Richard Yeomans

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We get lots of emails and calls from people wanting to become flight attendants. As in any aviation job search you will need to do some research before you can make the right career choices and we welcome people visiting the site and asking questions.

Life as a Flight Attendant

As a flight attendant, your role is primarily to ensure the safety of the passengers. There have been many stories where flight attendants have acted heroically and saved many lives when aircraft find themselves in difficultly. The most notable recent story was of a flight attendant who found herself in the co-pilots’ seat after a pilot became ill!

Training

With safety being the priority, flight attendants spend many hours learning the drills and procedures that will be used in the event of an incident. The training is serious but can be fun. You will learn how to detect and fight a fire, how to use the special equipment, how to give first aid and how to evacuate an aircraft on the land and water. There are many airlines that offer some extra enrichment and introduce some principles of flight and aerodynamics.

The side of the flight attendants job we see most of is the service. This training varies massively from airline to airline. You will be introduced to the correct etiquette and the style of service expected by the airline.

Language

If employed as expat cabin crew there is often some language training and some cultural instruction so you don’t inadvertently cause offence to the passengers. There are some really good schools out there that tailor their courses to the Aviation Industry such as our partner Aviation English. If you need to improve your English its worth checking them out.

How do you get a job as a flight attendant?

Research is the key, check out the online resources and keep up date with the news online. Keep up to date with sites like Flight Crew Finder that do the research for you. Currently both British Airways and Emirates are recruiting.

Network

Develop as many contacts as you can by using online tools and get in touch with friends of friends who may work for the airline. You never know who may hear about a recruitment process first. Stay in touch and exchange experiences. Ask them to let you know when they may be recruiting.

• Engage on bulletin boards and ask questions. Experienced Flight Attendants frequent these places and are always willing to offer advice to new recruits. If you are an experienced Flight Attendant then help others follow their dreams.

• Once all your research has been completed, draw up a shortlist of the companies you want to work for. Find out who is responsible for the recruiting of cabin crew and send them a personal letter.

Look into companies such as Swan Heights who specialise in providing premium Flight Attendant training. As a complimentary service they also offer a placement solution such as the jobs listed here.

The life of a cabin crew can be exciting, interesting and it will give you the opportunity to travel the world. Like most jobs, getting on the first step of the ladder can be hard but with some research and determination you can find yourself in the fastest moving industry in the world.
 

Aviation companies are having a hard time at the moment as cash is in short supply. There is going to be a end to the stagnation in the industry and employers are going to have to prepare to invest in getting the right staff. The ones that have stopped investing may well be in for a shock. I am not talking about planes and infrastructure but people. People make companies grow, give them the personal side and people make the difference to how people perceive a company. If employers need highly skilled employees they need get them now and training as the skills in our industry cannot be taught overnight.

Boeing has recently increased it’s forecast for predicted pilot and maintenance engineers for the next twenty years. They reckon that there will be a need for an additional 448,000 pilots and over 500,000 engineers to cope with the larger world fleet in the forthcoming decades. It has been reported that the global industry is already expanding and this can be seen with the recruiting that is going on in the Middle East. Emirates is currently planning to recruit over 700 pilots in the next few years. They won’t be looking for 200 hour pilots but, they will want the pilots with 1000’s of hours and these will come from the traditional airlines, creating vacancies.

I met with a German general aviation operator last week and he is concerned that the German regional airlines may tempt away his flight deck crews as they are starting to interview. If the German operators are planning for growth there is hope for rest of Europe.

With every expansion there will be a requirement for new cabin crews. I met with the Emirates recruiting team in Nice recently and they are touring around Europe looking for as many good cabin crew members as they can find. They have a significant requirement for people and asked me to direct all applications to their website. They are prepared to invest now to get the right people to work as cabin crew and they are planning to continue expanding over the next few years.

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Maybe, just maybe and we at www.flightcrewfinder.com will be watching very carefully. We have seen some increased recruiting activity on the website and it augers well for the future of our industry.

Good luck and have a good week.  

