Ugh, this "getting ready to apply" stuff is a lot of work, considering I'm not really expecting any calls from the airlines I'm planning on applying to. Between that, flying, union stuff, and another development I'll tell you about after this series is over, there just isn't much time left over for blogging. Well, maybe less motivation than time. I somehow always find the time for skiing!
My last few posts told how to scrounge around for open flying positions. At the same time you're looking around, you should be preparing yourself to apply by sprucing up your qualifications and then putting together a good resume and cover letter. This post will cover the process of getting your qualifications in order for application.
Most jobs will have their minimum qualifications publicly posted. Like I mentioned before, you don't have to consider minimum qualifications absolutely limiting - many companies do waive them to hire people they like - but I'll assume that you're fairly close to minimums for the jobs you're looking at. Your task, before and after you apply, is to do everything you can to increase your desirability and give you a leg up on the next pilot. Here are a few ways you can do that.
Certificates & Ratings
If you're applying for a commercial aviation position, you already have your Commercial certificate. Many jobs require additional certificates and ratings. Any CFI position will require at least a Flight Instructor certificate; flying freight in a Navajo necessitates a multi-engine rating. Any job involving PIC time in a turbine aircraft is going to require an ATP certificate. You should consider these bare minimums, and ensure you have the appropriate certificate before applying.
You should also be looking at certificates and ratings that aren't necessarily required, but would help you get the job. Even if a CFI is all that's required for a flight instructing position, CFII and MEI ratings will be very attractive to any school that has a lot of instrument and multi-engine students. If you want to fly for an Alaskan operator, a single-engine sea rating is almost a must. An ATP certificate will help getting hired at any job.
The key is to look for ratings that would be fairly easy to get in a short time span. Most airplane class ratings (multi-engine land, single-engine sea) can be done in a week or less. The ATP, if you already have the experience required by FAR 61.159, is a very simple affair - it's essentially an instrument checkride with tighter tolerances.
Of course, by applying for a flying job you're looking to make money, not spend it. Prepare a cost/benefits analysis. Will it really help you get hired for the jobs you're looking it? If so, are the jobs worth spending the money for? If in doubt, you could try applying now and getting the additional training if you aren't having luck getting an interview.
Flight Time & Recency
There's not much you can do in the short term about your flight time other than padding your logbook (just kidding - that's a really bad idea that has cost pilots their careers). However, if you're lacking in any particular area of required flight time, make an extra effort to close the gap. Your first job flying multi-engine airplanes can be tough to get because most require 50 or 100 hours of multi-engine time, and many pilots have only around 20 hours upon finishing their multi-engine rating. A solution might be to get your MEI rating and move to a flight school that has multi-engine students, even if you get less total time.
If you've been out of flying for a while, getting a job can be quite hard. Most employers consider recency of experience even if they don't post a recency requirement, and many will take a less experienced candidate that's been flying a lot lately to a high time pilot who hasn't flown in six months. If it's been a while, get back in the game. You may spend some time at a lower-level job than you'd like, or you might have to rent an airplane. If that's the case, don't just bore holes in the sky; grab an instructor and work on an additional rating or certificate.
Medical Certificates
Any aviation job will require at least a second class medical, but there's no reason to not get a first class medical. If you're under age 40, it's no more complicated than a 2nd class and usually costs the same. If you have a first class medical but it's more than six months old (2nd class privileges), I'd suggest renewing it before beginning the job search.
Milski recently posted a question regarding medical standards for flying jobs. You'll find that in most cases, holding a medical certificate is the standard. Glasses used to be a bigger deal, but these days it's sufficient to have eyes correctable to 20/20. Other limitations or waivers may warrant scrutiny, but most are not a deal-breaker. If I recall correctly, Mesaba once even had a paraplegic Saab 340 captain. A more commonplace example is the color-blind captain I've flown with a few times.
Some major airlines do have their own, tougher medical standards, due to their higher investment in training. It's common practice to have a company doctor administer a physical exam during interviews at these airlines.
