I've looked around a bit, and I couldn't find a topic like this, so I decided to make one. It's going to be pretty extensive, so might even be sticky material?
One person doesn't have to answer all of these questions. If you want to answer just one, or give me any kind of tips I will gladly accept it!
If there are other people in the same situation as me, I also don't mind other people asking the same type of question as me in this topic.
I've been trying to come up with questions for this topic of mine for about a week now, and here's my case:
After getting my certificates in the US including instructor ratings and working at a flight school for about 1.5 years, I returned to Europe and I now have a frozen ATPL, JAA CPL/ME/IR, MCC course and about 830 hours, which of 90 are multi hours.
My aspiration is basically to get any kind of job anywhere in the world. Be it piston, turboprop or jet. Europe, Asia, Africa, any continent that will let me work there, without any insane danger to my life and health.
Since I'm asking about job hunting anywhere but USA pretty much, I know that I might not be asking the correct crowd here, but I think many of you guys still have a lot of knowledge I'm lacking that will help in any job hunt.
Now, in this world of ours, with very few jobs out on the job sites, the ones I do qualify for, probably gets hundreds if not thousands of applicants. I have been trying to figure out: What is within my power when it comes to making my application the most attractive of the bunch? And how do I proceed to get that interview, and land that job?
I want to try and perfect every part that I can, and I really hope you people can help out a newbie.
Here are my questions:
1. Are there any flight deck job hunt sites you guys would recommend? I use a couple of free ones, and I especially need ones that try to cover non-US countries (as I can't get a greencard in the US without marrying someone). FL350 etc seems to be very geared towards the US.
2. Professional cover letter / CV design. Some pilot job hunt sites also offer professional design of your cover letter, like pilot career center etc. Does anyone have any experience with this? Obviously a normal CV design service wouldn't cater perfectly for aviation resumes, but what about the ones for pilots?
3. Picture on the CV. I've seen so many suggestions to this. Should you put a professional picture of yourself on your CV? (head and shoulders)
4. CV/cover letter length. Most tips I've seen say, make it only one page each. A few say, make it longer. What's your take?
5. Email applications. Obviously if you send your application via snailmail, the cover letter and resume is easily distinguishable. However, what should you do when applying via email? Should you put the cover letter in the body of the email, or put it as an attachment, and in that case, what should you put in the body?
6. What is the best format to save your cv as. PDF or MS Word?
7. What do most companies consider a professional email address? I have several myself. Such as:
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected].
Does it make a difference? (The mydomain email is actually my personal website, so if they hit the address after the @ they will get there. Not sure if that would be an advantage or not).
8. Interview prep. Is investing in professional interview preparation worth it? What about simulator prepping?
9. Dressing for the interview. As far as I've read on this board, a business type suit, with the red tie is the way to go. Would you use this for all aviation interviews anywhere in the world?
10. Followup on the application. Should you call the employer a certain amount of time after sending the application? In that case how long, and what if it says "do not call us", any other way to get their attention?
11. Showing up. My own country has very very few employment opportunities at this time, so all my job search will pretty much be abroad. As I don't really have the money to trek around the entire world showing up at every operator, I might be able to visit just a few. What's the best way to go about this?
12. Behavior during calls, interviews etc. Any good concrete pointers on what kind of behavior, mannerisms, speech and conversation material the companies really look out for when they deal with you?
13. Hitting up the ones that do not employ. Would you guys recommend calling people who are not currently hiring, or sending out resumes even to these guys?
13. Cover letters. Obviously, your CV doesn't change from application to application, but the cover letter obviously does. What are key points to get down on this piece of paper?
14. CV. Apart from the question asked earlier in regards to professional aviation site CV design. What key points would you guys make in regards to making my own CV?
15. Any other tips, suggestions, pointers, ideas, critique etc I will accept them gladly !!
Thanks in advance guys, really hoping to hit the ground running in a few weeks here!
- Photon