I don’t think posting your resume in Facebook groups to get feedback from other pilots is a bad place to start. Pretty common lately.

But when the comments and suggestions you get are conflicting, who do you actually listen to?

Last year, I compiled the best advice directly from the people in charge of hiring at Northwood’s Air and Brewton Aviation, because well, who else would be more qualified to tell us what to do.

The topic was pilot job applications in general (the do’s and don’ts). You can read the entire thing here, but the key takeaways are: follow application instructions, respect posted minimums, keep your resume to one page, and don’t have AI write your cover letter.

Today, I figured I’d break down the principles I follow to format and write said one-page low-time pilot resume, backed by industry professionals (so you know you’re not listening to MY advice).

First, this is what a standard pilot resume should look like (mine is different but yeah)

To go over my own formatting real quick — and why it works…

Full name, email address, phone number, physical address (city, state) up top. After that it’s certs, hours, work experience, “related” experience (for instance, this newsletter), volunteer experience, and education at the bottom. I always export my resume as a pdf because word docs get weird. No objective/summary, no pictures, no colors, no emojis.

The idea is simple: the most important stuff first, so that whoever is reading the resume doesn’t have to look for it (if they can’t find your certificates and ratings within 6-8 seconds, solid chance your resume ends up in the trash)

But let’s get a little more technical…

We tend to think hiring is about the person with the highest flight time. It's not. It's who's the best overall fit as a person.

There are two types of content to put on your resume:

• Content that qualifies you (certificates, ratings, flight times)

• Content that differentiates you (the bullets underneath each job)—these are examples, stories, and experiences that show what makes you unique and start conversations.

What to include: Things like mentoring others, taking initiative, your student pass-rate, solving problems, volunteer work, or unique contributions—even if it’s outside aviation—all help make you stand out. If you have 6 hours in a 185 on floats, put that on there!

Generic facts and figures won’t do.

Pro tip: when you’re tailoring your resume for a job, you can check out the Linkedin profile of a few of the company’s pilots to see what experience they have, and understand what set them apart.

Real-life example: I once got a call from a company I cold emailed — you know, just blasting my job applications, as one does. The Chief Pilot saw on my resume that I had time in an uncommon aircraft type here in the US. He wanted to ask me about it because they used to fly it. Now, the “other” reason he called was to tell me about a contract he was waiting for, if I’d be interested if they won the bid.

Common mistakes that are easy to avoid…

• Overly creative formats: flashy or unconventional designs. Just don’t.

• Too wordy: huge paragraphs are much harder for the reader to skim through.

• Unprofessional email: birddog69, really?

• Buzzword bombing: safety-minded, impact-driven, customer-oriented… very common in the objective section. Again, I’d drop that whole section.

• Skills section: drop that one too.

• Typos: run your resume through AI to make sure you didn’t miss any.

That’s about all there is to it. Once you’ve come up with a layout, there are things you’ll still have to tweak every now and then: your hours, and your job description (a.k.a the bullet points).

I got you with this free resume template from Raven, if you need one that adheres with ever we talked about.

Final tips — from pilot to pilot

If you absolutely can’t figure out how to write a compelling resume on your own, you can pay a professional to do it. There’s nothing wrong with that.

But I personally never did because at our experience level, I know as long as your resume doesn’t suck (which it shouldn’t be if you simply apply what we went over today), it will not hinder your chances at getting a job.

At the end of the day, even after following the norms, a resume is subjective. That’s why people will ALWAYS seem to find something to “optimize.”

My thought process is that, bigger-picture, it’s really not that deep.

If there’s something (i think) you might want to pay a professional to do, it’s your cover letter.

When I say “cover letter,” I’m referring to the email that’s sent with the resume.
Because it doesn’t matter how pretty your resume looks. If your email misses the mark, you’re done.

When I got hired at my dropzone, they told me I was probably the only guy that didn’t use AI to write his cover letter, and they were impressed.

That cover letter was definitely not my best, and that’s what made it work, I guess.

I then noticed of all the emails I actually got a positive reply from the past year, all were what I’d consider “not my best.” Now that AI is a thing, it’s funny the bar is actually lower.

If you enjoy this type of content, we can go over that exact email or one of the others next time. As much as I love the Deep Dive series, I think we get the idea of what a low time job is like by now. Don’t you? What about more educational and actionable emails?

Reply, or simply cast your vote! 👇️ 

SOURCES…

🎙️ — Realistic career advice for pilots, with James Onieal (link)
📼 — Reaction to a low time pilot resume, with Ian Robinson (link)