Written Exams
Here's a really easy, inexpensive way to improve your qualifications: take your ATP written exam. You don't need to have 1500 hours and you only need to be 21 years old. Already have your ATP? Take the Turbojet Flight Engineer written exam. Although flight engineers are almost a thing of the past, the written is still required at several airlines and can only help at the rest.
If you're already a CFI, I'm not sure that Ground Instructor certificates are worth the paper they're printed on. They can't hurt, though. On the other hand, a Gold Seal Instructor certificate is nice to have on a resume, and that requires an advanced or instrument ground instructor certificate. What the heck, it's a few hours of study time and $65 for a written test.
Miscellaneous Paperwork
To get hired, you'll need proof of eligibility for employment. A US Passport will suffice. If you don't have one, get it now because you can no longer go to Mexico or Canada without one, many companies require it, and if you wait until the interview is scheduled you'll pay extra for fast service. Besides, $100 is a small price to pay for 10 years of international travel.
If you're a US Permanent Resident, you'll need to have your paperwork in order, including green card. Most companies will hire foreign pilots who have a right to work in the US, but precious few will sponsor you for permanent resident status.
If your targeted company flies internationally, you may also need a Restricted Radiotelephone Operator's Certificate. Like the passport, this can take a while to get, so start now. Here's a link to the FCC's webpage on the subject.
Contacts, References, and Recommendations
You need to be working on these as soon as you start the job search, but it's an important enough topic to warrant its own post.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Job-Hunting Resources
The "Finding Open Positions" section of my last post was long on generalities and short on specifics. Here are a few more resources to use in hunting down job opportunities.
Airline Pilot Central is very useful for looking up payrates for regionals, majors, freight carriers, and fractional operators. Each company's profile also lists when the most junior captain was hired, whether the carrier is currently hiring, and in many cases provides a link to the company's career website.
The International Air Transport Association, or IATA, is a worldwide organization of major passenger and freight airlines. You may find their member directory useful as a browsing list of major airline websites - although if you are looking for a specific airline, google will obviously be quicker.
The Regional Airline Association (RAA) is an organization comprised of mostly U.S. regional airlines as well as a good many charter and freight carriers. Their memberlist is extensive and comes in quite useful while jobsearching.
The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is a good place to look if you're interested in corporate, charter, or fractional work. Their "Director of Member Companies, Aircraft, and Personnel" is invaluable for anybody pounding the pavement in search of corporate gigs, but unfortunately is only available to member companies. You may be able to find a dog-eared copy at your local FBO. Otherwise, NBAA does have a Products and Services directory online. Corporate flight departments aren't listed, but there are quite a few charter and air ambulance ops, crew leasing / contract pilot businesses, aircraft ferry outfits, and training companies. A lot of these are niche players that you might otherwise never find.
Besides ClimbTo350, you can find job listings at FindAPilot, AvCrew, CorporatePilot.com, and others. There's a pretty good comprehensive list at ThirtyThousandFeet.com.
Airline Pilot Central is very useful for looking up payrates for regionals, majors, freight carriers, and fractional operators. Each company's profile also lists when the most junior captain was hired, whether the carrier is currently hiring, and in many cases provides a link to the company's career website.
The International Air Transport Association, or IATA, is a worldwide organization of major passenger and freight airlines. You may find their member directory useful as a browsing list of major airline websites - although if you are looking for a specific airline, google will obviously be quicker.
The Regional Airline Association (RAA) is an organization comprised of mostly U.S. regional airlines as well as a good many charter and freight carriers. Their memberlist is extensive and comes in quite useful while jobsearching.
The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is a good place to look if you're interested in corporate, charter, or fractional work. Their "Director of Member Companies, Aircraft, and Personnel" is invaluable for anybody pounding the pavement in search of corporate gigs, but unfortunately is only available to member companies. You may be able to find a dog-eared copy at your local FBO. Otherwise, NBAA does have a Products and Services directory online. Corporate flight departments aren't listed, but there are quite a few charter and air ambulance ops, crew leasing / contract pilot businesses, aircraft ferry outfits, and training companies. A lot of these are niche players that you might otherwise never find.
