|
Wednesday, March 11, 2026
[[Contact]]
[[Address 1]]
[[City]], [[State]] [[Zip]]
Hi [[Contact]]
Spring is upon us in most of the country, and it seems like
a good time for me to share with you, once again, the basics of the Aviation
Industry job hunt and what we’ve learned about it here at Avjobs.com.
We’re fortunate enough to have helped several million
people through their job hunt over these past twenty years. And in that time,
we’ve learned quite a bit about what makes a successful Aviation Industry job
hunt and what areas still stump people like you. That is to say, smart,
professional, successful people like you who are experts in their field, but
who, quite understandably, have never had the inclination (or the misfortune) to
develop an expertise in job hunting.
With that in mind, I’m going to go into some length on what
we've learned about making your job hunt successful. So if it
turns out that this newsletter is too long to read in one sitting, please keep
it in your inbox, and when you’re looking to take a break, just pull it back out
and distract yourself from the same old same old for a few minutes here.
Here’s an overview of what you should know about the
Aviation Industry job hunt:
- What are you looking for?
- Why logical career progression is important.
- More money?
- Interviewing.
- Do something! If you
don't ask, you don't get.
What are you looking for?
Well, let’s start at the
beginning…
What are you really looking for in your next job?
More specifically, your next aviation job? What’s
important to you? We are consistently amazed at how many of us start (and end) the
whole job hunt process without a good idea of what we’re looking for and what is
really going to make us better off.
Now, a lot of that is because, historically, it seemed like
putting the cart before the horse. Since it was so difficult to find out what
was available out there, there didn’t seem to be much sense in getting your
hopes up or getting your heart set on any particular job ahead of time. For a
long time, the standard operating procedure was to float your resume out there,
or inquire discreetly in the industry, and then make your best choice from the
available options.
Thankfully, that’s changed, for two reasons, really.
First, a greater and greater proportion of the
aviation workforce,
and the overwhelming number of aviation jobs created, are no longer in the biggest
companies. It is the small, dynamic, growing companies of the economy that
represent almost all, on a percentage basis, of the new positions created.
So while in the past, the options were limited to the
seven
or eight major carriers in the industry, today there are dozens, and sometimes
even hundreds or thousands of choices out there. And while that can seem
daunting, fortunately along came…
Number two, the internet. As a means for collecting
information from every nook and cranny of the country and then spreading that
information far and wide, the internet as a medium far surpasses “old media.”
What Monster and CareerBuilder have done in the generic middle-market jobs, what Jobing and SnagAJob have done in the generic hourly market, and what we here at
Avjobs have done in the aviation specific market, is to collect all of that
widely dispersed information in one place, readily accessible to you, and
provide the most comprehensive view for a job seeker of the options out there.
And what this means is that the power is now in your hands.
But, remember, with that power comes responsibility. And in this case, that
responsibility is to yourself.
You owe it to yourself to sit down and take stock before
embarking on your job hunt and really think through what it is you are looking
for. Is it career advancement? Is it more money? Is it a more professional or
relaxed
environment, a chance to work with ground-breaking technologies, the opportunity
to fly a bigger plane, the ability to spend more time with your kids while
they’re still in school, a chance to give something back to the community,
or the free travel benefits?
The more time you spend upfront thinking through these
issues, the better you’ll be able to target your efforts while you’re actually
job searching. It’s often overlooked, but one of the least understood facets of
the aviation job hunt is the level of fatigue it can produce -- when we meet
with subscribers in focus groups they tell us over and over that the job hunt
is, itself, a full-time job.
And the key to making effective use of your time in this
additional, full-time job is to target companies that are hiring RIGHT NOW, and
focus your efforts and resources toward those
jobs and companies that make the most sense for your goals.
With all the options now available to you in companies of
every size and niche of the aviation industry across the country, and with the Avjobs
Applicant System as a tool to understand all
the information and jobs available in advance, it just makes sense to really and truly
ask yourself, in your heart of hearts: “What am I looking for?”
Why logical career progression is important.
We periodically dig into the statistics on our site to try
and answer the questions: “Who finds their next job on Avjobs.com and who
doesn’t? Why? What can we learn, and what can we share with our subscribers
about successful job hunts as a result?”
When we look at those people who have successfully found
their next Aviation Industry job on Avjobs and compare them to those who
haven’t, we invariably find that seeking a logical progression in job
responsibilities is key.
Those people who a) consistently follow the advice of our
automated job search assistant b) read job descriptions and follow instructions
completely, and c) persistently apply to jobs and reach out to recruiters over a
period of several months, have the most success at Avjobs.com.
