Corporate vs. Airline cover letters

[Cheese Blood]

How does one adjust airline targeted cover letters to work for a corporate job? Do you take out the technical terms? Leave it? I am not sure, but I am interested in corporate opportunities.

 

[TaxiDriver]

What? You think the corporate flying community doesn't understand technical terms? What kind of technical stuff do you think my be different in the corporate world?

Just kidding....well, only a little.

I remember many moons ago I was told that a cover letter is essentially a sales letter. You have to tell the prospective buyer (prospective employer in this case) why they need and can't live without the product you are selling (your qualifications). In order to effectively write this letter, you need to do your homework about the market you are targeting your product to. You state in your post that you were looking for an airline job, but now interested in corporate? Why corporate now? Is it because there are more job opportunities in this market because of airline furloughs? Maybe you have done your homework and understand what goes on in corporate aviation and realize that you would enjoy this type of flying. Whatever the case may be, your cover letter must be able to stand out among the hundreds of cover letters employers see on a weekly basis. Remember, just because a corporate flight department has an opening doesn't mean you will get the job if your flight time exceeds the minimums. I know many pilots who have been hired into a corporate job with hours far less than the minimum stated, but knew what was required of them in a corporate environment and that's why they got the job.

So, back to the technical terms you were asking about....put 'em in there...we probably know what you are talking about. However, be advised that the corporate world has technical phrases that aren't listed in the airline dictionary.

Examples:
Making coffee, washing dishes, detailing aircraft interior, loading baggage, flight planning, customer service, customer service, customer service, maintenance controller, maintenance planner, flexibility of shooting an approach to thousands of different airports on any given day....and the list could go on....like the engergizer bunny.

(To all the other corporate guys...feel free to add to this list)

Am I saying that corporate flying is far more demanding than the airlines....not at all....it's just far different than being an airline pilot.

Good luck.

 

[CCDiscoB]

Technical Terms?

I'm starting to think my cover letters are inadequate. What technical terms could you possibly have in your letter? “I flew an ILS to mins.” OK, seriously, I’m curious. Maybe I need to beef-up my letters. Not that it matters much these days

 

[Rick1128]

Chesse,

Your resume and cover letter are your sales tools. Recruiters spend very little time looking at them, usually under a minute. You normally do not get hired on the basis of your resume. All your resume is designed to do is get you an interview. And your cover letter is designed to get the recruiter to look at your resume. In your cover letter you ned to tell them why they really need to look at your resume closely.

As for the differences betwwen corporate and airline. It depends. Most airline recruiters are aviation oriented. Or at least knowledgable, because all they do is hire aviation people. In a corporate enviroment, it would depend on who is doing the hiring. HR, a senior company officer, Aviation Manager or Chief Pilot. And in many case you will never really know who does look at your resume, So peronally I would keep it as few from aviation terminalogy as I could.

Good luck.