Besides ClimbTo350, you can find job listings at FindAPilot, AvCrew, CorporatePilot.com, and others. There's a pretty good comprehensive list at ThirtyThousandFeet.com.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Landing the Job, Part I
Beginning the Hunt
There are many reasons that pilots start looking for a job. Some may have freshly minted commercial and CFI certificates in their pocket and are ready to start getting paid to fly rather than forking over their own money. Some may be concerned with lack of stability or lack of advancement at their current employer. For others, a new job might just fit into their career progression. Whichever situation you're in, the process of finding and getting a flying job is basically the same. Very few people have aviation jobs just fall into their laps - you usually have to go out and work for it.
What's Important to You?
The first step is to find all the available positions that meet your criteria. Every pilot's criteria will be somewhat different, and their emphasis on particular aspects will change over the course of their career. Here are some criteria many pilots might use:
- Pay and benefits (including travel benefits)
- Flexibility of scheduling
- Potential for advancement
- Stability of employment
- Quality of flight time (IE multi-engine, turbine PIC, etc)
- Feasibility of moving to base cities, or ease of commute.
Of course, there are two parties playing this game. You have your criteria, and so does your prospective employer. Most have minimum qualifications for pilot applicants. While these are important to know, don't consider them absolutely limiting. It's okay to apply for a job that you're short on qualifications for. If nothing else, they'll know your name by the time you meet their criteria. Be realistic, though. As a brand new CFI, there's no use in applying to Delta unless you're the chief pilot's daughter who did an internship and has a Ph.D.
Finding Open Positions
The method you use to find which employers are hiring depends on where you are in your career and which sector of aviation you're looking at. For a new CFI, it might be as easy as going down to your local airport and poking around the FBOs. Most regional, fractional, freight, and major airlines maintain public websites that publish minimum qualifications and procedures for applying. So do the major FAR 135 carriers. Outside the "mainstream" career path, finding potential employers can be a little trickier. Rather few corporate flying positions are ever publicly posted; you're most likely to hear about the job from a friend already at the company. The same goes for some of the smaller FAR 135 operations. Sometimes you'll find good job leads for obscure companies on message boards like flightinfo.com. A particularly good source of leads for contract and ex-pat pilots is www.climbto350.com. In some cases, Google and the Yellow Pages might be a good source for finding aviation companies that are otherwise staying mum about open positions.
One potentially excellent source of leads is a job fair such as those hosted by Air, Inc. or Women in Aviation. Do keep in mind that you may come face-to-face with the chief pilot at these functions, so it's important to dress and act professionally and have a professional-grade resume at the ready (more about this in a later post).
Of course, you'll be filtering these potential employers through the criteria you established at the beginning on your search. This is where having friends at the company is useful; it can be otherwise difficult to establish whether a particular job meets your criteria. Again, message boards like flightinfo can be useful, although it's important to take the disgruntled posters with a grain of salt. At this point, I recommend the "scattergun approach": the more leads you pursue, the more interviews you'll get, which gives you a better chance at a job offer.
Many times, you'll find that you need more information to apply than is publicly available. At a minimum, you should have the name, title, and mailing address of the person in charge of hiring pilots at each company. You'll also want to know minimum and competitive qualifications, when the company is planning to hire, and how many new pilots they're planning on hiring. You may need to contact somebody at the company to get this information before applying.
You might not know who to talk to, but you can usually find it out by calling the company's publicly listed number and asking to speak to the person in charge of pilot recruitment. You might speak with a functionary or you may find yourself on the line with the owner. Either way, your demeanor should be the same: utterly professional. Introduce yourself and stress that you'd like to fly for this company, but know your questions beforehand and keep it to the point. In most cases, you'll get everything you need and more. Again, even if you're not quite ready to apply to the company, just getting name recognition going is a good thing. A friend of mine first met our company's chief pilot as a newly rated instrument pilot working the ramp at Ameriflight. The chief pilot told my friend to call him when he hit 1000 hours total time, which he did - and the chief pilot recognized him and invited him to an interview.
