How do you get to know dudes at airlines?

[pilotyip]

CVAN-65 75-77, ships' company, back in the old days when the ship still had an airplane attached to it for pilots to maintain currency and good credit years towards ACIP

 

[Fugawe]

I am looking into getting an airline job in a few years if I decide to leave the military. I've been reading this forum a bit and the general sentiment seems to be that applicants have to know people on the inside to get hired.

If I want to apply to FedEx, or UPS or some other bigboy, with the intent of flying widebodies internationally, it seems like I definitely need to have buddies on the inside that can vouch for me and recommend me.

How do people do this??? Is it just luck if I happen to have a friend that got hired on? Right now, I can't think of anyone I know flying for either of those two companies. So would I be SOL with them?

If you were me, and wanted to get the inside track how would you do it? Should I drive trucks for them part-time or load crates or what?

First, I wouldn't bail from the military if a career in civilian flying will be your main or only income. I'll get a lot of flak for saying that -- but just check other threads, do a little research, etc, and you'll find that plenty of guys/gals are happy pushing metal around the sky, but very few see long-term financial viability in it. Not dashing dreams, just being pragmatic.

Second.....getting contacts and interview info..........Back in the last huge hiring binge all military units had tons of info fed back to them from guys that had recently interviewed. Folders and files were maintained with detailed info. I don't know what exists now, maybe very little since interviewing has slowed or stopped (at majors). But, certainly there must be some info somewhere from recent interviews.

I'd talk to everyone in your unit, and any other flying unit to see who might have recently interviewed, or has a friend that has, who has a friend that has, who has a friend that has, etc. You'll find that most are very willing to share their info with you. Through this you can make contacts for references too. Think of those who left the service well before you and went civilian -- call/email them too.

You say you plan to do this in a few years. That gives you plenty of time to build a contact and info base to help yourself.

Fugawe

 

[Tram]

CVAN-65 75-77, ships' company, back in the old days when the ship still had an airplane attached to it for pilots to maintain currency and good credit years towards ACIP

My pops flew them off the Independence around that time...

 

[Say Again Over]

Do you like movies about gladiators?

:nuts:

 

[Publishers]

First rule is to take the word Dudes and stricken it from your vocabulary

 

[Metro752]

how about striking it from your vocabulary, dude

 

[Huggyu2]

Right now, I can't think of anyone I know flying for either of those two companies.

If you're a military pilot and you don't know anyone at these companies, my guess is that you're an extremely new military pilot. By the time your active duty service commitment ends, you'll know plenty of folks.

 

[AA717driver]

I agree with Huggy. The military has the best connections for all the top jobs.

Kind of a strange question unless you're working a staff job 20 floors underground in COS, OMA or the Pentagon... TC

 

[kingsize]

i'm not that new. 6-7 years flying. I know of some people at SWA and Delta, but am not buddies with them...and i don't know (or don't know that I know) anyone at fedex or ups.
I know pretty well someone at Trans Air, and I know some others through friends that fly for continental and other US carriers. So it's pretty minimal. If I really think about it, I can come up with other names, but they are all just people i know of or know through friends, no real close buddies that I can count on to go for bat for me yet.