. From my observation, young people have a pervasive attitude that things don't matter anymore. They take cellphone calls during interviews, and think grammar, spelling, how they act, dress or whether they wear hats indoors does not matter anymore. Yes they do, buddy. Small spelling mistakes and typing errors happen to the best of us, but please do make your best effort. It'll pay off in the long run.

Third The reason i probally have trouble spelling in down to the fact that at school all i did was look out the window wondering if i would ever fly, rather than concentrating on how to spell.

Mistake number three. There's more to flying than just being up there, and all the wishing in the world will not make it so. Stop dreaming about it and get to work. There's lots to do.

And just as a by line. I have undertaken all my cpl exams out here and have not failed one. No great shakes maybe, but i self studied for all but one. Again some of you will be saying that its no big thing, however, many of my co students have sat in on the classes for each subject and are still failing them one after another, time and time again.

What you forget is that we have all passed our tests. Most of us did not have too much trouble with them, so we do consider it "no great shakes."

Sorry if all this sounds discouraging or insulting, for that's not what I've intended. Certainly a strong desire to be a pilot is a big plus, and it goes a long way. We like that. But it takes more than that. It's taken all of us a lot of (hard) work to get where we are; it didn't happen automatically. I don't know your age, so all I'll say in closing is keep at it. You'll get there eventually if it is what you truly want.

[Gomer Pylot]

Skidkicker, you're posting on a forum that is read by thousands of people around the world, and almost certainly is read by the person who will make the decision on whether to hire you. As Genghis pointed out, anonymity isn't what it once was, and if you give the impression of not paying attention, as you do here, your chances of being hired are somewhere between slim and none. This is not like being on instant messenger, talking just to your mates and using shortcuts. Here you're presenting yourself to the world and to prospective employers, whether you know it or not, and whether you intend to or not. Flying, and especially flying helicopters, demands attention to all the details, all the time, and if you can't handle that, then you won't make a good employee. Deal with it.

[skidkicker75]

as i said before i am new to all this and as such a little naive.

Now it has been made blindingly clear to me i will try to take better care in future posts.

ps rotordog i am 29 years old, and theres one thing in life i'm not affraid of is hard work, so whatever it takes and no matter how long it takes i WILL be a paid (professional) pilot.


Any other pointers that may help me in the future so i dont put my foot in my mouth again would be much appriceated.

[Gomer Pylot]

Again, pay attention to detail. I, when used as the first person singular, is always capitalized. Always. If you can't afford a word processor with a spell checker, there are several dictionaries available on the web. If you can post here, you can check your spelling. Being in a hurry, as others have said, is no excuse. Spelling is an acquired skill, and can be learned. Hovering is only one of many skills you will need to get on in the world. Before you ever get the chance to demonstrate your flying ability, you'll have to demonstrate other skills. Like it or not, fair or not, that's the way it is, and the sooner you accept it the sooner you'll have a chance at a flying job.

[SASless]

I do not care what the Resume looks like...it can be hand scribbled on cardboard.....what I do care about is how the person expresses themselves to me particularly in conversation. If the Resume (or cobbled up note if you will) arrives prior to the telephone call and the applicant has remotely the flying experience or background for the job advertised....fair dinkum. I am looking for pilots that are not afraid of work....do not mind getting their hands dirty....and consult their watch only to see if it is Opening Hours yet.

Attention to detail is good....honesty is even better....grand dispersals of bovine fecal matter loses out everytime. If all you are looking for is a short term deal to carry you over to your next good deal....say so. If you don't have the experience but are willing to do whatever it takes to earn the opportunity....say that too. If I worked for a Fortune 500 company....and all we flew around was nice suits and svelte personal assistants that would be different.....but longlinging and firefighting....spraying and other backwoods work do not call for professionally done and bound up in nice pretty booklet Resumes.

If you stand in the doorway....even in blue jeans and flannel shirt....if you are clean...your pickup is spotless...and you present yourself for what you really are....you stand a better chance than merely sending in a slick looking resume. One man's opinion....and for sure don't tell me all about your Command experience and staff qualifications from the military....

[skidkicker75]

SASless,

you sound like the kind of man i want to work for.

I dont have the eqperience, but i am willing to learn from the bottom up.

Give me a job, and i will even learn to make coffee(dont drink it myself), anything for some of the golden egg(stick time).

Well maybe i am getting ahead of myself, ought to finish my CPL first but its good to know there are people like me out there. That is not to say however that i dont look very dashing in a suit when i have to, but i am a man more used to overalls than shirt and tie!

