How Does one make himself stand out with so many out there?
 

I'm pretty new to the job search. (one or two months) This may have been naive, but to be honest I was expecting to get a nibble or two within this time. So....more or less I'm looking for some advice. I realize that I'm pretty low time, and that might just be the problem.....however I'm seeing people getting hired with less or equivilent time to mine. What can I do to make myself better stand out? I'm sitting on 1075TT 800ME 750Turbine 225PIC ATP written complete. I have my stuff in with Air Wisconsin, SkyWest, and Horizon. Am I aiming to high?

You're not aiming too high although I know Air Wisky is looking for about 1500 TT. There's a couple things you can do:

1. Apply Apply and Apply some more. Submit online (if available), then fax your resume to the human resource department. If you can find out whose in charge of hiring, get their name and address then Priority Mail a copy of your resume to them. That way it ends up on their desk and they have to sign for it and at least open it to look at it. It's gutsy, but I've seen it work. You can usually get contact info on aviationinterviews.com at the top of the gouge.

2. Find someone you know that works for one of those companies and get them to hand in your resume. Recommendations from current employees usually go a long way.

3. Update your resume often (at least once a month). Some people I know do it every two weeks. Show them you're still flying and that you're committed to working at THIER COMPANY.

4. Stick with it. I had resumes out to companies before meeting minimums and kept updating for almost 5 months before finally getting a phone call and that was with two employees walking my stuff in. You just have to be persistent.

Good luck with the job search. From what I hear the places you have applied to are pretty solid regionals.

I was experiencing the same thing Clyde. I think the best change I made to my approach was to have my resume professionally written by Lori Clark. Once I did this, I got calls from about 5 companies and was hired by 3 of them. Ultimately I ended up at PSA and from what I understand, if you can get another pilot from PSA to reccomend you, you are assured an interview when the next round comes up. Good luck and stick with it. Sharky had some good tips also. CTL

Thanks for the input guys....some good advice.

Clyde, what is all of your ME/turbine time in? As a former recruiter, your times might set off a few flags having so much time due to it being a bit disproportionate (ME/Turbine to TT). I sit in the same boat with 4700TT, 600PIC, and 4050 Turbine...

If you want some help with your resume, I'm happy to offer a bit of advice/guidance on it... just send me an email. josh.shields (AT) crosswindlanding.com.

i think its more the fact that these so called "proffesional resumer writers" have all the contacts in the industry to pass your resume to the right person, more than the fact that they put a semicolon in where you put a comma.

You're right the pro's have the inside contacts or know someone who can get them the right name/number to send it along to...

-LAFF

All that ME/Turbine Time was / is for a FAR 135 operator in King Air 100s and Beech 1900s...but it's all SIC.

Skywest is doing group interviews. If you didn't know about it yet, go on their website and try to go to one.

Where are all these pilots that want jobs?
 

Maybe it's just the idea of working for Colgan, but the word back from the open house we just held in Houston - a "come one come all" call for ALL pilots - is just eight showed up the first day and two...just two out of all those pilots out there looking for jobs...showed up the second day. Even if you don't want to work for us, at least show up for the interview experience!

get a face tatoo

Ok, so am I receiving you correctly... we "so called professional resume writers" have all the contacts to pass along the resume and really have no effect whatsoever on the appearance and/or content of said document?

Wow... if that were actually true then we would be placement services, right? Wouldn't that make us more desirable? Hmmm.

If I'm reading your statement correctly that hiring someone to write your resume is a waste - I understand your skepticism of "professional resume writers" and I am the first to highly recommend that folks check out all available options and the "professionals" themeselves. One question I suggest is to ask what will this person charge you if your resume is fine the way it is? Will they always find something wrong with it?
My philosophy is that if you are conveying the information just fine it then it doesn't need any modifications...and I will certainly not charge you for something I didn't do.

I guess I'm not sure what point your statement above is trying to make. Are you suggesting that having your resume critiqued or written is a waste of time and money or that it is a positive step because of the assumed "connections?"

Kind Regards,
Lori

Clyde,
This is great advice from Sharky. Also make sure you update any online application you may have on file.

One thing you didn't mention in your post is what you're currently doing. Are you actively flying? Recency is very important and most airlines require a minimum of 100 hours in the past six months.

Give it some time; nothing ever happens as fast as we want it to. Network, network, network.

Good luck!!

Lori

How did they advertise it? I've been in Houston with ExpressJet since April and didn't hear anyone mention it. Did they hold it at the airport Holiday Inn? If so, I was there and I still had no idea it was going on... I guess it doesn't really do much good if you guys already in the company are the only ones that know about a hiring shindig. If it was advertised locally it could be that not many folks around here know who/what Colgan is. Just some thoughts. I know its not a shortage of interested pilots;)