There has been a reported forecast of a shortage of pilots for the expanding global aviation industry. The reality very different. Unless you have thousands of hours in command of heavy jets and you are type rated and current and willing to travel to the other side of the world, there are precious few aviation jobs around. The flying schools have been producing hundreds of freshly qualified pilots very month and that makes the competition very tough for the few flying jobs out there.

It has always been the age old problem in the aviation industry, what aviation jobs are available for qualified pilots whilst they are looking for work flying? I will explore some possibilities that are open for people to work within the industry and hopefully build some contacts on the way.

Baggage Handler. The most easily available aviation job is that of the baggage handler. It appears to be pretty mundane but you will get an airside pass and spend time on aircraft. You will gain a greater understanding of how large aircraft work and the importance of correct mass and balance loading. There are opportunities to move into other ramp based jobs that may utilise you acquired skills as a pilot.

Aircraft Dispatcher. A friend of mine was ‘between jobs’ and applied to become a check in assistant but was told she was over qualified and was offered a job as a dispatcher. This is a very busy job that will require all your skills as a pilot plus other qualities. You will make decisions with the aircraft commander as to the safety and economic viability of the flight. You will check the flight plan, check the mass and balance and discuss the fuel load and weather with the captain. This job will place you in the cockpit and it is the place you really need to be. You will meet the right people and you will hear first if there is going to be any expansion and recruiting in the airline. Your skills will be enhanced and you have some relevant experience to bring up at interview.

Handling Agent. Many small operators don’t have their own ground staff and they use handling agents. They assist the crew with all the jobs that have to be done when an aircraft needs to be turned around. They deal with passengers, fuel, weather and catering. They assist the crews and can make a big difference to the smoothness of the operation. As an handling agent you will use all the skills you learnt when you were planning flights at flight school. You will interact with the crews and will be able to build a relationship with some of the pilots. They can assist in putting you CV forward and you interview will be considerably better if you know the person interviewing you! If you are looking for jobs within the general aviation sector, this could be a good option for you.

Flight Attendant. There are very many pilots I know who started out as cabin crew. This will give you experience of how an airline works and you will know when and if the airline is looking for more pilots. You will have shown a degree of commitment to the company by working as cabin crew and a reference from someone with the airline will be worth it’s weight in gold. As a qualified pilot you will bring some real awareness to the role and your safety critical functions will be better performed as a result of your pilot training.

There are many more jobs out there for the jobless pilot that will enhance any CV. At www.flightcrewfinder.com there are some non flying jobs that can be applied for. Good luck with looking for you new job in aviation! 

I have been flying for a living for over 10 years now. I have been one of the lucky ones who has found employment in a financially strong company and I am a very happy pilot! Things could have been very different if I had completed my flight training in today’s financial environment. A quick search on Google for ‘how to find a pilot job’ takes you to pilot employment sites and few of them offer any real help and support apart from www.flightcrewfinder.com. I think we know how tough it is to find a flying job especially if you are starting out on your career.

What I intend to do is offer some practical advice on how to build a network and increase your chances of finding work. This is not a definative guide but hopefully will point people in the right direction.

Research is important, you need to target airlines that you want to work for. You need to ensure that they are hiring or are about to hire and that you meet their minimum criteria. As an example, if Cathay Pacific only hire pilots with 5000+ hours it is no good applying to them if you have just qualified. Find out who reads the CV’s and address all correspondence to them, you need to build up a personal relationship with them.

Flexibility is a feature all pilots are familar with and it will be needed in huge quanities when you are looking for work. You may need to spead your wings a little further than your home town or even your own country. As part of my work at www.flightcrewfinder.com I look around the world to see who is recruiting and what opportunities there are for our members. There is work for very many qualified pilots in Asia and in the Far East but, some people’s commitments make it impossible for them to move.

Planning is a thing that all pilots do every time we take to the skies even for the shortest flight. You need to make an ideal career plan but accept it will change as your life changes and you get older. Where do you want to be in 20 years time and what steps do you need to make to get there? You may have to make a short term sacrifice to achieve your goal.

CV/Resumes are still important but getting less so in today’s environment of online applications. There are plenty of resources on the web that will help you write the ‘killer’ CV but remember it needs to be factual and only on one sheet of paper. The covering letter is the place where you can embellish your achievements.