Next post: Preparing to Apply
One potentially excellent source of leads is a job fair such as those hosted by Air, Inc. or Women in Aviation. Do keep in mind that you may come face-to-face with the chief pilot at these functions, so it's important to dress and act professionally and have a professional-grade resume at the ready (more about this in a later post).
Of course, you'll be filtering these potential employers through the criteria you established at the beginning on your search. This is where having friends at the company is useful; it can be otherwise difficult to establish whether a particular job meets your criteria. Again, message boards like flightinfo can be useful, although it's important to take the disgruntled posters with a grain of salt. At this point, I recommend the "scattergun approach": the more leads you pursue, the more interviews you'll get, which gives you a better chance at a job offer.
First Contact
Many times, you'll find that you need more information to apply than is publicly available. At a minimum, you should have the name, title, and mailing address of the person in charge of hiring pilots at each company. You'll also want to know minimum and competitive qualifications, when the company is planning to hire, and how many new pilots they're planning on hiring. You may need to contact somebody at the company to get this information before applying.
You might not know who to talk to, but you can usually find it out by calling the company's publicly listed number and asking to speak to the person in charge of pilot recruitment. You might speak with a functionary or you may find yourself on the line with the owner. Either way, your demeanor should be the same: utterly professional. Introduce yourself and stress that you'd like to fly for this company, but know your questions beforehand and keep it to the point. In most cases, you'll get everything you need and more. Again, even if you're not quite ready to apply to the company, just getting name recognition going is a good thing. A friend of mine first met our company's chief pilot as a newly rated instrument pilot working the ramp at Ameriflight. The chief pilot told my friend to call him when he hit 1000 hours total time, which he did - and the chief pilot recognized him and invited him to an interview.
Next post: Preparing to Apply
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Landing the Job
Some of the most popular posts on my blog were from the Flying Careers series I wrote in late 2005 and early 2006. I still get the occasional comment or email about it from people who thought it was a good source of information on the piloting profession. Still, the posts largely about making the decision to pursue aviation as a career, rather than providing practical information to those already working their way up the ladder. I'd like this series to pick up where "Flying Careers" left off, by talking about the process of getting hired for a flying job, whether it be your first CFI gig or dream airline job.
In this series I will discuss how to scout out available jobs, how to get an interview, preparing for and performing well in the interview, and surviving training. Many of my readers seem to be in the beginning stages of their career; I hope they find this information useful. Those who've been around the block a time or two, please feel free to chime in with your own advice, as my job-hunting experience is somewhat limited (I've interviewed for two CFI jobs, two freight dog positions, and three regional airlines).
I have my own reasons for posting this series. I've been at my airline for three years now, which is the longest I've gone without playing the hiring game; I can use a refresher. There's another reason. In the three years I've been here, I've moved a little over 1/3 of the way up the first officer seniority list. The company just revealed they're planning on upgrading only 28 FOs this year, out of 370. I'm starting to get a little concerned; if this pace continues for much longer, I need to look at other options. I'd rather not make a lateral move to another regional; I'm starting to dust off the resume and hunt for other positions that I'm qualified for. Posting about the process will discipline me to do it.
Incidently, I'm looking to get my ATP sometime soon. I would have done it a long time ago, but wasn't old enough to take the checkride when I was hired at my current airline. Does anybody have any recommendations on where to do it? Cost is a big factor; if the aircraft was a Seneca, it'd probably be much easier to do thanks to significant time in type. Thanks!
In the next post: Scouting Open Positions.
In this series I will discuss how to scout out available jobs, how to get an interview, preparing for and performing well in the interview, and surviving training. Many of my readers seem to be in the beginning stages of their career; I hope they find this information useful. Those who've been around the block a time or two, please feel free to chime in with your own advice, as my job-hunting experience is somewhat limited (I've interviewed for two CFI jobs, two freight dog positions, and three regional airlines).
