The hardest thing about being a pilot is getting that FIRST job. Once you do get it the rest becomes easier. Especially, once you reach 1500 hours of flight time. That is the magic number to work for any airline in the USA. In Canada, there is no formal flight hour rule but usually 1200-1500 hours is where people get hired by the regional airlines.
Here I’m going to list a couple of strategies for you to consider. You want to do things a little different instead of blending with every body else is doing.If everybody is going one way you must go the other way.
Do your Instructor Rating after CPL instead of Multi-IFR
You don’t have to do multi IFR right after CPL. Especially if your goal is to be a flight instructor. You wont be flying IFR for years to come and your instrument flying skills will be almost non-existent. Instead I recommend you getting your FI rating right after CPL. It will take about 4 months to get the FI rating completed. Now you can get hired sooner and build those PIC hours compared to someone else who did it the traditional way.
Treat your instructor rating like a job interview
You are actually being judged by everything you do as a student. When the CFI, the big boss wants to hire new isntructors he/she will go around asking other instrutors how their students are doing. You don’t want your instructor telling their boss that you were late, or under prepared, or have a bad attitude. So treat the instructor rating like a job interview by showing up early for your flights, dress well, show your willingness to learn, be someone others would want to work with.
Network like cassanova
This is the most important strategy in my opion and should be number 1 on the list. Most of my pilot jobs I received through refferals. Clasmates of mine recommending me, college professors who gave me a refferece, and even people I knew at one company who went on to become in charge of hiring at another company who hired me because theyu knw me. I did’nt even have to interiew like everyone else.
Even when you are a student pilot. Poke your head into the CFI office, introduct yourself, state your intentions that you want to instructor for them one day. This way you occupy space in their minds.
My last 3 pilot jobs were due to connections from a friend.
Browse through aviation forums for job ads.
There are some popular aviation forums that display job adds for free. Employers know that pilots linger around these places so they post position openings there to gain more visibility.
But please be very careful. There is so much negativity on these forums that sometimes the cons out weights the pros of being on there. It may feel like the majority of the industry is negative but its only a small portion of unhappy pilots. Just look at the job ads section and exit the website.
Be persistent but change your approach every time. Don’t ever give up.
Finally, never give up your search for a pilot job. I have an excel file which documented all the resumes I sent out for my first job. The list exceeded 100 resumes sent. Some jobs were ones that I re-applied over again and a few finally got back to me.
All you need is that one big break. One person to say YES to you. You’ve already compeletd flight training which was very tough. You’re close to the finish line. So keep persisting and eventually you eill get hired.
I hope to share the skies with you soon.
