Part II of Resme Writing
Part II - from my book
Professional Qualifications
Aside from making a company aware that you exist, this feature of your resume is by far the most important. What you say and how you say it will be the only information that a prospective employer will have at this point about your professional experience. Careful thought and planning should be integral to constructing this portion of the resume.
Because a pilot's professional qualifications are measured chiefly in terms of flight time and ratings, these must be included in a pilot's resume, but how should these critical qualifications be presented?
Before you decide on a presentation strategy, put some effort into learning how your target company evaluates resumes. There are two techniques in general use in the airline industry, one is manual, the other electronic. If the manual technique is used, someone physically reviews and screens the resumes, making individual judgments about which applicants will be pursued. The electronic technique makes use of scanning devices and has gained recent popularity because of its impartiality and speed. Knowing which of these techniques is used by your target airline will allow you to effectively plan how to organize the professional qualifications section of your resume.
Applications and resumes received by regional, national, and major airlines every day number in the thousands, a solid indication that there are many well qualified individuals seeking work as airline pilots. With such a high volume of resumes to review, you can be sure that if your target company screens manually, the person charged with this job, most likely the Chief Pilot or Director of Operations, will have many other time pressures and will not have much time to review the most important resume -- yours.
It can be very educational to watch a Chief Pilot review resumes. With pen or pencil in hand he or she will quickly circle or check the few things that need to be in a resume to indicate that the applicant meets their company's stipulated minimums. The process takes all of thirty seconds and when it's complete, the resume is placed in either the eligible or ineligible pile. Key to preparing a resume for this kind of examination is not so much whether you include the proper kinds of information, but whether the reviewer can find the information in the very short amount of time that will be devoted to your resume.
Presenting Flight Times
With pilot qualifications measured primarily by flight time totals and Pilot Certificates held, you must make this information easy to read and assess. The person who initially reviews your resume must be able to see at a glance that you meet the FAA's minimum standards and can be employed for commercial aviation. FARs require that a pilot hold at least a Commercial Certificate with an Instrument rating in order to be designated a Second in Command under Part 135 or Part 121. These qualifications and any other certifications you hold, as well as your flight time totals, must be prominently presented. Listing them as bulleted points will help make them both prominent and easy to find, while not taking up too much of your valuable resume space.
A good rule to keep in mind when designing this portion of your resume is that as you look at your resume document in its printed form you should be able to immediately locate your certificates, ratings, and critical flight time totals. If you can’t then you’ll need to make layout changes that improve your ability to do so. Once you have a document that you think accomplishes this, try it out on a friend. Ask them to find the information you are trying to make it easy to spot and see if they can locate it quickly too.
Another important aspect of presenting yourself to a company is showing them what they prefer to see. Like individual people, companies have a sort of personality, or a "corporate culture" formed by the opinions and preferences of the people who run them. As with individuals, companies also have preferences about the types of people with which they wish to associate. When a company initially screens resumes, evidence of characteristics that fit the image they wish to portray will be noticed. Knowing what your target company considers valuable in their employees is extremely helpful in determining what to emphasize in this part of your resume. For example, if you know the company places a high value on time spent as a flight instructor and this is one of your strong points, you will want to tailor your resume to prominently display flight instruction time. Before you begin writing this part of your resume, conduct some research into what is important to the airline you intend to target.
What will most companies be looking for? The following is a list of qualifications you will want to include in your resume. The minimum values for each varies from airline to airline but generally, the greater your qualifications in each category, the better.
FAA Certificates & Authorizations
o Airline Transport Pilot Certificate
o Type Ratings (if any)
o Part 121 or 135 designations (if any)
o Commercial Pilot Certificate (with ATP written passed)
o Flight Engineer Certificate *
o Flight and Ground Instructor Certificates held (if any)
o A&P Certificate (if held)
o Class of Medical Certificate
*Note: A Flight Engineer Certificate could indicate over-qualification to a regional airline seeking to keep its employees as career workers.
Flight Time Totals
o Total time
o Multi-engine time
o Turbine/Jet time
o PIC time
o Instrument time
o Flight instructor time*
*Note: Flight instruction experience might be construed as a negative aspect of your experience at some companies. Be certain to find out how it is viewed at the company you wish to apply to.
Work Experience/History
Another vital portion of the standard professional resume details an applicant's work history. When an airline job is concerned, your work experience is important for two major reasons . First, it tells the employer how you have applied your professional qualifications in your work in the past and provides references they might wish to contact. Second, it provides, at a glance, information they will need for your five year background security check. Each former employer listed is an individual element within this section and you will want to include as many as will fit in the available space.
Begin each element with the company name and your dates of employment at the left of the page. Your job title should appear just to the right of these dates on the same line. If appropriate and if there is room, a brief description of your responsibilities can follow the job title. Titles such as Ba-3100 Captain are self-explanatory and need no further explanation, but a title like "Chief Pilot" is somewhat ambiguous. Because it covers numerous Chief Pilot positions ranging from those at one man operations to large airlines it requires a brief description such as, "Chief Pilot, Training Fleet of 40 Aircraft" to clarify the nature of the position held.
There are many ways to arrange this section of your resume in terms of layout and if the company you are approaching has a preferred layout, you should attempt to emulate that format. If there is a one page limit and your work history is extensive, it may become necessary to edit your list of employers. If this is necessary, be certain to include previous positions that place your qualifications in the best light. Also, keep in mind that former employers who will provide the strongest recommendations should always be included. If you cannot list all previous employers, it is a good idea to include a statement such as, "Other excellent references available upon request," or, "Complete employment history available on request." Such a statement will allay potential questions about gaps in your employment history and invite a prospective employer to ask about your additional experience during an interview.
Other Pertinent Details
This section is optional and should only be included if there is room to do so without giving any of the more important sections short shrift. Items that might be included in this section are such topics as marital status, children, tobacco use status, general health, vision, hobbies, professional and social affiliations, and activities you enjoy. As always, attempt to emphasize your aviation background.
Your Social Security Number
Recently, there have been a number of cases where people have encountered serious difficulties because an unauthorized person was able to obtain their Social Security Number (SSN). From these instances it is becoming clear that some very important and private aspects of your life are tracked and catalogued using this number and when it falls into the wrong hands it can take a long time to repair the damage. For this reason I DO NOT recommend that you put it on anything that is meant for general distribution including your resume.
While it is true that many companies use your SSN to keep track of you and your application, the application itself will remain within the secure confines of the company’s walls. Your resume might not. Unless it is specifically required to appear on the resume itself by the company, you need not put your SSN on anything other than your employment application, your I-9 (eligibility to work) form and your W-4 (income tax withholding) form, so don’t!
One more thing to bear in mind about your SSN is that unless you specified otherwise, it is also your Pilot Certificate number. It is therefore, not a good idea to put your Certificate number on your resume. The company will be able to get any information on you they need to get and they will have access to your SSN at the appropriate time.
HTH
TIS
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