Whale Rider
Unity is Our Strength
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- Nov 9, 2004
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In the News.....Fractional Hiring
Found this Article..............Enjoy! :beer:
Fractionals
NetJets President Jim Christiansen minces no words about pilot opportunities. "My division is still hiring," he says. "And we've initiated a more robust hiring campaign recently in an effort to make sure we're drawing from as broad a field as possible."
He says that during the most recent hiring cycle, about 60 percent of his pilots have come from the FAR Part 121 world and 40 percent from a mix of civilian and military backgrounds. They're getting great candidates, he says, but in the past it's mostly been a word-of-mouth communication process. So NetJets updated its Web site with more information to make it more user friendly and placed ads in trade publications "to make sure we reach folks who might not know there are opportunities here."
NetJets pilots are represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and the union contract runs for five years. Salaries, benefits, flying schedules and details about the company culture are available in depth on the Web site.
The fractional operator hired more than 250 pilots in 2007 and Christiansen's division is in the process of adding north of 400 more. In addition to pilots, the company is adding maintenance technicians.
What makes a candidate pilot stand out? More than the qualifications listed on the Web site, says Christiansen. "We're not just looking for great aviators," he says. "We want people with a real desire and a passion to provide great service. We screen for that in our interview process. Safety comes first, and we have a tremendous safety culture, [but] service follows closely behind safety."
The company had been worried about a looming manpower shortage. "We were concerned a while back," Christiansen says. "But it would appear that the shortage is at least postponed. And NetJets has become a career destination, in our opinion the best career destination in the aviation industry right now." He describes the Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary as "one of the coveted employers."
Applications come in at a rate of 150 a week, and turnover is in the low single digits, he says. The need for technicians may be more acute than for flight crew as the fleet grows and the nose-to-tail lines of Cessna Excels, Encores and Ultras undergoing phase inspections at the company's Columbus, Ohio, base crowd the hangar floors. For technicians, it's "the same kind of [sought-after] qualities -- a passion for the job," says Christiansen.
Being open-minded helps, too. Matt Davis, fresh out of college, worried that no one was hiring, but surprised even himself by landing a job with Aerodynamics. Based in Waterford, Mich., it's the largest U.S. operator of corporate shuttles. Davis graduated in December 2007 with a degree from Eastern Michigan University's Aviation Program. He says that once he "got serious" and began talking to people and dropping off rýýsumýýs with prospective employers, it was only three or four weeks before he stumbled into a job posting at his school. Now he's manager of corporate publications with responsibility for Part 121 and 125 manuals. It's not what he thought he'd be doing -- "It was really a change" - but, he says, "Once I got into the job, I felt qualified to do it."
XO Jet, with headquarters in San Carlos, Calif., offers fractional shares of Citation X jets but limits the numbers of owners to roughly three per aircraft. It flies the aircraft on charter when owners are not scheduled. Its growth plans envision a fleet of 127 aircraft, with a new Citation arriving like clockwork once every month and the first of 80 Challenger 300s due in the second half of this year.
Randy McGregor flies left seat in both types but also heads up XO Jet's recruiting and hiring. "It's important to have a pilot recruiting pilots," he says. "Our recruits really like making their first contact with a pilot."
Hiring parallels the aircraft delivery schedule, with nine pilots coming onboard for every two airplanes. Type rating training is provided by FlightSafety International and CAE SimuFlite; XO Jet pays for it. Class dates are assigned two to three months prior to delivery, and McGregor says it's about eight weeks from date of hire to being line qualified. Applicants make their initial contact through a phone call, and that's the time to ask any and all questions. The flying schedule is either 15 days on 13 off, or eight days on and six off, with a surge schedule at the beginning of a rotation and no expiration date. Operations are 85 percent domestic, but a new business partnership in the United Arab Emirates is likely to change that.
McGregor says the company culture takes the idea of a service environment and gives it a big wet one and a bear hug. Pilots are treated well, and he says customers are the ultimate beneficiaries of a benevolent management. Pilots come from every background imaginable, he says, but most are not used to being treated well. Pilots with personal problems don't think they can ask for relief, but he says, "You can always get hold of management, and they will always take care of you."
