Part time work at UPS

[bluejuice787]

Any UPS guys out there know if being a part time employee (package handler) can help you get a pilot interview? When they are hiring of course. Any specific protocol for this?

Juice

 

[bluejuice787]

bump!

 

[Boris Badenov]

It can supposedly help, but only once you're in the interview. It's not like FedEx.

Personally, as a former part time package handler at UPS, I'm a little suspicious about whether it helps at all, given the attitude the company had (at that time) regarding their part time workforce.

 

[pipejockey]

It can supposedly help, but only once you're in the interview. It's not like FedEx.

Personally, as a former part time package handler at UPS, I'm a little suspicious about whether it helps at all, given the attitude the company had (at that time) regarding their part time workforce.

On this topic, what about someone very high up in management at UPS but who has no connection with the flight department?

 

[cardinalflyer]

I worked there during college and promoted up to management in the flight operations area after I graduated. During that time I became friends with many of the pilots (management and line). During the late 80s and early 90s UPS allowed management in non flight areas to become pilots if they had a commercial license. This ended in the mid to late 90s. I would be cautious of becoming a package handler in hopes of becoming a pilot. In many of the areas outside the flight operations district, employees were constantly talking about the money the pilots made and there were some that had some bitterness. What that means for you is if your supervisor is one of those people, then you have wasted your time throwing boxes for nothing. In the end I left UPS for another career, I still do not have the hours to fly for them - but if I did I would love to go back. It is a great company and I enjoyed all of my time there.

 

[Boris Badenov]

Like (I suspect) cardinalflyer, I worked at the SDF air hub. I know a guy who flies there, a guy who is high up in maintenance, and a family friend is pretty high in the HR department. None of them can help until you get selected for an interview, it cannot be done. Once you're in the door, yes, knowing someone, or several someones, and having worked there helps. Or so I am told.

 

[spitfire1500]

You want a part time job flying big planes.......come on over to Evergreen!!!....We'll spend $ and train you ...furlough....and spend more$ retraining U!!!

 

[AV80R]

Any UPS guys out there know if being a part time employee (package handler) can help you get a pilot interview? When they are hiring of course. Any specific protocol for this?

Juice

Buddy of mine worked part time for UPS for more than four years, then he quit to pursue flying. Several years later he and I ended up in the same class at Big Brown (that was almost two years ago).

He said that without the connections he made during the time he threw boxes he'd have never gotten hired. His flight experience is all part 91, (very small charter outfit) and the largest airplane he flew was Hawker jets. Also, his interview was basically talking about his time as a boxthrower (one of the interviewers used to throw boxes too).
Good luck to you if you decide to pursue that route. Personally I think getting international heavy jet experience is a safer and a quicker route but either way it can definitely be done.

 

[Motorradfahrer]

You want a part time job flying big planes.......come on over to Evergreen!!!....We'll spend $ and train you ...furlough....and spend more$ retraining U!!!

....and then furlough you again next January

 

[CX880]

Any UPS guys out there know if being a part time employee (package handler) can help you get a pilot interview? When they are hiring of course. Any specific protocol for this?

Juice

I doubt it, plus usually you go from package rat to something better not the other way around. The guys at the interview want people who are desperate for a job and are not going to ask questions. They're not going to hire an ailrine pilot with college experience to be a rat, that's like a CEO applying to work at Burger King. At least that's how it was when I worked there. It's a tough job and gets very tiring and you won't make much money part-time. Working as a handler will probably be a plus once you interview but only if you've spent a considerable amount of time, you're not going to be a package rat for a long time while flying for the airlines.