What Really Works?

Being a pilot often involves concentrating on the journey, not the destination. I caught myself last week enjoying the silly process of stalking chief pilots in the attempt to get a job, and that made me stop and consider how I have got jobs in the past. What really works? Here are techniques that have succeeded at least once at getting a chief pilot to call me and tell me he has a job for me.

1. I walked into the company every week to ask if they had work for me, until they said yes.
2. I did business with someone who worked for the company, and he called me when a job came open.
3. I helped someone find a rare part for an old airplane and he remembered the favour when I needed work.
4. I kept updating a chief pilot with my progress towards his minimum qualifications. He hired me before I met them.
5. An ex-instructor thought well of my skills and committment and hired me.
6. I faxed one resume to a company that I found on the internet, and then had forgotten who they were when they called, months later.
7. I made telephone calls of inquiry to a company and they passed my resume onto another without telling me.
8. A guy I introduced to his wife called me when he became ops manager for a start up company.
9. The ex-colleague of a mentor still had my card when a client needed someone with my qualifications.

So it appears that yes, harrassing a chief pilot is a viable way to get a job, but certainly not the only way.

Note that not all of the above actually turned into real employment. Insurance, operating certificates, finances, aircraft availability, political unrest, contracts, terrorist attacks and alien invasions can interfere with the job offer becoming a job, or take away a job you already hold. Actually, I can't remember ever having extraterrestrials steal a job from me, but it could happen. All the others did.