An office manager finds her next job as an operations
director; a customer service representative becomes a Flight Attendant; a Flight
Instructor moves up to First Officer with a regional carrier; a retail sales clerk moves into the ticket
agent role. They’ve applied to jobs that make sense given their past experience
and have made contact with the recruiters that use our site through our “View Jobs” or “Aviation Directory” tabs. And they
stick to it with perseverance, making consistent progress over the course of
several months. And, most importantly, they apply for all of the jobs that look
interesting. (APPLY, APPLY, AND APPLY!) Those are the traits we’ve found in
people successfully landing jobs through Avjobs.com.
And I suppose that’s no surprise: the recruiters and hiring
managers that use Avjobs are looking for proven candidates that can fill their
jobs today. Motivated, passionate applicants with industry knowledge and
customer service oriented backgrounds are in high demand. Stick-to-itiveness always yields rewards. Rather than
wasting
away your scarce time simply trying to locate open positions, you can
spend more time, in a more focused way, on the opportunities that are right for
you in the Avjobs Applicant System.
So for those of you who are looking to make a real, clear
logical step in your aviation career, congratulations, you’ve made it easy on
yourselves (and us!) to help get you into your next job.
But how about those folks who are changing gears? Those of
you who are looking to change industries and functions? These kinds of career
moves don’t fit into the typical mold and so require special care.
The first thing you must understand is the mentality of the
hiring manager or recruiter and what is important to them. While you know and understand all of your
capabilities and prior obstacles overcome in the face of great adversity and why
that speaks to your great intestinal fortitude, they are simply looking to fill
their job with the most obvious candidate possible, and that means somebody who
has done it before. You can help yourself immensely by making it easy for them.
In a way, they are like the buyers of any product. They
want something with proven past performance that will fit their current needs.
They don’t want to take a risk that a new product will fail to meet their
requirements. And they want it to be easy to buy.
In that way, it’s just like any brand extension. The
company’s new product (or your new role) has to make sense in the context of its
past.
Thus, Pepsi has been very successful in introducing Diet
Pepsi, Diet Pepsi Cherry, and Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi. And they bombed when
they stretched too far and tried to launch a lemon-lime flavored product called
Crystal Pepsi – people weren’t ready for something called “Pepsi” to taste like
that. (Though I’m told the product formulation has found a great new niche since
it was launched as Sierra Mist.)
Similarly, Arm & Hammer Baking Soda, with its reputation
for efficacy in cleanliness, has successfully broadened out into toothpaste and
deodorant (it happens to be my brand and it is fantastic!)
And Apple has very, very successfully and logically
extended from computers into computerized music players and mobile phones. But
if they tried to launch, say, a toaster oven or washing machine, buyers wouldn’t
quite understand how that fit in with their brand promise and what they’ve done
in the past.
So, my advice for people who are changing gears is to make
your next move look as much like a logical progression as possible; take baby
steps, and try not to make a wholesale change that won’t make sense to the
“buyers” of your product.
If you are looking to switch industries and professions,
the best path for you to take is to take one step at a time.
For example, if you’re a customer service representative or
retail sales clerk, it is a “bridge too far” to apply to corporate flight
attendant jobs with no formal training or experience. It is far better to take
one step – say, to flight attendant jobs with regional carriers, or customer
service jobs in FBO’s – than to try to make the double-jump all in one career
move. And remember, some of the positions in the aviation industry require
special training, licenses or certificates. Be sure to research your new
career and its requirements before you spend time applying for jobs.
Whatever your field and industry, it is much better (and
easier) to persuade a hiring manager that you can change your field within your
industry, or your industry while staying in the same field, than trying to make
them accept the likelihood of your success in leaping directly to a new industry
and a new field at the same time.
The important thing is to remember that the buyer of your
product, the hiring manager who is going to purchase “you” – your services and
employment for the next several years – needs to be able to understand how your
past performance makes you a sensible fit for this current job. And the one-step
career change is a much easier case to make.
More money?
When we survey our subscribers, we consistently find that
only 25% are primarily looking for more money in their next position. Factors
such as work-life balance, meaningful work, or a better environment all rate
higher.
But, inevitably, your job conversations are going to turn
to compensation, and we'd like to see you get as much as you deserve, maybe even
a bit more!
Because you are selling the most valuable thing you’ll
likely ever own – your own human capital: the effort that you are going to put
in at your career over the next several years – you really need to view this as
a negotiation and a sale.
And, historically, when we are accepting new employment, we
have been content to consider one offer at a time, and negotiate each one
independently. But that’s not how you are going to get the best deal for this
valuable asset.
