Hiring season is here (pretty much)

Skylens announced the day they’d be taking applications (July 28th). For us, that marks the start of hiring season, because a bunch of companies will follow.

Today, let me catch you up on what to look out for this summer—using last year as reference.

Not being able to get a job is one thing. The most frustrating part about it though is the absence of communication during the application process.

We get ghosted and simply left in the dark 99% of the time, don’t we?

Not here.

Skylens is the most transparent company about how their hiring practices, which allows me today to give you the complete briefing on how to get an interview. Following the advice that I’m about to give may not 100% guarantee you the job itself. However, it’s information coming straight from the source: Skylens’ CEO & former pilots. In other words, it’s not hearsay, it’s facts.

Here’s a screenshot of their hiring minimums:

You need to first meet those requirements. Then, to put your resume at the top of the stack, here’s what will help:

• be an A&P/pilot able to perform light maintenance while on deployment. That’s very niche, but you are pretty much guaranteed the interview, even with a fresh commercial.

• have 30 hours of multi and 10+ hours in a Piper Aztec. This is for insurance purposes. And it has to be in an Aztec, not an Apache. One of their pilots gave us that sauce last year and everyone who went ahead and got some Aztec time got into Tier 1. Yes, the website says 5 hours in PA23-250 is competitive but trust me, you will not get the job with just 5.

• once you meet the minimum requirements, anything else other than Aztec time will NOT help you. It’s possible to have too much hours, because the risk of leaving mid-season is greater. For instance, if you have over 30 hours of multi, there’s no need to build multi-time in anything other than an Aztec.

• the number of pilots they hire depends on how many pilots from last season stay. We all know the market is cooked, which means if nothing changes by the time interviews are complete, a lot of past pilots will come back.

That’s it. It’s primarily a numbers game: have the hours, have more than the others. The interview process in itself isn’t out of the ordinary. Two stages, Chief Pilot and CEO. You can read the full breakdown about what the job is like here.

Here were a few points that Skylens wanted to address:

• they changed the pay structure. We don’t know how exactly, all we know is there’s now a performance incentive. The more you fly, the more you make.

• a complaint pilots had was the quality of hotels they were put into. They improved that, pointing out how it’s all subjective anyway—true.

Realistically, maybe about 10 of us will get hired. What options does the rest have?

AERIAL SURVEY

• Optic Air advises to send applications around August. Referral game.

• Eagleview and ProStar conduct interviews around August. Numbers game.

• Northwoods Air, Williams Aerial Mapping, JAV Imagery usually hire in September. Referral game.

PIPELINE PATROL

• American Patrols hired a bunch of pilots last summer. I asked the Chief Pilot at the time what they’re looking for, because it’s not like the guys they hired had much more time than the average candidate that applied. They definitely didn’t have more hours than I did. Here’s what sets you apart: CFI is a plus, so is having C172 time, military experience and proof that you can handle the Texas heat. The real kicker though is persistency. You need to try and get ahold of HR if you don’t want to just rely on chance.

• KCSI called me around July, screening for a potential C182. They were waiting to get the contract before actuallly moving forward with the hiring process, but never called me back. That means they either ended up not getting the contract, or moved on with a different candidate. My point is, summer seems to be hiring season for pipeline patrol too, so you may want to (re)apply some time this summer.

SKYDIVING (maybe…)

Yes, the bulk of the hiring is in the spring, but that’s for the northern states. In the south, they jump year-round. For those, C182 time is king. Yes, they say their insurance want 500 hours but some will make exceptions. The dropzone I fly for actually offers a path for wet commercial pilots.

Well, to be clear, referrals are always a plus. But for a lot, you sort of don’t even stand a chance without one. All the pilots I’ve talked to that fly for these companies knew someone. That’s what I mean by referral game.

It’s not as simple as just finding an employee and ask if you can write down their name on your application. They need to be able to vouch for you, it’s meaningless otherwise.

We have a month to get some conversations going and some relevant hours built. Have fun!

Nothing that interesting in May or June on climbto350. I’ve actually found more low-time jobs on bizjetjobs in the same period, which is why I’m paying for both for now. If not for bizjetjobs, I wouldn’t have known ACE/Freight Runners Express were accepting resumes earlier this month. The trick to reverse-research the job on there is useful and still works most of the time though, no real need to pay. I’ll keep you posted. Definitely don’t solely rely on job boards.

Good luck!
— Ivan

N.B: changed the name from “Job Board” to “Alerts” because it makes more sense. Got a few emails asking how to access the job board. Well, it’s not so much about you accessing somehting—although when you upgrade, you can always check the archive on the website—it’s mainly about you getting notified when there’s a low-time job open. I hope the new name clears the confusion.