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/gene...ca&id=news/bca0908p1.xml&headline=Help Wanted
Found this Article..............Enjoy! :beer:
Fractionals
NetJets President Jim Christiansen minces no words about pilot opportunities. "My division is still hiring," he says. "And we've initiated a more robust hiring campaign recently in an effort to make sure we're drawing from as broad a field as possible."
He says that during the most recent hiring cycle, about 60 percent of his pilots have come from the FAR Part 121 world and 40 percent from a mix of civilian and military backgrounds. They're getting great candidates, he says, but in the past it's mostly been a word-of-mouth communication process. So NetJets updated its Web site with more information to make it more user friendly and placed ads in trade publications "to make sure we reach folks who might not know there are opportunities here."
NetJets pilots are represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and the union contract runs for five years. Salaries, benefits, flying schedules and details about the company culture are available in depth on the Web site.
The fractional operator hired more than 250 pilots in 2007 and Christiansen's division is in the process of adding north of 400 more. In addition to pilots, the company is adding maintenance technicians.
What makes a candidate pilot stand out? More than the qualifications listed on the Web site, says Christiansen. "We're not just looking for great aviators," he says. "We want people with a real desire and a passion to provide great service. We screen for that in our interview process. Safety comes first, and we have a tremendous safety culture, [but] service follows closely behind safety."
The company had been worried about a looming manpower shortage. "We were concerned a while back," Christiansen says. "But it would appear that the shortage is at least postponed. And NetJets has become a career destination, in our opinion the best career destination in the aviation industry right now." He describes the Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary as "one of the coveted employers."
Applications come in at a rate of 150 a week, and turnover is in the low single digits, he says. The need for technicians may be more acute than for flight crew as the fleet grows and the nose-to-tail lines of Cessna Excels, Encores and Ultras undergoing phase inspections at the company's Columbus, Ohio, base crowd the hangar floors. For technicians, it's "the same kind of [sought-after] qualities -- a passion for the job," says Christiansen.
Being open-minded helps, too. Matt Davis, fresh out of college, worried that no one was hiring, but surprised even himself by landing a job with Aerodynamics. Based in Waterford, Mich., it's the largest U.S. operator of corporate shuttles. Davis graduated in December 2007 with a degree from Eastern Michigan University's Aviation Program. He says that once he "got serious" and began talking to people and dropping off rýýsumýýs with prospective employers, it was only three or four weeks before he stumbled into a job posting at his school. Now he's manager of corporate publications with responsibility for Part 121 and 125 manuals. It's not what he thought he'd be doing -- "It was really a change" - but, he says, "Once I got into the job, I felt qualified to do it."
XO Jet, with headquarters in San Carlos, Calif., offers fractional shares of Citation X jets but limits the numbers of owners to roughly three per aircraft. It flies the aircraft on charter when owners are not scheduled. Its growth plans envision a fleet of 127 aircraft, with a new Citation arriving like clockwork once every month and the first of 80 Challenger 300s due in the second half of this year.
Randy McGregor flies left seat in both types but also heads up XO Jet's recruiting and hiring. "It's important to have a pilot recruiting pilots," he says. "Our recruits really like making their first contact with a pilot."
Hiring parallels the aircraft delivery schedule, with nine pilots coming onboard for every two airplanes. Type rating training is provided by FlightSafety International and CAE SimuFlite; XO Jet pays for it. Class dates are assigned two to three months prior to delivery, and McGregor says it's about eight weeks from date of hire to being line qualified. Applicants make their initial contact through a phone call, and that's the time to ask any and all questions. The flying schedule is either 15 days on 13 off, or eight days on and six off, with a surge schedule at the beginning of a rotation and no expiration date. Operations are 85 percent domestic, but a new business partnership in the United Arab Emirates is likely to change that.
McGregor says the company culture takes the idea of a service environment and gives it a big wet one and a bear hug. Pilots are treated well, and he says customers are the ultimate beneficiaries of a benevolent management. Pilots come from every background imaginable, he says, but most are not used to being treated well. Pilots with personal problems don't think they can ask for relief, but he says, "You can always get hold of management, and they will always take care of you."
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/gene...ca&id=news/bca0908p1.xml&headline=Help Wanted
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