Iraqi Info Minister/Kit Darby

[jergar999]

Are these two related? They seem to have the same job.

 

[bobbysamd]

Now, that is really funny!!!!

Good one, Jergar!

 

[Relic01]

Stop the negativity...

I see people leaving remarks all the time about Kit Darby. Do you know this man personally or are you just making a remark to be funny. Kit has probably helped more people get their dream jobs than you could imagine. He's atleast helping people remain optimistic and ready for jobs out there.

 

[jergar999]

Not a personal slam, just internet browsing while the news was on, and noticed a parallel. To people he has helped, great. It just struck me as funny, here's the Iraqi information minister talking about how no one was in Baghdad with American tanks behind him, the ticker on the bottom of the screen is announcing airline furloughs, and there is an Air Inc ad on the computer, detaling the current and growing pilot shortage.

 

[banned username 2]

Re: Stop the negativity...

He's atleast helping people remain optimistic and ready for jobs out there.

C'mon... Be realistic here... I realize you are just starting out in your career and things may look very grim to you... but are you really nieve enough to believe the boasting of one self-serving individual just because what he has to say makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside compared with what everyone else in the world has to say about the industry...

Have you ever heard of Achem's Razor.... It basically states that "All things being equal, typically the simplest explaination is the correct one"... How does this relate you ask????

Does one person have some magical crystal ball that he can see upcoming pilot shortages (gagging) but yet the several thousand experienced pilots on this board are saying the exact opposite??? Remember the people on this board have nothing to gain or lose from telling you like it is, but this one person will have no business if there is no high demand for pilots... Whats the best way to keep he money rolling in? Create the appearance of demand for the uninformed...

Ask yourself, does it make sense...

Don't feel bad... I started my career in about the same environment as we have now... back in 1990-1991... I made it through that ok... think of this as a weeding process, those who really want to fly for a living will make it through, those who don't will be weeded out... either way it will be less competition down the road for the survivors...

 

[banned username 2]

Not a personal slam, just internet browsing while the news was on, and noticed a parallel. To people he has helped, great. It just struck me as funny, here's the Iraqi information minister talking about how no one was in Baghdad with American tanks behind him, the ticker on the bottom of the screen is announcing airline furloughs, and there is an Air Inc ad on the computer, detaling the current and growing pilot shortage.

Maybe now that the Iraqi Minister of Information is "unemployed", he can take over as marketing manager for the company you mentioned above!

 

[bobbysamd]

Anti-Kit Essay

I see people leaving remarks all the time about Kit Darby. Do you know this man personally or are you just making a remark to be funny. Kit has probably helped more people get their dream jobs than you could imagine. He's atleast helping people remain optimistic and ready for jobs out there.

I actually spoke with Kit on the phone once in 1992 after he bolted FAPA to start a FAPA clone. But, otherwise, no, I don't know Kit personally.

Although Jergar's original comment was rich, a better comparison would be to compare Kit to Pollyanna. One should be optimistic, but also realistic. "Optimism" would be, "I am going to get a flying job someday." "Realistic" would be, "Yeah, I'm going to get a flying job someday, alright, but it probably won't be the one I expected to get."

Perhaps Kit has helped people get flying, but I submit that he has misled more people about the availability of pilot jobs. Most criticism leveled at Kit deals with the so-called "pilot shortage." I first heard about a "pilot shortage" in 1987. Kit's organization, the Future Airline Professionals of America, had put out a great deal of news flak about a pilot shortage. Legitimate media were quoting FAPA about a pilot shortage. The reports abounded - forty-thousand pilots would be needed over the next ten years. It all made sense - airlines were expanding big time and the World War Two and Korea generations of pilots were retiring. So, many people who always wanted the career, young people, military pilots who hung up their helmets and goggles years ago, and career changers, such as myself, heard Kit's message and fell in step with him.

Kit made aviation career-building sound so easy. He made getting interviews sound like a piece of cake, and getting past the interview to class being cake, too.

I, for one, learned the hard truth about Kit's pilot shortage after I had sent out my first wave of resumes. I applied for jobs that perhaps I had not a chance in hell of getting, but plenty of others for which, according to Kit's materials, I met the mins. No bites. Tried it again. No bites. Kept trying. No bites. After a time, I thought that really bites.

I eventually landed my first job. But it was not nearly as easy as Kit made it sound.

What Kit didn't mention was there were already scores of well-qualified pilots available. More than enough to fill the vacancies that he predicted. Some of whom had already been applying for jobs for years - and that there were far more applicants than jobs. That's always been true, except perhaps briefly in the 1960s. Think about it. On December 17, 1903, there was one pilot job and two candidates!

Let's fast-forward to about 1991. We had that recession, that Iraqi war, and George Bush as President. Eastern and Pan Am were history. Tons of well-qualified pilots were on the streets. Kit said there was a pilot shortage.

Finally, let's fast-forward from 1991 to 2003. We have a recession, an Iraqi war, and George Bush is President. United might soon be history. At least two other majors could be history. Tons of well-qualified pilots are on the street. Kit says there is a pilot shortage.

Kit does a great job of selling dreams. However, when you awaken, the dreams go away.

Don't believe my recollection of history? Here's a link to Furloughed Again's excellent Unrealistic Expectations post.