I have my own reasons for posting this series. I've been at my airline for three years now, which is the longest I've gone without playing the hiring game; I can use a refresher. There's another reason. In the three years I've been here, I've moved a little over 1/3 of the way up the first officer seniority list. The company just revealed they're planning on upgrading only 28 FOs this year, out of 370. I'm starting to get a little concerned; if this pace continues for much longer, I need to look at other options. I'd rather not make a lateral move to another regional; I'm starting to dust off the resume and hunt for other positions that I'm qualified for. Posting about the process will discipline me to do it.
Incidently, I'm looking to get my ATP sometime soon. I would have done it a long time ago, but wasn't old enough to take the checkride when I was hired at my current airline. Does anybody have any recommendations on where to do it? Cost is a big factor; if the aircraft was a Seneca, it'd probably be much easier to do thanks to significant time in type. Thanks!
In the next post: Scouting Open Positions.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Happy New Year!
Well, well...it's 2007 already! Blogging over the last few weeks has been light-to-nonexistant thanks to the work-friends-family juggling act that the holiday season entails for airline pilots everywhere. But now that presents are opened, champaign toasted, and non-rev gauntlet ran, it's back to the grindstone.
I normally don't do New Years resolutions, but I did this year. I'll tell you about it in another post sometime. In the meantime, I'd like to kick off the new year with a follow-up to last year's popular series on Flying Careers. That was about aviation career progression in a rather general sense; this series will specifically explore the process of scouting, applying, and interviewing for aviation jobs. I think I'll call it "Landing the Job." Look for it in the next few weeks.
I normally don't do New Years resolutions, but I did this year. I'll tell you about it in another post sometime. In the meantime, I'd like to kick off the new year with a follow-up to last year's popular series on Flying Careers. That was about aviation career progression in a rather general sense; this series will specifically explore the process of scouting, applying, and interviewing for aviation jobs. I think I'll call it "Landing the Job." Look for it in the next few weeks.
Monday, December 18, 2006
In Defense of Unionism
Monster Post Alert!
I ended my last post by suggesting that one way pilots can improve their profession is by getting involved with their union, if they work at a unionized carrier. Predictably, this drew some criticism from anti-union commenters. I say "predictably" because airline pilots have always been rather ambivalent about their unions, and at times downright hostile. Most airlines have a few notoriously outspoken union critics among their pilots.
There are several reasons for this. First, airline pilots tend to be politically conservative, although this was more pronounced when most pilots came from the military. Secondly, pilots are often independent and opinionated, and many bristle at "others" making important decisions that affect their careers. Finally, pilots have a long and distinguished history of cheapness, and there are plenty who feel that they aren't getting anything back for their 2% dues.
Growing up, I had no great love for unions. I come from a politically conservative family, and am still conservative on many matters. When I was young, my dad was in a carpenter's union but quit it in disgust over what he saw as a culture of petty corruption and laziness; the union thereafter made life miserable for him, sabotaging his vehicle and equipment and vandalizing job sites. I accepted the fact that I'd have to join a union someday as an airline pilot, but wasn't thrilled about it. Even now that I've changed my mind in favor of unionism, I am well aware of the shortcomings of various unions, the low points in the history of the movement, and some of the practical and philosophical sticking points to the whole system we have now. I can certainly understand where people like Big Country and Ryan are coming from.
The thing is, I haven't seen any better alternatives proposed. If you're going to do away with the current system, you'd better have something to replace it with, something that does a better job of protecting the things we hold dear: our careers, the profession, and our impressive record of safety. So far I haven't seen any workable proposals that do this.
Some people, like Big Country, propose to throw ourselves upon the mercies of the "free market." First, I'm not sure that unionism is truly at odds with the "free market system". Unionized airlines do not have a monopoly, so pilots are free to go to a non-union carrier if they wish. For that matter, no single union has a monopoly; ALPA competes with APA, SWAPA, Teamsters, etc. To me, a system which prohibited workers from banding together into unions would be the one that impedes the free market; after all, businesses and businessmen regularly enter into all sorts of arrangements to increase their buying power and exploit economies of scale, and unless these arrangements result in monopolies, nobody argues that they are an impediment to the freedom of the markets. Markets do not need to have a multitude of perfectly independent agents to be free. But this is an aside....