[Warren Buffett]

A stitch in time ...

Gomer, the older I get, the more interested I am in discovering why very smart people sometimes make very obvious and simple mistakes (and I don't mean errors in the cockpit).

Some years back I was appalled at the quality of written English from my UK subsidiary company. I did some research and then tried some remedial actions.

The research showed (in my subsidiary company only) that my employees who are smart but couldn't write or spell properly tend to:

1. Come from a background of attending public (GOVT funded) schools.
2. Have parents who are blue collared or see little value in excelling in education in general.
3. Not read widely themselves.

So, with the help of an English educator, we introduced evening classes, made available wonderful books that taught people how to "Write to the Point" and we provided cash incentives for tertiary schooling.

The result? Well, I found the writing and spelling standards did improve, but not remarkably. Verbosity, repetition, etc all surfaced again and again.

The conclusion I drew from all this is that if you do not educate properly right from Kindergarten to say, the 10th year of schooling the foundation to learn how to write and spell properly is generally lost forever. Of course, all this applies only to my emperical findings and no more. I don't pretend to be an expert on the subject.

Great forum on the subject of resumes versus actual personality!

[Gomer Pylot]

Warren, I think incentive has a lot to do with it. One has to want to learn to spell properly and write grammatically. Reading has more to do with it than almost anything else, I think. If you don't read, you don't learn the correct words, you only pick up what you hear, and often hear the wrong words. As one of our government programs says, 'Reading is fundamental'. If you spend your time watching TV and playing video games, you won't learn to see words, and it's far more difficult to learn later. I don't blame the schools as much as I blame parents and the general environment. I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere, and there was no TV at all until I was almost out of high school. I read books to pass the time, because there was nothing else to do. Do something often enough, and you get good at it. Do it very seldom, and only when you must, and you won't be very good at it.

Probably the importance of spelling, grammar, and neatness in general is diminishing, because of the decrease in the ability of the public in general in these things. If teachers can't do it, how can the pupils be expected to learn it?

[WLM]

Education in the broad sense, our days is very different from the way it was; Some younger people cannot even have a nice hand writing, as the PC has made it easier to type. The system is also to blame as a hand written letter is almost frowned upon in the corporate world. How many people I meet that cannot count properly? It is not fair to blame parents or even may be the individual concerned. We need to protest at the Government levels and ensure that proper education is delivered, whether it is public or private. Teaching as a profession is not as flamboyant as it was, as other sectors are made more attractive or better remunerated. Certainly not our Rotary one eh eh...
So instead of spell checkers, SMS, etc, why not go back to the roots to alleviate this new generation of alien English writers.
Oh and yes stick to your chosen path of becoming a flyboy; It is a personal goal with sacrifices that only we Rotary boys (and Girls) can appreciate and understand. Any logical person would classify us as nearly insane as a chosen career path.
Cheers

[ShyTorque]

Spellin'? Yeh, but no, but righ' but no what i mean? Wha' is i' about yu lo' thut alluz wunts wurds spellin' right?

I mean but wot difrence dus it maek? Like wo' we is flying elis, not dickshunris, righ'?

Ol we 'as to du is ge' th' 'eli to the rite plaes on th' right day, right?

Wo' Iz the prublem? Dummin' down? No, i alluz bin this thick.

[Gomer Pylot]

SASless, I understand your attitude, but given two otherwise identical applicants, one of whom can speak and write properly, and presents a neat appearance, with a neat and proper resume, the other sloppy in appearance and written and spoken language, which would you pick? Only one position available, and all other factors equal. You don't think it makes some difference?

[Thomas coupling]

Liked the post rotordog!

If I can add just one teensy weensy thing. CV's are a good starting point, but it can never compete with showing your face and interest at the place you would like to work! Worth a thousand CV's in my experience.

[boomerangben]

Returning to the point of the original post, I was in a similar position to Skidkicker a few years ago. At the time I didn't know of Pprune and only had the guidance of other pilots I met. I don't think that the employment issue has changed dramatically over the last few years (I agree it has had it ups and downs, but it always has) but if I had realised the truth of it, I would have had the same concerns as Skidkicker. But there are self improvers out there who are flying (in the UK) as Police, corporate, offshore, SAR, utility and HEMS pilots. It can and does happen, but as you will have already gathered, your attitude is paramount, oh and never forget to keep learning.

[offshoreigor]

Steve76

How's she goin Mate? I guess your wearing the woolies by now! Its warm here in Cote d'Ivoire, too warm! Have you heard from Pooch lately?

Cheers and Merry Christmas!

OffshoreIgor