Internet and Networking I was talking to someone who works for a large recruiter recently and he stressed the importance of ensuring your online identity is professional and becoming of an airline captain. So now maybe now is the time to look at your social networking sites and suspend or cancel your accounts. I do know of one employer who searches Google and Facebook before every interview, could this cause you embarrassment? Is your email address suitable? ’snugglypooch@email.com’ may not be the best address to have, set up a gmail/hotmail account just for the recruiting process.

More people are using ‘linkedin.com’ to help build up a professional network. It is hard when you come to a new industry to find people that maybe able to help you get an interview. The more groups you join, the more you interact, the more articles you write, the more people will ‘link’ to you and help you build a network.

Employment websites like www.flightcrewfinder.com are used by employers who are looking for pilots and cabin crew and listing your details has proved very useful for many. www.flightcrewfinder.com is trying to do things differently and encourage interaction via forums, articles and news items. You can standout from the crowd by getting involved and contributing, this may just raise your profile and help you get a job! 

Is it me or is aviation taking one step forward and two steps back? There is industrial action, ash clouds and now the feeling of uncertainty in the European economy all impacting of the green shoots of growth. We all knew it wasn’t going to be easy but I for one, didn’t it expect to be this hard!

For the job hunter in today’s environment all we can do is to keep on exploring new ground and looking in different places. We at Flight Crew Finder re-enforced our contacts at EBACE and we are starting to see an increased interest from employers who we met there. We are trying hard to convert these contacts into aviation jobs for our members.

This week has seen some of our subscribers getting work. There are people soon to be heading off to Turkey to fly for the summer months. Pilots and Cabin Crew are using Flight Crew Finder to network in a different way, to find contacts outside their normal contacts. We are always pleased to hear the good news stories from people, please let us know when you find employment.

There is increased positive news from the aircraft manufacturers in the USA and Europe as they feel that they need to increase their production as they predict that there is going to be increased demand for aircraft over the next 12 months. If airlines are buying planes, it is likely that they will need crews. I visited an airline training establishment this week and they are extremely busy preparing for the busy summer season. They were very positive about the future and if their positivity is realised we are looking at a very bright future.

Good luck job hunting this week and please keep in touch with us at contact@flightcrewfinder.com  

I saw Peter Burkill, the Captain on BA38 that landed short at Heathrow, on the television the other day and it really brought home the seriousness of the career we have embarked upon. As professional pilots we spend hours with everything working perfectly and life can be a little dull. How we will react when things goes wrong is always unknown. Good quality training in simulators can help but still, we don’t really know how we are going to react to that failure and what the aftermath will bring. Employers can always mitigate the potential disastrous incidents by carefully selecting the best crew and spending money on good quality training. As the the old saying goes, ‘If you think training is expensive, try having and accident.’ Jon has written a great review of the book that can be found here.

We have seen a steady flow of new jobs come onto the site over the last few days. It appears that there is a definite increase in hiring activity and we are seeing more employers register with the site all the time. We are continuing to look for more inclusive types of jobs that will appeal to pilots with less experience. We have a very good relationship with an Asian employer who is looking to expand in the next 12 months. They are seeking some Hawker 850XP pilots for a 3 month contract initally but hopefully there will be more pilots required in the future. The pay and conditions are very good and they are wanting to interview people as soon as possible. There are new jobs being listed on the site all the time and we recommend that you check back regularly to see if there is anything suitable for you.

With the increased pilot hiring activity we are seeing more VIP cabin crew vacancies appearing. The VIP cabin crew positions are always in great demand and often the employers don’t list jobs but use traditional networks to find people as well as using websites like www.flightcrewfinder.com. You should always try to keep your Flight Crew Finder profile as up to date as possible and include as much details as you think necessary to attract the employers who are trawling the site.

We are starting some work in preparation for the European Air Show season as we hope to attend as many of these as we can. We can use our time wisely to strengthen our contacts and promote www.flightcrewfinder.com as being the first and last place to go to find great flight crew.
 