Ryan proclaims that we're in the information age, with the inference that codgy old unionism is not up to the demands of a dynamic, productive free market economy. An example that one might give is that of computer programmers, heroes of the new information age. Rather few programmers are unionized. Their job protection is according to their degree of competence. Productivity is rewarded: the best programmers are headhunted in a very free job market, where they can almost name their salary. Many change jobs regularly; some of the smartest become independent contractors and hire out to the highest bidder. The free market can be very good to smart programmers.
There is a temptation to take what's happening in the vibrant tech sector and proclaim it a "new paradigm" that applies to all industries and professions, including the airline world and professional piloting. There are a few glaring problems with doing so, ways in which aviation is very unlike the tech sector.
First, the free market rewards those who are seen as the most productive. In aviation, the most productive pilot is not necessarily the best pilot. One can be very productive by cutting corners when they think they can get away with it, bending the rules a little when they think nobody's watching. You could get away with it for years, and you'd be management's absolute favorite pilot. Meanwhile, the pilot who scrupulously follows the rules, takes his time, refuses to be rushed, and makes smart decisions is going to be less productive. Nevertheless, he is the better pilot. While the union system might not get him ahead, it will not penalize him either, and the pilots' unions at the airlines have been a primary factor in fostering the safety culture that exists today.
Secondly, a truly free labor market is dependent on workers being able to switch jobs easily with few penalties. If a good computer programmer is underpaid, he can be doing the same job elsewhere for more money next week; losing productive programmers is eventually going to force his former employer to up their wages. But computer programmers everywhere do essentially the same job, Nine to Five, Monday through Friday. Pilots do not. Airlines need pilots 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. They need both first officers and captains. Because of this, seniority is just as important as salary, making for a powerful disincentive to switch jobs. An airline system without unions would not be a free labor market, just one in which management had all the mechanisms of control.
Ever since aviation began, it's been a nasty, brutish business. Ryan mentioned the book Hard Landing; it is an excellent chronicle of some of the uglier turns the industry has taken. The people who managed the early airlines were a hard nosed lot that didn't mind breaking rules and even racking up a body count in the search for elusive profits. Pilots were often seen as an obstacle in this quest, always gumming up the works with complaints about weather or maintenance or fatigue. Government oversight was minimal. In this free market, no manager thought twice about firing a pilot who wasn't compliant enough, not "productive" enough. This attitude led directly to the formation of the first pilot unions - a free market reaction if I ever saw one. But that was 70 years ago, you protest; times have changed and the reasons that led to unions no longer exist. Don't they? Profits are just as elusive. Ryan was spot on in his assessment of much of the upper management throughout the industry today. Given the opportunity, I think many of them would easily revert to the habits of their early predecessors, and the flying profession would suffer greatly in all regards.
Both Ryan and BC put the blame elsewhere. Ryan says that unions "combat the power of a team and ultimately hinder relationships between labor and management." BC suggests that unions killed the legacies by demanding higher wages than revenues could support, although to his credit he acknowledges the role management had to play. Now, there's a kernel of truth in both statements. The relationship unions have with management is often combative. I won't say it's always management's fault or entirely their fault, but there is a definite correlation between management's aggressiveness with labor and labor's aggressiveness with management. "Enlightened" CEOs like Kelleher and Bethune mostly kept things amicable with their unionized work groups and rewarded their employees when the company prospered; the unions responded in kind by showing flexibility and bargaining in good faith. Where management took an aggressive stance and tried to screw over their employee groups at every turn, those employees elected combative union leaders who sometimes took things farther than was good for the company or the employees. The painful concessions of the early 90's that went unrewarded in the mid 90's produced the prohibitively expensive contracts of the late 90's, which contributed - along with considerable mismanagement - to the legacies' current troubles, as BC mentioned.
