Internships and hiring for different position
 

I was thinking about applying for an internship with SWA. The one I looked into was basically keeping inventory of the tool room. Lets set up a scenario. Lets say I get accepted for this internship and I do the inventory job. I'm assuming that once you intern for a company, it is much easier to get hired after you graduate. Once I graduate I would like to fly, not work in a tool room.

Would that internship help you get a pilot position (capt. or FO) even though the job you interned for was tool room inventory or if you applied for a pilot position would it be like you never interned at all? It seems that no one can answer this question. I'm thinking that the internship is more of a "get your foot in the door" deal rather than "hey, we want you but only to do this job". Any help would be greatly appreciated so I can get this cleared up.

I think it would help get you an interview when the time comes.

But the truly cherished internships are what are referred to as "Flight Ops Internships". These are specifically focused on future pilots and involve working in the flight ops dept (vice Mx, or HR, or finance, etc) and may include some simulator and even cockpit jumpseat time. Unless you make a bad impression you are usually guaranteed an interview (and probably a job) as soon as you meet mins. They keep records, so it's still good even ten years later.

The question to ask is how did you get the opportunity for this internship? If it's through an aviation university then you will probably be flagged for a guaranteed interview when you meet the mins. If it's a non-aviation university program, I would wonder why they put you in the tool room? It seems to me you could just get a job at SWA pushing broom or whatever.

I am a pro-flight major at Auburn University and we get emails from our director with attachments for internships. I've had quite a few sent to me recently and none are flight ops. They are mostly figuring out better routes for the aircraft, tool room, assistant, etc. The reason I chose the tool room one was because I have been a mechanic and diesel mechanic for quite some time and it should be relatively easy to pick up on that rather than charting new routes. And, not to mention, Because of my standing (sophomore) I'm not qualified for all of them. When I transferred down here, I lost a lot of my credit hours.

We had a guy intern with CAL last semester working in an office but they still let him use the 737 sim whenever it wasn't in use and he also got to fly anywhere without paying and got to sit in the cockpit for most of it and learn. Either way, I'm trying to set myself up now for what I will need in the future. If that means going to work in a tool room for a semester and bettering my chances of getting a FO slot in a few years then that is great. I'll gladly do it. But, I don't want to "waste" my time working in a tool room for a semester if they are going to want me to perform that job when I graduate if I apply. That sounds a little rude and I don't mean for it to but I'm going to school to fly and that is what I want to do when I get out. Not work in an office or tool room.

Along the lines of what Rickair said, usually a flight ops intern position offers the most exposure to a prospective pilot with the things he listed.

This just my opinion, nothing more. If you do accept this position and do a bang up job and get recs from the people above you, it'll probably go a pretty long way at a company like Southwest. It'll prove/demonstrate that you are a well rounded individual with a diverse background, you know how to do other things besides fly, be a complete team player, have a better understanding of how the SouthWest machine operates, etc.

Whatever you decide, it's doubtful that it would negatively affect your ability to get hired at SW later on at all. And I'm sure if you were to socially engineer things, you could probably get access to things like sim rides, face time with the training department and chief pilots, etc.

It's not uncommon for guys with diverse backgrounds that aren't the standard cookie cutter pilot profile to stand out to HR/hiring types.

Thanks for the replies. As far as SWA as a career choice, the way it's looking, I will take what I can get. I know the odds of being hired on at FedEx/UPS (what I really REALLY want to do) straight out of school is slim-to-none and slim just walked out the door. I just need a good "stepping stone" airline, if you will, to build enough hours and experience to be able to handle something like FedEx/UPS. I did some searching to see if FedEx/UPS has internships on the flight side (in a plane or in an office) and I couldn't find anything. Do any of yall know if they have anything like that? Since that is the long-term goal, if I could apply for an internship there, and get it, that would be more beneficial for me.

Considering you need to meet the mins, to include 1000 TPIC, this is very true. Maybe it's happened, but I don't think there's been ANYBODY hired straight out of school into FedEx/UPS. I'm talking pre 9/11, post 9/11 doesn't even count. After all, there was a brief time when UPS wouldn't accept an app unless you had 1000 TPIC/AC time as well as heavy/over water/oceanic/Class II navigation experience. It was only a brief time, but they wouldn't even accept the app unless it was on there. FedEx had what they called the "purple nugget" program. Not as stringent, but pretty close.

It's been proven that pilots from all sorts of backgrounds can handle FedEx, UPS, or ANY other company out there. The hurdle comes in being able to secure the interview. Bear in mind, there are PLENTY of guys that have been at "stepping stone" airlines/ACMIs/fractional/corporate for YEARS waiting for a shot at FedEx, as well as UPS. That is, when UPS recalls, THEN hires again. So the road may be long, much longer than you anticipate. There's ALSO been pilots at another version of a "stepping stone" if you will. It's called the Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, Army, and Marine Corps.

I've flown with FO's that did flight ops interns at BOTH places. But don't have any info on how they got them, nor if they still do them.

Thanks for the insight xjt. I know it's going to be a long hard road but like I said, it is the ultimate goal. I'm not trying to do this all in a day. I looked into the military but my parents had a big problem with it and I respected them enough to not join. After I thought about it, the odds of getting a flight slot were slim and I would have probably ended up on the ground which would have delayed my "plans" even longer. It seems that the consensus in aviation is, its all about who you know or getting lucky enough to get an interview.

ups did employ 3-4,one year commitment, paid flight interns two years ago..due to company wide cost cutting measures, that program was discontinued this past year...I don't know if they will resume that program anytime soon..

Situations are different, but the way this is worded kind of rubs me personally the wrong way. First of all....at some point you are going to have to start making your own decisions. Second.....and I don't know what their "big problem" might be with the military, but I'm awfully glad that others don't to provide them with that nice blanket.

Good luck with those internships. They can be hard to come by but well worth it in the end in the terms of metworking which is very important in this industry.

USMCFLYR

FLYR,

I meant no disrespect and neither do they. They were both raised military and saw what their parents had to go through and they did not want me to end up the same way. They both love what our military men and women do for our country and back them 100% as do I. It has more to do with me being adopted and an only child and they don't want something to happen to me if I were to be put on the ground like they were going to do (went and spoke with the Marine recruiter and I told him I wanted to fly and he put me in a field radio operator position). They have given me everything I could possibly want/need so when they asked me not to join, I agreed to show my respect for them. I just don't want you to think that my parents or I am against the military. If I could be in a F/18 right now I would do it in a heartbeat. It is just not the route I chose. Again, I meant no disrespect to you or the military FLYR.