Road Trip Tips (Just Curious and other authors)

[avcanada]

http://www.avcanada.ca/forums/viewtopic ... 5&forum=20
http://www.avcanada.ca/forums2/viewtopic.php?t=241

Just Curious
I decided to cut and pasted form the archives. Now go a get a job.

Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When you drive up, have a zillion copies of your resume. Don't put your picture on it. Have your (maybe not so)grand total out front so they can read it. Don't emphasize your university debating club as one of your hobbies. Bush Pilots don't debate. We always know we're right, even when we aren't.

Don't show up in a suit. Wear clean Mark's Work Warehouse type clothes with work or hiking boots, and work gloves. Not NEW ONES!
The driver you want to speak with will probably be on the Ramp or Dock hucking freight. Toss freight while you're talking. Nobody needs a special guest star while they are loading. Don't ask if you can come along. If he or she wants you to, they will ask. We are not shy up here. Come to think of it, once the driver takes off with his Norseman load of crap, talk at length to the Ramp Rats. Heck, buy 'em a coffee! They could easily be would-be pilots. And NOBODY knows the operation better than the rats. If you haven't a clue ask them how to load a snowmachine, boats, drums, sattelite dish and anything else wierd you see lying around the dock. Remember, if where you are standing is the end of the road, then anything and everything you need for a small town has to be flown in. Hopefully by you! Make notes on how this crap is loaded, take pictures. Sure as heck they don't cover this in the edmonton flying club ground-school!

If you can, borrow a map for the perspective area. Know how to read all the details of a map like the saturday comics. GPS will probably be turned off for your check-ride. Know where the usual destinations are. You studied up before each ride right? In the hope of getting a job? It's no diferent- each little talk is a check-ride. Keep a file of who you talked to, and about whtat and when is a good time to talk to them again. Then make sure you call back

Speaking of destinations...Is there a bar or coffee shop that area drivers favor? Be in at O 'dark thirty and pay attention. In Redl Lake fer instance the Lakeview Restaurant at o dark thirty is going to have a bunch of airplane people in it.

Buy a boy scout manual at a yard sale. Master all the knots in it. Learn how to splice.

Get a thermos and a sleeping bag. Learn how to sit and wait for te chief pilot to come sauntering out of the office door. Talk to a stalker for more advise on this.

At each stop, there will probably be a library in town. Get a hotmail yahoo or similar account. Check it at each stop. That job offer might just be there for a limited time only.

When asked about career expections, you might consider letting the interviewer know that eventually you want to drive something bigger. Just leave the impression that that 'something biger' is a twin otter or a hawker, not the Airbus 330 or something.

Find out the rudiments of smalll engine repair, and how to trouble-shoot a propane fridge. Joe McBryan in the 'Knife always asks people if they have a trade. He doesn't mean do you have an ATPL. He wants to know what other skills you possess that can help him keep his small airline alive. Maybe to you its a stepping stone. To him and guys like him the business is his RRSP.

Presumably, there are going to be customers of the airline.If it's in the bush, a fair bet is that they will be native. Learn how to say hi, bye and thanks in their language. Customer service is important. In Cree, its Tansi or boujou, and Meegwutch for thanks. WAY up north thanks can be Masi or Masi 'Cho.
Up at the top its Quayanakpak, Daigoo, Quayanaini, Quana, Quayanomin Nakomin, (going left to right from Siberia to Greenland.)
If you are going on your trip up to april or after labour day, bring a parka. not a shiny clean ski jacket. You might want to consider buying a reynolds flight suit, so if you do get hired you fit right in. Pile enough crap in the car that if you do get a job, you can start right now. Every employer wants two weeks notice before you bail, but they also want you that afternoon if they hire you.

Remember that life is a journey, not a destination, (especially if your destination when hired is Pikangikum, Stoney Rapids Shammatawa, Rae Edzo, or Lake Harbour) so if they offer you a ramp job, grab it, and work it as if the one thing in life you wanted to do was get to work a pallet jack. That way paradoxically, you won't spend as much time on the pallet jack.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Have fun. We did.
Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Snoopy
PS the only thing I might add is to try and learn a little bit about the company before showing up. This doesn't include asking on a public forum either! Try visiting the local bait shop, hotel, barber, FSS or whatever and ask lots of questions. Find out where the company flys to and look it up on a map. Find out what kind of airplanes they fly and learn a bit about them. Have an aircraft handbook or something so you can recognize the difference between a Cessna and an Otter.
Carry a good knife and matches with you everywhere you go.
Good Luck


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

expect that in any organization, you can spot the new ones ot 100 yards.
Any organization has cultural artifacts that mark those employees. Westjet drivers sport leather jackets. Air Canada drivers wear jackets. with the buttons done all the way up. Try to spot some of those markers. Leathermen- do they wear 'em on their belts? Baseball hats- do they curl the brims and wear them low to block the sun? Jeans- or Reynolds suits, or MEC gear? Try to dess like one of the tribe.