When you’re selling a car, what’s the best way to get the
best price? Is it to meet with potential buyers one at a time, over a period of
several months? Well… not really. It’s to run an ad and
have all the buyers show up at about the same time. That gets competitive juices
flowing, and induces your prospects to fear that they might lose out on the
opportunity by waiting. At least that’s the way my Uncle Jim used to do it, and
it turned out to be a great way to get top dollar for your car.
And when you’re selling a house, what’s the best way to get
the best price? Well, the open house is a popular tactic not only because it
reduces the hassle of multiple showings but it sends the message that “see,
there are a lot of other people interested in this place, so you’d better get
out the checkbook and do something before somebody else snaps this one up.”
This list could go on – sports contract negotiations, the
rising cost of newly minted Stanford computer science majors in Silicon Valley,
etc.
So why, when it comes to your most valuable asset – you –
should you be content to take a one-at-a-time approach to speaking with your
“buyers?”
Rather, wouldn’t it be smart to get all of your potential
prospects competing against each other for your services?
We’ve heard from subscribers who have used the information
on Avjobs.com to get just this dynamic going. In fact, our database of jobs is
at the size today that we'd even recommend that somebody who happened to have a
great job offer that they found someplace other than Avjobs.com, should still
sign up for the service to get accurate information about what “market price” is
for your specialty and experience, and, even better, get competing offers so as
to vastly improve your negotiating leverage.
Because when you have multiple companies competing for your
services in a short period of time, that is the best way for you to get the best
offer possible – the additional salary, the role negotiated in your favor, the
broader set of responsibilities you are seeking. The fear of loss and the
competitive dynamic that multiple, simultaneous offers creates can only work to
your advantage.
It works for cars, houses, professional baseball players,
and Silicon Valley computer scientists… why shouldn’t you put this powerful
negotiating stratagem in your corner when it comes time to change your job?
Interviewing.
The interview can be one of those sweaty-hand inducing,
stressful situations that make us feel like we’re back in high school. The power
dynamics of the situation, the feeling that somebody is going to be judging us
based on our performance in a one-hour interview with their questions on their
turf, creates a lot of apprehension.
And when we talk to hiring managers, or we reflect on the
people who interview for jobs through the Avjobs Applicant System, it seems
that that apprehension can get in the way of a great interview performance.
Avjobs interactive practice interview helps take care of that but, there are really three
additional important considerations for you to
keep in mind:
- First, this is not an opportunity for
therapy, or spilling your guts to a stranger
- Second, this is not a Biography TV special on
the “Life of [[Contact]]”, and
- Third, you should walk into the interview
with three key points you want to make, and regardless of the questions, you
should ensure that you make them.
Look, the job hunt can be a lonely, frustrating, boring,
alienating process. You can’t share your experiences with the people at work,
you don’t want to burden your loved ones with the gritty details of your saga,
and it can feel like you have this entire weight solely on your own shoulders.
The biggest mistake that we see people make is taking the
opportunity of the interview to unload all of these fears, apprehensions, and
frustrations on the interviewer. we know, believe me we know, how maddening a
process this whole job hunt can be, but it is critically important that you not
use the valuable time you have in an interview to relieve yourself of all your
complicated feelings about this job hunt. You have only a half-hour or an hour
to make your case, and time spent bemoaning your fate is only going to make it
more likely that your job hunt is going to last even longer.
Your interviewer is not your therapist, job counselor,
career advisor, or even a friendly ear to bend. They are the gatekeeper between
you and your next job, and you need to use your time to persuade them about your
fit, not abuse them with your fears.
You do need to get a support system – your college buddies,
your family; your friends are all there to help you. And even though it can feel
like you are burdening them, friends and family want to see you succeed. Get
the frustrations (and butterflies) out of your system before you step into the interview room.
Secondly, don’t recount your biography. The temptation can
be to retell your life story – after all, you’ve lived it, and it is certainly
quite a dramatic adventure to you! But an undifferentiated re-telling of your
personal history doesn’t make the most effective use of your time. If you spend
most of the interview in a chronological discussion of how you got to be the
wonderful person that you are today, you’re eating up the time that can be
better used making a much more important point – why we am the right person for
the job that you are hiring for, Mr. or Ms. Hiring Manager. Which leads us to…
Third, walk into the interview room with three points you
want to make. Based on the understandably limited knowledge you have about
exactly what the company is looking for, make your best educated guess as to
what they’re looking for, find the three most relevant points from your own
background, and make those points.
Over the years, I've had geniuses and brilliant
creative people and deadly effective people sit on the couch in my office. And
while they’ve made compelling, wonderful stories out of their own experience,
they haven’t always connected the dots from what they’ve done to what they can
do for me or for their future employers. Make it simple for the interviewer to
walk out of that room with the three bullet points they can share with their
colleagues about why you have to be the candidate they hire. In other
words, "Make their job easier."
