Career Fair July 13 ATL

[reepicheep]

Wondering if anyone's going and if it's worth the two hundred bucks to get in.

 

[TMMT]

I went to one of them things way back when in 96... Avjobs I think it was called, held at the International Convention Center in ATL.

I was a waste IMHO, most of the recruiters there were not good at answering questions and one from AWA seemed almost indignant towards the group I was with.

Two hundred bucks seems a bit pricey to get in, if I recollect I only had to shell out 35 or 40 dollars and fill out about 5 or so forms that ultimately landed my name, addy and underwear size on every blooming junk mail list this side of Pluto.

TMMT

 

[publisher]

Air Inc.

I think he is talking about the Air Inc job fair.....

The key to answering you is this. Assess yourself correctly. Your profile shows a ton of aircraft and time. Is there an airline that is going ot be there that is really hiring and how do you fit into that carrier.

If there is, it is worth it, if not skip it.

The question is who are you going to see and when will they be hiring, you know really hiring becasuse them being at this deal means nothing. You will learn as much about that here.

 

[reepicheep]

Yes; I meant the AIR Job Fair. It sounds like FedEx, Southwest, and Alaska, among others, will be there and yes I think it probably is worth my time and money to try to get some face-to-face time.

 

[Pilot877]

I dont know about Air Inc, but I got my interview by going to the AEPS job fair, I paid 10 bucks as a member for admission, I think non-members paid 20. So, for me it was worth it. But there werent a whole lot of companies recruiting pilots. ACA, Comair, Southwest, Spirit, FlexJet, and FlightOptions were hiring and a couple of the smaller regionals were taking resumes but saying that they weren't hiring at that time. I would recommend it to anybody, but only if you have realistic flight times to be competetive.

 

[publisher]

some further points

As far as those you mentioned.

Southwest goes to AEPS and others like WIA, you can see them for a lot less money. Alaska is not hiring very many this year, maybe more next year, but you better have a silver bullet and already be in there database one way or the other or you are wasting time.

Fedex, with your times if you have not already interviewed with them, you may not be competitive. not from a time standpoint, you may have too much.

I just hung up from Comair, they got 282 resumes at the AEPS job fair which they rated.

Like I said before, evaluate yourself. If you want to, send me a pm with your info and I will look at it and give you my thoughts.

 

[Hugh Jorgan]

I went to Dallas in January for the same thing. Well worth my time and money.

 

[AppBrookie]

Never been to an Air Inc. cattle call. I assume everyone wears thier interview suits? and do you personalize your resumes to each individual airline or do most people just have stack of generics?

 

[dondk]

I have been to both.... AEPS for the money is well worth it, AIR Inc.. Well, it is hard to compare when AIR inc is almost 8 times the price of AEPS for the SAME thing.

I got interview's and offers from both events so was it worth it? Yes....

You pay AIR inc for a lot more than just the fair. The actual part you are probably really interested in (face to face time) is about 3-4 hours on the last day of the event and the end of the day.

AIR Inc tends to "build up" the event with names of companies who they "wish" would be there, as the time get's closer the list of companies get smaller and smaller.
Currently they claim American Eagle is going to be at the show for pilots (how about those guys still on furlough?)

Resumes -- it does not hurt to individualize them or even leave them generic. You will be lucky to get 5 minutes with a recruiter, so the resume is just an extension of yourself.

Dress, the interview blue suit and plan on standing on long lines.

Evalute yourself and the companies that are actually going to be present. Some "may not" be worth your time, so for the money how many will you ACTUALLY meet with? $200 to meet with 10 or $200 to meet with 2?

 

[reepicheep]

Just for the record I've never owned a blue suit in my life - I've always worn a tasteful grey business suit I got at Nordstrom's which has served me well and I don't plan on changing.

 

[Wowjack]

I'm actively looking for a job. How do I go about assessing myself?

 

[publisher]

Information

As an example,

Find out through this board and other places what the real minimums are for people being hired. Where are you strong and where are you weak. Know how long you can hold out where you are, where you might reasonable expect to be hired that will enhance your place in the career chain.

