I was in the process of chronicling my move from northern Saskatchewn to Southern Ontario, when something more interesting to me came up, so I'm going to go with that for now. I'll detail my Goderich experiences over the next few weeks.
Our F/o may be leaving. So I put an ad in Avcanada to see what the state of the industry is, and what our prospects are for a quick replacement. I have received a whole pile of emails regarding the job, and I wanted to share some things about it, in case there are any hungry pilots out there who would like to hone their resume / cover letter skills.
Here are some quotes from some of the emails I received:
"I am a customer orientated person with strong IFR skills."
I assume this person always points in the general direction of the customer, much like a compass
"If you would consider me as an fo on a citation I will send you a cover letter and resume."
I'm guessing this person isn't familiar with Catch-22
"To whom this may concern,
I am currently an 18 year old Canadian Commercial Multi pilot, with a valid passport. I am currently under going the last stages of my IFR training and was wondering what the requirements where for your Citation First Officer position."
I'm honestly not sure how I could have made "Requirements: Commercial, multi-ifr" any more clear.
"I've arranged FBOs, customs and flown into airports such as Teterborough"
Having flown there once or twice a week for the past long while, I know it's spelled "Teterboro". Attention to detail is really important, even if you're only flying a Citation II into Canada's busiest airport on a daily basis :)
"I hop to talk to you soon about future employment with your company."
I assume this pilot is part kangaroo, which is unfortunate as the cockpit is rather small. Or maybe they mean they have a bouncy personality, who knows.
"I am a reliable, enthusiastic and hard working individual with a high learning curve and effective communication skills"
A high learning curve is the last thing we want from a pilot, as it implies they would require much more than the normal amount of training to become proficient. I'm guessing the phrase doesn't mean what this pilot thinks it means.
"I am not applying for the FO job you have advertized on avcanada...I am looking for work, I have an engineering degree, an ATPL and more than 5000 hours tt."
Sneaky. The aviation business could use more people like this one :)
"I shall be very grateful and hard wroking."
Awesome dude! Someone who will wrok hard! Perhaps we can rewire the aircraft for electric guitar plugins.
" As a Chef Pilot I have a strong background in working with operations related materials and records."
Mmmmmm, chef pilot. If this was actually true, this person would have a definite advantage in their candidacy - anyone who can prepare delicious inflight meals would be great company on long trips.
Anyway, I'm not a total type-A personality and none of the pilots I am quoting have disqualified themselves from candidacy, but I just wanted to share a few giggles.
More on the topic of resumes in a bit.
Hey Sulako, have you got the resume from the cruise ship magician pilot yet? Remember the resume of the dude that had the photo wearing the tux pulling a rabit out of his hat?? I think I got that resume 5 different times. Never hired him, but considered it thought he would be great at the staff x-mas party!
ReplyDeleteYes... more resume stuff please.
ReplyDeleteI've had a hard time trying to find out what a "pilot resume" should look like.
What kind of info do you put in it?
Resume writing is not new to me and I can whip one up for a computer programmer in no time... but a pilot.. i'm not so sure..
Pointers please!
f people's job application skills weren't such a sad commentary on our education system, they'd be side splitting.
ReplyDeleteFunny this came up at this time because one of my program company CEO acquaintances just got so completely fed up with the process that he set up his own commercial jobs board ... he's hiring summer interns now and just couldn't face the challenge of slogging through another three thousand pieces of excrement from Monster another year.
In addition to the proofreading fiascoes, which ought to be solvable by anyone who actually cares to get a job, the general attitude of most job seekers shows me that schools and life haven't taught them the most basic principle.
A company does not have jobs on a shelf like jars of peanut butter that they hand out to those who beg. An ideal company would have no employees and thus maximum profit. Autopilot technology being what it is today, you do need aircrew to fly airplanes. So if you want to be employed, find out what a company's problems are and then _sell_ (I know, dirty word but necessary) on how you can help solve those problems. If you are applying for a lower-level position, such as a F/O, then what problems have you solved for employers in the past and how will you transfer these proven skills to make yourself the most valuable (lowest cost/highest profit) F/O they ever hired.
Guy Kawasaki had a very interesting series on this a few weeks back, including a cardinal rule ... make your resume' not longer than a page. See:http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/08/dear_libby.html#comments
and read a post or two on either side to see some cogent material, including a response from the lady he sent the sample to.
@ Blake: If you think seriously that a pilot resume' should be different in any significant way from a programmer's resume', my advice is stick to programming. The purpose of any resume' is to briefly list the applicants skills and to 'sell' the prospective employer on how you can help him or her profit from those skills. Part of the issue may be in your concept that a "computer programmer" is something to market. I have, in the past, helped hire a number of software developers. A resume' that said "computer programmer" never got beyond the first cut. Our company was making money by selling software we developed ... no one ever paid us a dime to "program a computer", thus we never hired anyone who felt that was his or her skill. Don't mean that to be too abrupt, but you did ask for pointers and that's my experienced opinion.
Dave, you are correct, but an aviation resume does have some specific items that are slightly different than most resumes. I'll go over what I mean in my post tonight.
ReplyDeleteUnderstood and point well taken. A neat, summarized table is excellent advice.
ReplyDeleteI think I worked with the guy scurvydog is talking about. Unless there are more than one cruise ship magician pilots out there. He was a great guy, could captivate an audience anywhere, be it in the terminal waiting for a flight or sitting around a hotel room socializing. Last I heard he was at Canjet.
ReplyDelete