The fact that this unhealthy cycle has taken place at some unionized airlines - does it condemn the unions, perhaps even the very principles of unionism? What role did management play in all this? Let's say that a Crandall or a Ferris was successful at breaking their pilots' union. Would they have suddenly blossomed into a benevolent Kelleher once the money was theirs for the taking? I think not. If anything, breaking the union at Continental made Lorenzo even more ravenous.
Of course, there are non-union carriers out there, and my dire predictions haven't played out there, have they? Ryan says he's going to work at a non-union carrier, and I applaud him for putting his money where his mouth is, so to speak. But I wonder if his non-union carrier would treat their pilots nearly so well if it wasn't for the hard work unions have done at all the other carriers. Management at Skywest, Allegiant, and even jetBlue offer their pilots just enough to keep unions off their property. What would happen if that disincentive was removed?
BC says that "strong unions don't make strong pilots, they make strong unions." In other words, they are for-profit organizations that are no better than management in screwing over workers for money. Again, there is a kernel of truth here. The main organizations have attracted a lot of greedy and corrupt individuals over the years - my own union, the Teamsters, got so bad it was put in federal trusteeship for a time. Even rather uncorrupted organizations like ALPA have shown favoritism towards whoever is paying the most dues money, principles be hanged. But the real strength of a union lies with its active membership, the volunteer pilots who serve and lead at the local level. This is where most of the decisions are made and where most of the work is done - and these pilots usually have only the interests of the membership in mind.
Unions are by no means perfect. Their history is spotted, their imperfections are currently glaring, and I doubt they'll be really fantastic in the future. In short, they are a human institution. They did a great deal of good in building up the aviation industry and the piloting profession - and they've done plenty to screw both up lately, too. That doesn't mean they should be discarded entirely. Aviation history has shown them to be all too necessary. We do, however, need to work to improve them. That's why I suggested that new pilots resolve to get involved in their unions: not because those unions are so great, but because we need them to be better for the good of the profession. There are encouraging signs. ALPA members just elected a reform-minded President. Teamsters Local 747 members, including myself, just elected an Executive Board with a reformist majority. I'm personally volunteering for my union as an editor and writer for our quarterly periodical, and I'm seeing more young pilots become similarly involved. Things like this make me hopeful that we'll be able to stem the tide using the system in place now - which is good, because I haven't seen any realistic alternative.
In short - I'd rather patch the roof than tear down the house and pray for sunny weather.
(...and that's the only short thing about this post!)
I ended my last post by suggesting that one way pilots can improve their profession is by getting involved with their union, if they work at a unionized carrier. Predictably, this drew some criticism from anti-union commenters. I say "predictably" because airline pilots have always been rather ambivalent about their unions, and at times downright hostile. Most airlines have a few notoriously outspoken union critics among their pilots.
There are several reasons for this. First, airline pilots tend to be politically conservative, although this was more pronounced when most pilots came from the military. Secondly, pilots are often independent and opinionated, and many bristle at "others" making important decisions that affect their careers. Finally, pilots have a long and distinguished history of cheapness, and there are plenty who feel that they aren't getting anything back for their 2% dues.
Growing up, I had no great love for unions. I come from a politically conservative family, and am still conservative on many matters. When I was young, my dad was in a carpenter's union but quit it in disgust over what he saw as a culture of petty corruption and laziness; the union thereafter made life miserable for him, sabotaging his vehicle and equipment and vandalizing job sites. I accepted the fact that I'd have to join a union someday as an airline pilot, but wasn't thrilled about it. Even now that I've changed my mind in favor of unionism, I am well aware of the shortcomings of various unions, the low points in the history of the movement, and some of the practical and philosophical sticking points to the whole system we have now. I can certainly understand where people like Big Country and Ryan are coming from.
The thing is, I haven't seen any better alternatives proposed. If you're going to do away with the current system, you'd better have something to replace it with, something that does a better job of protecting the things we hold dear: our careers, the profession, and our impressive record of safety. So far I haven't seen any workable proposals that do this.
