Extra things you had on your application to set yourself apart

J

journeytoalegacy

New Member
What are some things you guys included on your airline application to set yourself apart and increase your competitiveness?

Examples such as MBA, volunteer efforts, hiring team, etc.

I'd love to hear it!
 
I swear I got hired at UPS back in 1990 because I had a full Flight Engineers certificate. Not many had that except the ex-Braniff guys and they had tons of airline experience already. At your experience level, I'd say volunteer time is a big deal. Another thing to think of would be job history. If you wanted to go corporate, having worked the ramp at a Signature level FBO, or the front desk. For the airlines, maybe do an internship one summer.
 
Volunteer work for sure, but networking is key to moving your resume up a stack. It only takes one individual to make the right phone call for you but the other 49 people are how you got to the one.
 
The most important thing really aren’t the accoutrements like MBAs, but things like “linearity” in your career path.

My friend has seen moderately qualified applicants with lower time but their applications were festooned with assistance chief pilot, CIRP volunteer, ALPA volunteer, FOQA administrator, all these excellent positions that would be absolute icing on the cake of a more experienced candidate. But they were lacking flight time and the airline is hiring pilots to move aircraft and not specifically a FOQA administrator.

I’m always a proponent of higher education whether it’s required or not.

However, everything else I would put on hold, go HAM until I reached that 1000 turbine and then start sprinkling in non-philanthropic volunteer work (with the company or the union but volunteer for yourself, not in pursuit of a line to fill-out on an application), hit the first year as captain hard and then start adding some company or union-side volunteer positions.

But a candidate, three years as an FO with a light logbook, but application heavy with volunteer work, the first impression is “DUDE, what are you doing? GO FLY!”
 
Education (college, training etc)
Qualifications (Ratings etc.)
Work History (Consistent work, consistent progression)
Training Record (consistent and minimal checkride failures)
Volunteer Work (Inside and outside of aviation)
Experience (Quality and quantity of hours coupled with work history)
Networking (Letters of recommendations, references)

It’s all very intertwined. Tell your story as best you can.
 
bimmerphile said:
OP, a lot of good things mentioned but from your other threads it seems like you are already pretty busy. There’s not much you can do at this stage to make yourself look appealing to a legacy besides keeping your nose clean, making steady progress in training, and increasing the level of responsibility in your career.
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@journeytoalegacy : You have to learn to walk before you can run, as I've expressed, elsewhere.

As much as selection departments sometimes seem to ignore the core job function (that is, the safe movement of an airplane from one place to another), I'd strongly recommend mastering that first, then worrying about all the collateral duties and how to be a 'competitive' applicant.
 
Personal anecdotes and mileage may vary:

I think if you can throw something on there that makes you look like a more well rounded candidate, go for it. I have a non aviation degree and that's some up and led to non aviation related conversations in interviews where I felt like they got to know me better, and I got to talk about something else I really liked instead of being an airplane operating robot. If you're going to volunteer though, make sure it's something you actually care about rather than checking the box

To tie into the other thread, work hard, but try not to stretch yourself too thin as well, especially if it's going to make your work suffer. There's a fine line between being ambitious and working your butt off and burning yourself out.
 
JordanD said:
Personal anecdotes and mileage may vary:

I think if you can throw something on there that makes you look like a more well rounded candidate, go for it. I have a non aviation degree and that's some up and led to non aviation related conversations in interviews where I felt like they got to know me better, and I got to talk about something else I really liked instead of being an airplane operating robot. If you're going to volunteer though, make sure it's something you actually care about rather than checking the box

To tie into the other thread, work hard, but try not to stretch yourself too thin as well, especially if it's going to make your work suffer. There's a fine line between being ambitious and working your butt off and burning yourself out.
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“So, Skylar, what did you do for OBAP?” :)
 
Autothrust Blue said:
The resume is exactly the wrong reason to do (especially) union stuff.
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I'm eternally grateful for people who do that, because I absolutely love the fact my ipad has been dead in the closet for at least a week if not more.

I'm at a major but I honestly am looking for volunteer opportunities in my area, but dang it's kind of tough finding something I'm able to commit to.
 
derg said:
“So, Skylar, what did you do for OBAP?” :)
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I’ve told people, that if you can’t answer TMAAT questions with your volunteer experience it’s not worth putting on your resume. No one cares if you’re a part of OBAP/NGPA if the only thing you contribute to the organization is the yearly membership fee.

Autothrust Blue said:
The resume is exactly the wrong reason to do (especially) union stuff.
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While I agree with this 100%, there are so many different options for volunteer work in ALPA that most people can find something their passionate about.

Last thing to add is I recommend having a mix of volunteering both union/profession based and then social. While showing volunteer work in the profession is great, I think I talked more about my hospice volunteer work in my interviews then any other topic.
 
jhugz said:
I’ve told people, that if you can’t answer TMAAT questions with your volunteer experience it’s not worth putting on your resume. No one cares if you’re a part of OBAP/NGPA if the only thing you contribute to the organization is the yearly membership fee.



While I agree with this 100%, there are so many different options for volunteer work in ALPA that most people can find something their passionate about.

Last thing to add is I recommend having a mix of volunteering both union/profession based and then social. While showing volunteer work in the profession is great, I think I talked more about my hospice volunteer work in my interviews then any other topic.
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Primarily, some will rack-up a bunch of organizations and sometimes, someone hits ‘press to test’.
 
jhugz said:
That’s ok. Today I’m relaxing in a hot tub, enjoying the last day of my 15 days Brazilian vacation browsing JC. I don’t mind wasting the key strokes. Maybe at some point it will sink in. I can’t imagine the number of keystrokes certain people on here wasted on me that I didn’t listen to. They still kept typing and eventually I figured it out. If my dunce ass can, then so can anyone else. So while I’m bored sipping a Baden Baden (seriously amazing beer) and have a couple minutes to kill, I’ll waste the key strokes with the hopes they eventually hit home.
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I hope you’ve had plenty of capirinhas
 
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