Being head of an aviation career magazine, I get calls and pm's from people telling me their credentials and asking for an opinion.

Having type ratings and pic turbine time, this is where the rubber meets the road. If you have 10,000 hours of turbine and only 1000 pic, this might not look particularly good.

One of my friends does interview prep for fractionals but he could also probably tell you where you would stand for the companies he is familiar with.

In these kinds of times, just meeting is not good enough, you have to blow the times and interviewers away.

 

[dondk]

I agree with publisher... I would add the following....
Getting an interview is good, getting a class date is great... passing the class is the "gold ring".

I have seen people wash out because of some of the following...

Poor instrument skills or not current (enough)
Poor understanding of IFR
Poor understanding of systems
poor communication skills (they never flew in high density traffic area)
complacency

Some of these people made the cut but washed out of the class, also many get the interview but are weak in the area's above and wash out of the interview.

Sit down and take as "objective" of a look as possible at yourself. Ask yourself where on your resume you could use improvement? In a perfect world, what else could you do to be more attractive? See what your answers are....

With your time you are most likely looking at a regional. Regionals like people who can pass the class. Upgrades are getting longer and longer in time, so the adage of hiring a Captain is getting less important. I have heard that the high washout rates are the biggest fears with most interviewer's these days. Maybe publisher can comment on that....

 

[publisher]

well said

These are all good tips,,,,

For the regionals, with 1400 you have no real reason to be thinking anything else except maybe a 135 or Airnet type op, multi engine time and especially multi pic are the key.

One thing that always amazes the recruiters when we are sitting around after a job fair is how little effort some people put into learning about the airline they are presenting themselves to. Some pilot applicants did not even know the type of aircraft or airline home base.

Your assessment should review what you know about the companies you want to work for.

BTW, a 4 year degree and some flight instruction are good things to have. One reason is that it says you can study.... As pointed out, with the cost of training, airlines do not want to waste slots on those who are questionable. For the most part, at this level you should be able to fly the aircraft. Systems and learning policies, checklists, etc are skills required for success.

 

[flydog]

I went to the Ft Lauderdale airfair. It cost me $10. Wether it costs you $10 or $20 its not a lot of money. If you have to buy an airline ticket and fly in from out of town and shell out serious cash to go then I dont recommend it but if you live within driving distance its a good value

What I can tell you is it will be full of guys looking for work. It took me about 45 minutes to get through the Comair line to talk to the recruiter. He told me he would call me in a month for an interview but havent heard anything back yet. My guess is he collected about 500 resumes.

The line for Colgan was a lot shorter in fact almost empty. Southwest was right next door and was so packed they wound up overflowing into the Colgan booth for presentions. It was worth my $10 just to see the look on the Colgan rep's face.

Everybody wore the same suit. Dark blue with a plain tie. Whether the recruiter will remember you after meeting 500 guys that are identically dressed is hard to say but maybe the resumes from the fairs go to the top of the list. Who knows.

If anything it will give you a chance to learn more about the company and pick up some contacts. Next time you send in an update put something like "Met you at the ATL airfair in July"

 

[publisher]

First cut

Comair took in 282 resumes.

Colgan was not hiring for pilots and trust me Ellen has seen all this before.

It does make a difference---- the people who did not know who they were talking to or anything about the company are cut.

There were people at ACA that were invited back and interviewed that weekend.

The only negative to the Air Inc is that people come to participate as it costs them nothing and is a chance to visit with others in similar positions. If the people are not there to hire, they are not paying much attention.

 

[chperplt]

Colgan was not hiring for pilots and trust me Ellen has seen all this before

When was this fair that Colgan wasn't hiring for pilots? They aren't going to waste money at a job fair without the intention of hiring. Colgan hasn't stopped hiring pilots in the last 5 months. We've been running new hire classes nearly every 3-4 weeks during that time. I believe 45 or so Beech pilots and a smaller number of Saab pilots have gone through.

The next class is on the 15th of July.

 

[publisher]

AEPS jobfair

At the AEPS airfair in FLL, she was really looking for flight attendants and not so much pilots.

 

[Tomnsolo]

When is the next aeps fair ?