First Aviation Resume: Prior Experience? What else?

[killbilly]

So, some of you know I'm one of those middle-aged-potential-career-changing geezers. Promise I'll try not to become Generation New Balance too early.

That said...I've got a couple of decades of practical life/work experience behind me compared to a fresh-faced early-20s recent graduate at ATP mins looking for that first airline job.

While it's certainly not relevant experience to the operation of an aviation appliance, it nonetheless has some bearing, I think, on my ability to be a good employee.

Does it go on the resume? Does it look funny to an HR person?

I've seen the Kit Darby-approved aviation resume sample and I'm tailoring appropriately but I'm just wondering if there's a right way to do this?

 

[Wardogg]

So, some of you know I'm one of those middle-aged-potential-career-changing geezers. Promise I'll try not to become Generation New Balance too early.

That said...I've got a couple of decades of practical life/work experience behind me compared to a fresh-faced early-20s recent graduate at ATP mins looking for that first airline job.

While it's certainly not relevant experience to the operation of an aviation appliance, it nonetheless has some bearing, I think, on my ability to be a good employee.

Does it go on the resume? Does it look funny to an HR person?

I've seen the Kit Darby-approved aviation resume sample and I'm tailoring appropriately but I'm just wondering if there's a right way to do this?

I had a 2 page resume. There just wasn't any way around it. Keep things short sweet and to the point. Highlight things that show you're a good communicator and problem solver.

YMMV I've applied for 5 pilot jobs and was only given the TBNT once.

 

[Murdoughnut]

I have no personal experience with this (as you know), but I would assume that a 1.5K pilot with diverse professional experience is going to stand out amidst a bunch of 22 year-olds who've never worked outside of aviation. At the very least, it shows that you've had to interact professionally with other adults towards some common goal.

Plan on including mine if I make that leap at some point.

 

[Vflyer]

I was in the exact same boat. Presented my times, recent flight experience and instructor job as neatly as possible using the help of some of the example formats floating around the internet. The rest of the white space included my education and the most recent career jobs that I was doing; project management, system consulting etc. I applied to two places, got a callback from both, and IIRC the non-aviation work experience came up as a way to talk about teamwork, problem solving, and ability to learn and execute technical things.

I also know others who had Pizza Hut and Starbucks on theirs who also easily got a callback. It was repeated that the hiring managers just want to make sure you can get along with people and have a fun personality. So even if your jobs aren't glamorous, it shows you're employable and can work well with others. Good luck!

 

[killbilly]

I was in the exact same boat. Presented my times, recent flight experience and instructor job as neatly as possible using the help of some of the example formats floating around the internet. The rest of the white space included my education and the most recent career jobs that I was doing; project management, system consulting etc. I applied to two places, got a callback from both, and IIRC the non-aviation work experience came up as a way to talk about teamwork, problem solving, and ability to learn and execute technical things.

I also know others who had Pizza Hut and Starbucks on theirs who also easily got a callback. It was repeated that the hiring managers just want to make sure you can get along with people and have a fun personality. So even if your jobs aren't glamorous, it shows you're employable and can work well with others. Good luck!

Thanks. My main concern was having too much detail. I've worked for 3 non-aviation companies in the last 10 years, but all doing the same job, so I'm wondering if rolling them all up as one entry makes sense.

 

[Vflyer]

What I did is listed my most recent job, which was a duration of 7 years or so and put in a fair amount of detail with what I did (also wording it in such a way like "working with multiple teams","problem solving" etc, you know the drill). And then 2 or 3 other jobs going back to show work history, I just put the title and the years I worked there (no descriptions). Figured the most recent job and accomplishments shows I have some decent skills and the listing of positions/titles show I'm employable with no large gaps.

 

[guywhoflies]

Remember that your airline apps will have at least 10 years of work history (assuming you apply to companies that use airline apps). Some companies want your entire work history. It was very tough for me to remember my supervisors names from a few summer jobs 20+ years ago.

 

[Nihon_Ni]

I'll give you my two cents, as someone who reads resumes weekly for a non-aviation business. I can tell a lot about a person quickly from scanning their resume. Most resumes have too much fluff and not enough meat. The formatting is often weird, and I can determine their level of attention to detail by how they write about themselves. Multi page resumes tell me you can't summarize important information from trivial or irrelevant bits. I can zip through a resume in about 20 seconds to separate the wheat from the chaff, then I spend more time on the good ones. I almost never look at page 2+ unless the candidate is exceptionally qualified and I'm really interest in the details of their prior experience.

For work history that's outside of the job at hand, I prefer to see all that stuff summarized or omitted. I generally don't hire people into their first job, so they always have previous work history. If you don't have a lot of work history, I recommend you summarize your unrelated work history it into a few bullets that generally describe what you did. If I want to know about it, I'll ask during an interview.

 

[chrisreedrules]

I’d recommend giving Raven Careers a call about a resume. They have the best in my opinion, and I know I’ve seen more than I can count. A good resume to utilize moving forward in your career is worth a lot. Says a lot about you as a professional.

 

[woodreau]

I had about 10 years of non-aviation military work experience.
I basically distilled my 10 years into …. Training, safety, and team leadership and program management. Basically flight instructor / check airman stuff but using MarineSafety ship simulators or CIC simulators or the actual ship for seamanship as the training environment instead of an airplane.

none of it really mattered for an entry level first officer position…. However, It does come into play when you start submitting a resume for the training department especially if you never held a CFI.

even the 20000 hours spent making PowerPoints for briefings can be distilled into Familiar with Microsoft office products.