A very important thing is to think of a question or twelve that will require a story as an answer. The longer the driver in question is talking to you, the longer they will have to look at l you and try to form an impression. Job interviews have, at the same time, both the interrogation phase and the selling phase. Interviewers want to talk about their organization. It's part of the reason that pilots are in the interview process. An HR professinal can impart a lot of information, but not the sort that explains how your work life in that company will function. Pilots who are proud of their company, and that I think includes almost all of us, like to talk about their jobs. Just ask their spouses at a company party.

Not all interviews ae at the office. More successful ones are often on the ramp. e.g. You're Fred Glutz, kindly old chief pilot. You've just finished hour 11 of a 14 hour duty day, when a freckle-faced 12 year old (at least, to you)walks up and asks about a job. Do you chat with him and answer the zillion questions or mumble "Come back later!", silently adding Kid! under your breath. And get back to hucking freight. How different is his response going to be to your questions if the first one is "Howdy, can I give you a hand? I need the exercise!" Followed by you pulling on a set of worn old work gloves. Handy hint- drag'em behind your car for an hour!

If you don't talk, and grin like an idiot, and don't dress the part, then the odds are good that the CP will figure that you are a stuck-up kid from the big city, who's just there to burn him for a ppc and bail to the competition.

Stop in the Bush Museum in YAM and buy a round engined aircraft hat, or a norseman hat in YRL. Dressing for success is far cheaper at this stage.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think getting away from the fax machine and computer and getting some face to face time is the most important thing. I have seen the stacks and thrown darts at the pictures (harder to hit then you might think). If you know someone up north, crash on their couch, help them . bags and you never know, the CP might just think he hired you and just forgot about it. Also, get up there NOW!!! Holes are getting filled and the season is starting. Good luck.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naaar said... "Also, get up there NOW!!! Holes are getting filled and the season is starting. Good luck."

He's right about that, if you are going to work for a float-plane operation they are going to do all of their hiring as the ice melts on the lake. It's been cold up north this spring so the ice hasn't really started to go yet but when it goes it goes fast! Therefore, your window of opportunity is going to be shorter than you would think. Some companies wait as long as possible before they hire, the longer you are on the payroll when they don't really need you = more money they don't really need to spend.

A lot of the larger companies leave the dock slave and ramp rat hiring to the base managers who may not even be pilots. Keep that in mind if you can. If you are too dismissive of these guys they aren't going to give you the time of day let alone ask you to work for them. And you will be working for them, not the chief pilot, until you are flying.

Someone's probably told you this before but I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When you are thinking about bush places, there are those ranging from fred's lodge with one C180, to First Air.
Working the ramp for fred's may not get you up the ladder all that fast. But...one of Fred's last drivers may be the chief pilot at voyageur or bearskin.

Working the ramp at Tindi, you'll probably notice that almost all of the bush machines have two turbine engines bolted onto them. At Buffalo all the airplanes are twin, unless they have 4 R2000s bolted to the frame.

Get an aviation directory, and target your companies. Do a variety of cover letters up. Maybe the first job you get isn't your dream job. SOMEBODY has to have the poor ones. But face it. It's always easier to get a job when you already have one.

---------------------------------------------------------
North Shore

I expect that in any organization, you can spot the new ones ot 100 yards.
Any organization has cultural artifacts that mark those employees. Westjet drivers sport leather jackets. Air Canada drivers wear jackets. with the buttons done all the way up. Try to spot some of those markers. Leathermen- do they wear 'em on their belts? Baseball hats- do they curl the brims and wear them low to block the sun? Jeans- or Reynolds suits, or MEC gear? Try to dess like one of the tribe.

A very important thing is to think of a question or twelve that will require a story as an answer. The longer the driver in question is talking to you, the longer they will have to look at l you and try to form an impression. Job interviews have, at the same time, both the interrogation phase and the selling phase. Interviewers want to talk about their organization. It's part of the reason that pilots are in the interview process. An HR professinal can impart a lot of information, but not the sort that explains how your work life in that company will function. Pilots who are proud of their company, and that I think includes almost all of us, like to talk about their jobs. Just ask their spouses at a company party.

Not all interviews ae at the office. More successful ones are often on the ramp. e.g. You're Fred Glutz, kindly old chief pilot. You've just finished hour 11 of a 14 hour duty day, when a freckle-faced 12 year old (at least, to you)walks up and asks about a job. Do you chat with him and answer the zillion questions or mumble "Come back later!", silently adding Kid! under your breath. And get back to hucking freight. How different is his response going to be to your questions if the first one is "Howdy, can I give you a hand? I need the exercise!" Followed by you pulling on a set of worn old work gloves. Handy hint- drag'em behind your car for an hour!

If you don't talk, and grin like an idiot, and don't dress the part, then the odds are good that the CP will figure that you are a stuck-up kid from the big city, who's just there to burn him for a ppc and bail to the competition.

Stop in the Bush Museum in YAM and buy a round engined aircraft hat, or a norseman hat in YRL. Dressing for success is far cheaper at this stage.