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UPS Pilot hiring - question (for the future)

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satpak77

Marriott Platinum Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2003
Posts
3,015
Talked to a guy in the neighborhood who turns out he is a UPS supervisor in the ground/Brown truck hub in my hometown. Of course my pilot background comes up, he tells me that (he thinks, as a non-pilot) if I got a job as a christmas helper/box thrower, and/or additional UPS employment, that I would have a much greater chance getting a pilot interview than a "pure outsider".

Assuming I meet the pilot quals, which I do. (and assuming hiring is active for pilots)

Is this actually true what this guy told me?
 
Stick to flying. Don't wreck your back, or worse, bust an onion, doing their dirty work.
 
a few of pilots have worked as part timers in their past, it would be critical that you fulfill whatever commitment is attached to the part-time position.
 
The workers inside of the UPS packing depot look like a prison population. Good luck having any meaningful conversation. Think rampers but much more fierce and thuggie looking. Also, the pay is really poor and you'll end up injured while working through the wee hours.
 
The workers inside of the UPS packing depot look like a prison population. Good luck having any meaningful conversation. Think rampers but much more fierce and thuggie looking. Also, the pay is really poor and you'll end up injured while working through the wee hours.

Hmmm. The "packing depot" is full of folks who do more physical work in one PT shift then you or I do in one year. When I worked there we had a bunch of skinny white guys (as opposed to fierce "thuggies"), one of whom was a doctoral candidate (there for the benefits). He was probably quite capable (like the rest of us) of "having any meaningful conversation".

To the original poster, I hope your theory is correct. I wouldn't mind getting back on with them again.
 
Hmmm. The "packing depot" is full of folks who do more physical work in one PT shift then you or I do in one year. When I worked there we had a bunch of skinny white guys (as opposed to fierce "thuggies"), one of whom was a doctoral candidate (there for the benefits). He was probably quite capable (like the rest of us) of "having any meaningful conversation".

To the original poster, I hope your theory is correct. I wouldn't mind getting back on with them again.


I had a White Jewish friend do some PT work at a location in NYC and this was his experience before he had enough and quit. Back-breaking, wee hour work with co-workers who he felt were way below him in intelliegence and sensibilities. Granted, the work is hard, but it's grunt work with little respect and low pay. Most are younger HS dropouts (GED) or HS grads with very little in life. Depends on whether you enjoy being around a particular mentality (and conversation) for hours at a time.
 
I worked in the sort in SDF while I was a senior in high school. For a young guy who didnt know what to do after high school it was better than anything out there. They paid well and were very open to part timers who wanted to continue working while going to college. I think minimum wage then was 3.50 and they paid 8 or 9 dollars an hour.
The issue now is I was trying to get a pilot interview at UPS back in 2004 and they didnt have any record of me working there in 1989-1990 even though I still had a few pay stubs.
 
I threw boxes at UPS when I was in college for a few months around Christmas time. I don't think I had much time to chat with co-workers while I was unloading the trailers (I did a hub unload), so I wouldn't worry whether the other guys were smart or not. They were all fine guys, there to do a job.

It was a fine place to work - you're unloading boxes - what do you expect? It paid (in 1993) above the min wage and it was decent enough.

I wouldn't recommend taking a job with UPS in the part-time work like that. I did interview with UPS for a pilot job a few years ago, and while I don't think the application had a place for "have you worked at UPS before" (and I didn't have to disclose as it was not PRIA), it did come up in the interview.

For me, it was hard to explain why I left a job I didn't like (unloading boxes), nicely, and then want to work at the same company 15 years later.

I would bet that 70%+ of the pilots have never worked at UPS loading boxes.
 
I know a college student who's been working a UPS dock for a little over a year. He seems fully capable of carrying on an intelligent conversation (better than some people in here, in fact). He's also just one of several pilot-hopefuls who are currently working there, hoping it will lead to a job-offer.

The pluses are 1) decent money...he makes about $12/hr, not bad for P/T physical labor in this part of the country, 2) guaranteed 4 hrs min per shift, sometimes more, and 3) full health benefits from your first month.

The downside is that it's tough work. He's in great shape (student-athlete) but 4 hrs loading trucks pretty much kicks his a** for the rest of the day.

FWIW - Before he went to UPS, he was doing the same job at FedEx Ground (covering all his bases, I guess) for about the same money. There, they have no set minimum hours, sometimes he would be sent home after only 1-2 hours, and no insurance until you're there for 1,000 hrs, which at the rate he was working, would have taken about 14-15 months to accumulate.
 
Some of you guys crack me up when you write things you know little about. I worked 4 years on the ramp in SDF and we had all types. We had the guy who was going to college working for health benefits, guys working UPS plus 3 other jobs trying to make ends meat, and yes, the high school dropout who had no other options. We had girls that looked like guys, guys that dressed like girls and girls that we very very attractive. I did find though, I could have meaningfull conversations with all of them, even the high school dropouts. Also, if you worked in SDF, there was a good chance you could work the 2nd day sort. I hardly ever worked a night for 4 years unless I chose to do so.
 

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