 

[Skåning]

I'll give you my two cents, as someone who reads resumes weekly for a non-aviation business. I can tell a lot about a person quickly from scanning their resume. Most resumes have too much fluff and not enough meat. The formatting is often weird, and I can determine their level of attention to detail by how they write about themselves. Multi page resumes tell me you can't summarize important information from trivial or irrelevant bits. I can zip through a resume in about 20 seconds to separate the wheat from the chaff, then I spend more time on the good ones. I almost never look at page 2+ unless the candidate is exceptionally qualified and I'm really interest in the details of their prior experience.

For work history that's outside of the job at hand, I prefer to see all that stuff summarized or omitted.

My wife is a talent acquisition manager for a global food company and she's always saying the above. Recruiters spend VERY little time looking at a resume, so dont make them have to hunt for info, or they'll skip your application. Things not relevant to the job you've applied for should be very short and keep it one page if you can.

 

[BobDDuck]

My wife is a talent acquisition manager for a global food company and she's always saying the above. Recruiters spend VERY little time looking at a resume, so dont make them have to hunt for info, or they'll skip your application. Things not relevant to the job you've applied for should be very short and keep it one page if you can.

I do some resume review for an organization, and I totally agree with this, especially when viewing digital copies. If I can't see it all in one screen, I don't want to look at it.

 

[jmc4]

I’d list them if you don’t have aviation experience.

Taylor each one to show why it’s relevant to the job.

I’d leave off stuff like when you worked at Wendy’s, but I’d add the interaction you have in your current job if you’re applying for company you think values it.

If you’re worried about a resume for a 121 fee for departure joint, I’d make sure it was 1 page and you had the hours broken down to make it easy for a recruiter to find.

It’s like a big business card, don’t make the text size 8 to make it one page. Pick the highlights of your life and why they should call you specifically.

Don’t forget your accomplishments at your current aviation gig.

 

[jmc4]

Thanks. My main concern was having too much detail. I've worked for 3 non-aviation companies in the last 10 years, but all doing the same job, so I'm wondering if rolling them all up as one entry makes sense.

My vote is yes.

 

[Murdoughnut]

My wife is a talent acquisition manager for a global food company and she's always saying the above. Recruiters spend VERY little time looking at a resume, so dont make them have to hunt for info, or they'll skip your application. Things not relevant to the job you've applied for should be very short and keep it one page if you can.

You're assuming there's a recruiter reviewing it. It's a job robots are taking up more and more these days. I applied for a corporate job with a large airline several months back and got the automated "thanks but you're not qualified" response within a few hours. I actually was highly qualified for it so I reached out to someone I knew on that team. Made its way to HR where they discovered that their computers just screwed up.

It's not at all relevant to a flying job, but when I advise young college graduates on the issue I stress to them to focus less on you and more on what you've done. Young people collect titles and roles and want to embellish those, but should be focusing on crafting a message about what they did while in those roles.

Also, veteran resumes are absolutely horrible. Received several for a job posting I had at TPA, and always gave them a courtesy extra review. Best I can tell, every veteran led over 10K direct reports doing a whole bunch of things described by words I can't fathom what they mean.

 

[Ian_J]

I’ve never heard of a part 121 airline that wanted to look at a resume actually. Not saying they aren’t out there, but in my experiences with Envoy, Endeavor, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, and United, not one asked for a resume.

 

[poser765]

So if we’re talking about just a resume… a snapshot… and you don’t have a plethora of relevant experience then I would down the experience I have that best defines who I am and describes the closest traits to what their looking for.

 

[///AMG]

Another vote for single page. Don't make them read a whole paragraph about each job you've held.....just the highlights/significant responsibilities/noteworthy achievements, and everything should be geared towards a coherent statement about why they should have a second look at you. 121 hiring is a different beast than others, and I doubt anyone is getting the call or not based on the resume, but your panel will have that thing in front of them during the interview......make it easy for them to parse out your career highlights and who you are. That's was my take anyway. That said, if you spill over onto a second page, I doubt that will make a difference either, I'm just anal and really wanted everything in one, so I took the time to do so.

 

[web265]

I’d recommend giving Raven Careers a call about a resume. They have the best in my opinion, and I know I’ve seen more than I can count. A good resume to utilize moving forward in your career is worth a lot. Says a lot about you as a professional.

Quoted for agreement....
I've used these folks for two aviation jobs and my son used them for a non-aviation interview prep, all successfully.
They were very adept at taking my non-aviation experience and translating/presenting it in terms relevant to aluminum tube management.

In response to above suggestion that a resume isn't required, it may be true in most 121 cases, (my experience is very limited), but, I was asked for mine at a recruiting event prior to interview. After a short scan by the talent acquisition staff, I was asked to give them an acceptable interview date. (YX)

 

[Ian_J]

Quoted for agreement....
I've used these folks for two aviation jobs and my son used them for a non-aviation interview prep, all successfully.
They were very adept at taking my non-aviation experience and translating/presenting it in terms relevant to aluminum tube management.

In response to above suggestion that a resume isn't required, it may be true in most 121 cases, (my experience is very limited), but, I was asked for mine at a recruiting event prior to interview. After a short scan by the talent acquisition staff, I was asked to give them an acceptable interview date. (YX)

Very true. I completely forgot about career fairs/ recruiting events.