Wow,
Always humbling to see yourself being discussed. Here is a short synopsis of what is going on , and I'll address some thread issues....
Rob Beeks. Don't know if Mozam still does SWA prep or not, but he was awesome and helped a lot of people. I think he stopped a long while back, however. At the same time, past experience has indicated SWA HR HATES guys who do this, and do all they can to make them uncomfortable. Not here to defend them, just passing on what I've seen and what happened to one of my team (a SWA guy) in mid 2000s...
Website. Its being updated. Hope to put a trip report section and make registering for sessions easier. In development...may be a few months. I am not the web guru, but my guru is retired military and does this on the side. He's been awesome for 8 years...so I will roll a while while he works on it.
Oh--and to add to the fun--we had a database crash in early October we are still trying to recover from....
Phone. Holy *((&& Batman, its melting. Iphones hold 25 messages. If my office manager/counselor does one phone prep, its full by the time she's been on the phone with a client 15.-2.0 hours. This is our biggest issue, and I know its frustrated some clients. We are working on the solution (below)....
Travel....when I take my team on the road, I didn't leave full time office manager to catch phones. 4 hour flight = full phone and email in-basket stuffed.
Mary traditionally has had time to both manage the office and provide some additional HR training to folks, but right now we are getting over-run. Part of the reason we are swamped is we have clients who we helped as far back as 2004-05 coming back to us for some additional training. I'm thrilled to have them back, glad to help, and we will work through this. Mary spends a lot of her day helping these clients instead of answering the phone or forwarding me emails... So--I am hiring another office manager--who will do nothing but deal with scheduling, simulator, and client issues. This should speed up the returning of phone calls and emails, etc.
Additionally,recently added two new counselors with the sole goal of providing service to these returning clients. One has 20 + years in business and non-profit work, and the other is an retired O-6 F-15 FWIC Schoolhouse instructor and now legacy pilot. Their only job is taking care of clients we have already helped, and being there to follow up to make sure everyone is taken care of before their big day.
When I look back at 2013, however, I see over 70 seminars held around the country and online. One issue is very few pilots believe they need to prep until they get called, and then all hell breaks loose. Even if you don't use our team, I suggest strongly if you want to do these courses then do them as early as you can. We are free if you come back for follow on work. If the other places charge you again--so what? What would you pay for a suit? For an hour dual in a seminole? If I had to pay Judy Tarver or Cheryl Cage twice but got the job of a lifetime was it worth it? I'm seeing people that are downright angry and stressed in the week before their interview because they are realizing they can't make a square corner and they are mad at the world and mad at themselves. The rush is on boys and girls...American, Delta, United, and US Air are ALL hiring. And when they thin out the ranks at the other carriers like Frontier, Jetblue, Spirit, and Atlas the feeding frenzy is only going to get crazier. I know its been a miserable wait since 2007, but its here...
AIRLINE
01-03-2023