This week has been characterised by the industrial unrest that seems to be flooding across the flying workforce in Europe. It is so counter productive for job seekers as it increases financial stress on companies and they take up a more defensive stance. We need companies to grow and expand, we need the travelling public to have faith in the airlines and start spending their money on flights. I hope all industrial unrest soon finds a constructive outcome.

Flight Crew Finder has seen more jobs listed this week. We are very interested in helping an employer find crew for a Hawker 850XP in the south of the UK as soon as possible. If you know of anyone who is available please point them towards the site. We have new jobs on a Falcon 900 and the mighty 7X, these jobs offer very favourable terms and conditions. An employer is looking for some freelance pilots to fly the Embraer 135/145 for some ad hoc flying and this is based in the UK.

We have had an urgent requirement for an Airbus 330 captain based in the Middle East for a short term commuting contract. There are still a demand for airline type rated pilots in Turkey and this will continue as Turkish Airlines has confirmed an order for more Boeing 737. The Asian market is as strong as ever and is proving a lucrative location for many pilots around the world with the average jet captain earning over $12K a month net.

We are having new employers using the site, viewing the listed profiles and we are seeing our traffic increasing every week. We have been redoubling our marketing activity and calling and visiting as many employers as we can. The Forum and News sections are proving popular and we encourage you to ask a question or post a news story.

We have new jobs appearing all the time please keep an eye on the site, you never know what may appear. Have a good week.  

This has been a difficult week in aviation as the news has mixed. I was saddened with the news that Air Partner Private Jets has called in the administrator, effectively closing it’s doors. As a long term follower of Gold Air (that became APPJ) and with friends in the company I think it is a real shame to see the end of a good company. Varsity Express was exposed as a fraud and the police have now been called in to investigate. I for one, was hoping that they could become a success as Oxford could make a lucrative base for a small airline. It has become apparent that the head of the company charged pilots upfront for type rating training, leaving 4 young pilots £15,000 the poorer.

On the ‘flip side’, some of the Middle East Airlines are starting their recruitment tours around the globe looking for pilots and cabin crew. We all hope that their terms and conditions will draw the experienced crew members, leaving vacancies for the less experienced. I know that one of our members is has completed his application and we all wish him the best of luck.

We have had lots of employer visit the site searching our database and there are still a steady stream of jobs available for all types of qualified aviation professionals. The ICAO English Examiners have selected the first few candidates and they are still interested in more ICAO level 5+ people to apply. They are making a couple of administrative changes but hopefully the first group will start their training soon. We have had one employer call this week who is desperately seeking Airbus pilots for long term contracts in South East Asia. They are paying over $12,000 a month and have some great terms and conditions. If you are rated look out for the job listing and good luck with the application.

Go to www.flightcrewfinder.com to keep up to date and find jobs and more…….

The news has been interesting this week. There has been some really positive news with Emirates planning significant recruitment this year, the FAA has a positive outlook for the next 20 years and there are operators planning new start ups. So the long term out look is looking good, the short term it seems as if there has been a little flat spot in the number of vacancies over the last few days. This was confirmed by one employer I was talking to, he told me he was waiting for the new financial year before he starts his recruiting!

We have had some good news, the initial selection for the English examiners job has taken place and there will be a small group interviewed shortly. The employer is still very interested in hearing from suitably qualified pilots who can attain ICAO English level 5 or greater. If you are interested….apply. The Middle East banner towing company has had some great applicants and we hope to hear some good news from the selected pilots soon. It seems that every day more employers register with us. They use our search engine to find the most suitable flight crew and then they contact them directly. If you are looking for permanent work or you are a freelancer, one of the best way to market yourself is to create a profile.

We are so pleased with the forums, they are getting busier every week. If you have something to say or a question to ask, that’s the place to go. We have an interesting thread from a flight attendant who is trying to move into the VIP/business jet world, Fischmeister has been telling us his story and offering positive advice. There has also been a heated discussion about a Citation accident in Germany. On a lighter note we have some open topics on aviation trivia and a caption competition. It’s well worth a look.

We have been talking to many employers over the last week and next week we will continue to do the same. There are employers planning to recruit shortly and what we want to do is break down the ‘who you know’ method of recruiting. We want to make it a level playing field and give all our members a fair chance to be selected for these jobs.

Have a good weekend!