If you’re applying for a sales manager position for an
outside sales force at a major air carrier, focus on sales management, outside
sales strategies, and your ability to fill seats, not on your civic awards,
excellence in restructuring during the last downturn, or your most recent
contributions to improving call center management. While all are wonderful
achievements, only the relevant ones help the interviewer understand how you can
make their life easier by filling the position that they are hiring for today.
Even better, ask them at the beginning of the interview:
“what are the three key things you are looking to do with this hire?” If they
say, we’re looking for a customer service superstar who can work well as part of
a team, improve our customer satisfaction, and revamp our company image through
appearance and verbal customer communications skills, then focus on the parts of
your resume that highlight your abilities to do just that. Don’t go into a
detailed discussion of your college test scores, your many awards for creative
brilliance, or your long track record of dealing with incompetent coworkers.
It sounds awfully simple, and it is: focus your interview
conversations on the three areas most likely to indicate that you are a match
for this job. And don’t leave the room until you’ve made those three points loud
and clear.
Do something! If you don't ask, you don't get.
Being in my hometown last week, I asked my Mom if she
had any advice for all of you, our loyal subscribers, on your job hunts. And she
said “Spring is here, the crocuses are blooming. Hitch up your britches and get
going!”
OK, well, I don’t know what crocuses are, either, but we
never go too wrong when we follow Mom’s advice, do we?
And sure enough, when we look at the people who have been
successful using Avjobs.com, they hitched up their britches and got going. They
completed our master profile, printed off copies of their resume,
reached out to recruiters using the Avjobs system, applied for jobs through our
“1-Click” system, faxed, emailed, called, and applied for jobs on the site.
I suppose not so surprisingly, when we studied those folks
who hadn’t yet found their job on Avjobs.com, we discovered that many just
weren’t using the system to full effect, or not using it at all:
- Their master profiles and resumes
were incomplete or were really just a list of past positions and
responsibilities, rather than an effective marketing document showcasing their
strengths.
- They weren’t reaching out to recruiters.
That is to say they were simply not contacting hiring managers or recruiters.
In most cases they were not doing any networking or communicating at all.
- And this was the most surprising to us – most
weren’t applying for jobs! Or even clicking on all that many job descriptions!
Or statistics show that applicants apply for less than 10% of the jobs they view
and that more than 80% of the available jobs in our system are not even being
viewed.
If the job is still in our system, it still needs
to be filled. We’ve built an effective system for finding you your
next Aviation Industry job, preparing a professional aviation resume, improving
your interview skills, and keeping you on track but it is a system that requires your commitment and
dedication. You have to take some responsibility for reaching out to recruiters
and applying for jobs. Unfortunately, nobody has yet built the system that lets you just sit back and
watch the job offers roll in.
So, let’s take Mom’s advice, hitch up those britches, and
get going! Read through jobs, all the jobs, make sure your master profile is complete and resume is up to date, and get your resume in the
hands of hiring managers by actually applying for jobs. My father always said
“If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” And it’s true, how are hiring managers
suppose to know you are interested in their job or working for their company if
you don’t apply for the position(s).
It’s spring, and it’s time for the crocuses, and you, to
bloom!
Thanks for taking the time to read through this rather
lengthy letter. It really does sum up the best job hunt advice we have to give,
and we hope you find it as useful to put into practice as we found it enjoyable to
share with you.
We at Avjobs hope that you
are utilizing the full capacity of our services. When our
customers use the system effectively, it makes Avjobs a
more valuable service to all aviation professionals using
it.
Every so often, customer
contact information becomes outdated due to the changing
of homes, employers, etc. One way that we hope to maintain
the integrity of our site is through ensuring that our client
contact information is correct. We send out informational
emails each week as well as postal mail. In order to maximize
our efficiency and get you the employment information you
requested, we need valid contact information.
At Avjobs, we fully understand
the hectic schedules of our users. Please take a few minutes
out of your day to ensure that your
contact information is current so that we may better
serve your needs. To do this,
re-register for the free Avjobs Newsletter using the
same email address you used the first time you registered.
This will not double the amount of content you receive
from us. It will automatically update your information,
overwriting any outdated information in our system.
Click here to
update your contact information. Do not reply
to this message. Replies to this message may result
in removal from the distribution list. You may click
here to
Unsubscribe from the Avjobs Weekly Aviation Employment
Newsletter.
We want you to get the greatest
benefit possible from using our services. That way, we know
that we are doing as much as we can to keep our clients
satisfied.
Thank you,
The Avjobs Support Crew
Avjobs, Inc.
Get noticed today!
Sign in and view
the latest jobs and update your master profile/resume.
Need more information?
Visit us
at https://www.avjobs.com/
|
