Resumes and the current job market.

[Slick Goodlin]

How to write a useful pilot resume might be a good article for Scud to put up. You know, before that doofus from the other site who does interview prep/life coaching/YouTube career advice starts charging for it.

[mcrit]

How to write a useful pilot resume might be a good article for Scud to put up. You know, before that doofus from the other site who does interview prep/life coaching/YouTube career advice starts charging for it.

Which doofus? KD?

[Slick Goodlin]

Which doofus? KD?

Yeah that sounds about right. I actually knew him when he was in flight school and while I recognize a person can grow and change I still wouldn’t take his advice on anything.

[Scudrunner]

Haven’t made a resume in about 10 years. Last job was “hey bruh come fly our bird you’ll get paid XYZ.”

Cool send the contract over.

I’ve been playing around with chat gpt to generate outlines of topics etc for articles and such I’ll see what HAL 2000 spits out for cover letters and resumes.

[Scudrunner]

So just plugged it into Chat Gpt and here is what it spit out.


Input: Write a Pilot Resume example

Name: John Doe

Contact Information:

Phone: 555-555-5555
Email: johndoe@email.com
Address: 123 Main St, Anytown USA 12345
Summary:
Experienced pilot with over 5,000 hours of flight time and a proven track record of safety and efficiency. Strong leadership skills and ability to work well in a team environment. Holds multiple pilot certifications and is current on all required training and certifications.

Education:

Bachelor of Science in Aeronautics, XYZ University, Anytown USA (2009-2013)
Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) Certification, FAA (2013)
Certifications and Training:

Airline Transport Pilot (ATP)
Commercial Pilot License (CPL)
Instrument Rating (IR)
Multi-Engine Rating (ME)
Certified Flight Instructor (CFI)
FAA First-Class Medical Certificate
Current on all required recurrent training
Experience:

First Officer, ABC Airlines (2015-Present)

Responsible for flying commercial aircraft on domestic and international routes.

Assisted the captain in the safe and efficient operation of the aircraft.

Participated in flight planning and briefing, and monitored the performance of the aircraft during flight.

Communicated effectively with the flight crew, ground personnel, and air traffic control.

Maintained a high level of situational awareness at all times and responded quickly and appropriately to any emergency situation.

Captain, XYZ Charter (2013-2015)

Operated charter flights for corporate and private clients.

Conducted pre-flight inspections and ensured the aircraft was in compliance with all safety regulations.

Supervised the flight crew and ensured that all procedures were followed correctly.

Communicated effectively with clients and ensured their satisfaction with the flight experience.

Maintained accurate flight logs and records.

Skills:

Strong leadership and team management skills
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
Strong problem-solving and decision-making abilities
Ability to work well under pressure and in high-stress environments
Proven track record of safety and efficiency in flight operations
References available upon request.

[Squaretail]

So just plugged it into Chat Gpt and here is what it spit out.

Actually that answers a lot of questions as to why these are so long. I was wondering why people felt they needed to describe in length what they did as a crew member. In fact lots of the wording on these is identical to what your result was. I had figured that pilots were asking non-pilots how to write resumes, but I shouldn't have thought they would have put that much thought into it. I forgot I was dealing with pilots after all.

[Scudrunner]

My favourite was a resume on blue paper with clouds and a picture of him leaning against an CF18.

No Canadian right to work but held a TC CPL no time in pictured CF18 other than his fingers on it.

He offered to work for free, fortunately I intercepted it before my boss found out the 50 bucks a day when I actually flew was far above this guys market rate. Of course this was circa 2003.

My co workers and I toasted a few beers in his honour laughing before round filing it.

[Slick Goodlin]

I was wondering why people felt they needed to describe in length what they did as a crew member.

I think you can chalk about half of it up to inexperienced kids trying their best to give what they think the other side wants to get. The other half is that you don’t always know who’s going to receive this resume. Is it a pilot who will laugh their ass off or some office drone who is also doing their best but may ditch a less verbose resume?

The hiring experience that stuck with me the most was the morning I saw a charter chief pilot sit down in the airport cafe with a coffee in one hand and what looked like a hundred resumes in the other. He had that list pared down to a half dozen candidates in about a minute. There may have been gold in his reject pile but we’ll never know. Whoever did get hired was good enough, I guess.

I know I’m probably preaching to the choir with the regular posters here but for anyone lurking looking for resume advice for a 604/703/704-type of job, you’d be well served to at least lead off the way I described a couple posts back.

[Colonel]

a resume on blue paper with clouds

I miss the cloud paper. I know that the world gets better and faster and brighter with each passing day, but the 20th Century was nice.

[Squaretail]

There may have been gold in his reject pile but we’ll never know.

Unlikely. Having went through a lot of stacks of resumes, half the resumes will be from people unqualified, sometimes grossly. I appreciate the enthusiasm from new pilots, but if you just started your PPL, then wait a bit before troubling with your pilot resume. Most jobs are looking to hire sooner than later. FWIW, never post pilot jobs on the government's job bank, because you will be flooded with non pilot resumes because there's a lot of people who throw resumes at all jobs on there to prove they are looking for work while collecting EI. Besides the unqualified, half of the remaining will have something that you just don't want to explore, and ones that are constantly re-applying after having been rejected. Known quantities. So its not hard to whittle down a large stack. Of the short list, I usually order it into who is most likely to actually come for the job. Candidates are really non-mobile these days, which I sort of find odd for pilots.