Originally Posted by
bcrosier
Honestly, I don't remember looking at anyone directly out of the military, which sounds sort of odd, but we were a small operation, and not located near any military bases. That said we did hire one ex-military guy who worked out very well (he's now flying a G-550). He had been at a regional, and worked outside of aviation for a while prior to coming to us.
Again, I think the underlying theme is we tried to look for someone who fit in and wanted to be in our operation, regardless of where they came from. My thought is that military pilots would be like any other group - a wide variation between individuals as to what their ultimate goals are. Some would be looking to build time, some looking for a place to stay. Our goal was to find the people who wanted to stay a while.
I've never been in a large department operating bigger equipment, but my impression is that those departments aren't typically looking for someone without some history in the corporate community - again the whole networking thing. The type of flying you did in the military could be a feather in your cap - someone who did flying similar to corporate might be considered. The key being, we want someone who understands what being a corporate pilot is all about, and flying the airplane is only a small part of that.
I've have to say that this might be dependent on the community from which they come - I'm not sure since I only have experience in one community. I can say with much certainty that in my experience, I was just about the ONLY person who had his eye on some sort of corporate / government flying job after the military. Only in the last 5 years or so did I finally see other peers/seniors become interested in the corporate / fractional models or the gov't CBP jobs for instance.
During the mid-90s and early 2000 timeframe, not one of my peers that I know of went anywhere other than P121 flying and most gave me the 'oh young naive one' look when I would say that I was interested in anything other than P121 flying.
I do know that a few went on to corporate careers. I know one with Home Depot, two others with Gulfstream out of Savannah, eventually two went to NJA (both furloughed now) and one directly to NJI (probably one of the last direct hires. He had come off his final tour flying the Commandant's Gulfstream around). I have been in contact with a few other former military types who have a P91 Gulfstream job and a BBJ with Boeing Corp; point being I know they are out there - - but I agree that it isn't a plethera and with contacts being so important it seems to be an especially hard segment to break into.
USMCFLYR