Grip and Grin
Quote: "We do flights into the resort islands for many EJA clients. Would it be worthwhile to try and network through the EJA pilots as I meet them?" End quote.
J,
Always, always, always network with whoever you can in this business. Think about it. If you're sitting in the ExecJet recruiting office and you have a stack of resumes and applications, all of which "weigh" about the same with respect to time, quality of hours, education etc., and you have ten of your pilots come into the office, pull your application out and say "hire this guy, he's cool and besides he makes great Jerk chicken," who are you going to call first?
Case in point. March 2001, I attended a pseudo-recruiting day at a local college. In attendance were two representatives for a major airline. I just so happened to have my resume, their application and supplementary paperwork with me. After their "dog and pony" show, I introduced myself to one of the representatives and asked if I could leave my paperwork with her. I also asked a few questions and chatted a little, as anybody would do in that situation. During that discussion, she told me that interviews generally followed about six or seven months after the company received the paperwork. April 2nd, 2001 I got an invitation to an interview. Early May I went for my interview, and guess who my second interviewer was? You got it--the same person who took my paperwork and chatted with me at the college. Do you think I was happy to see her? Do you think I was more at ease than I would have been otherwise?
So the point is, the little bit of personal contact I made that day in March probably accelerated the interview by at least six months, and made it much more easy for me in the actual interview as well, which certainly contributed to the overall positive outcome.
Always make time to meet and share a moment with anyone who might lead you down the path to success. You'd be surprised how much some people will be willing to do for you if you make a connection on a personal level. And sometimes you won't have any idea how great an effect a particular person can have on your success, just like in my situation. You just never know.
Good luck!
PS I'd work the Caribbean angle for all it's worth. You've got something unique there that might highlight you from other applicants. I'm not sure how to go about that, but I'll think about it.