Some people, like Big Country, propose to throw ourselves upon the mercies of the "free market." First, I'm not sure that unionism is truly at odds with the "free market system". Unionized airlines do not have a monopoly, so pilots are free to go to a non-union carrier if they wish. For that matter, no single union has a monopoly; ALPA competes with APA, SWAPA, Teamsters, etc. To me, a system which prohibited workers from banding together into unions would be the one that impedes the free market; after all, businesses and businessmen regularly enter into all sorts of arrangements to increase their buying power and exploit economies of scale, and unless these arrangements result in monopolies, nobody argues that they are an impediment to the freedom of the markets. Markets do not need to have a multitude of perfectly independent agents to be free. But this is an aside....
Ryan proclaims that we're in the information age, with the inference that codgy old unionism is not up to the demands of a dynamic, productive free market economy. An example that one might give is that of computer programmers, heroes of the new information age. Rather few programmers are unionized. Their job protection is according to their degree of competence. Productivity is rewarded: the best programmers are headhunted in a very free job market, where they can almost name their salary. Many change jobs regularly; some of the smartest become independent contractors and hire out to the highest bidder. The free market can be very good to smart programmers.
There is a temptation to take what's happening in the vibrant tech sector and proclaim it a "new paradigm" that applies to all industries and professions, including the airline world and professional piloting. There are a few glaring problems with doing so, ways in which aviation is very unlike the tech sector.
First, the free market rewards those who are seen as the most productive. In aviation, the most productive pilot is not necessarily the best pilot. One can be very productive by cutting corners when they think they can get away with it, bending the rules a little when they think nobody's watching. You could get away with it for years, and you'd be management's absolute favorite pilot. Meanwhile, the pilot who scrupulously follows the rules, takes his time, refuses to be rushed, and makes smart decisions is going to be less productive. Nevertheless, he is the better pilot. While the union system might not get him ahead, it will not penalize him either, and the pilots' unions at the airlines have been a primary factor in fostering the safety culture that exists today.
Secondly, a truly free labor market is dependent on workers being able to switch jobs easily with few penalties. If a good computer programmer is underpaid, he can be doing the same job elsewhere for more money next week; losing productive programmers is eventually going to force his former employer to up their wages. But computer programmers everywhere do essentially the same job, Nine to Five, Monday through Friday. Pilots do not. Airlines need pilots 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. They need both first officers and captains. Because of this, seniority is just as important as salary, making for a powerful disincentive to switch jobs. An airline system without unions would not be a free labor market, just one in which management had all the mechanisms of control.
Ever since aviation began, it's been a nasty, brutish business. Ryan mentioned the book Hard Landing; it is an excellent chronicle of some of the uglier turns the industry has taken. The people who managed the early airlines were a hard nosed lot that didn't mind breaking rules and even racking up a body count in the search for elusive profits. Pilots were often seen as an obstacle in this quest, always gumming up the works with complaints about weather or maintenance or fatigue. Government oversight was minimal. In this free market, no manager thought twice about firing a pilot who wasn't compliant enough, not "productive" enough. This attitude led directly to the formation of the first pilot unions - a free market reaction if I ever saw one. But that was 70 years ago, you protest; times have changed and the reasons that led to unions no longer exist. Don't they? Profits are just as elusive. Ryan was spot on in his assessment of much of the upper management throughout the industry today. Given the opportunity, I think many of them would easily revert to the habits of their early predecessors, and the flying profession would suffer greatly in all regards.
Both Ryan and BC put the blame elsewhere. Ryan says that unions "combat the power of a team and ultimately hinder relationships between labor and management." BC suggests that unions killed the legacies by demanding higher wages than revenues could support, although to his credit he acknowledges the role management had to play. Now, there's a kernel of truth in both statements. The relationship unions have with management is often combative. I won't say it's always management's fault or entirely their fault, but there is a definite correlation between management's aggressiveness with labor and labor's aggressiveness with management. "Enlightened" CEOs like Kelleher and Bethune mostly kept things amicable with their unionized work groups and rewarded their employees when the company prospered; the unions responded in kind by showing flexibility and bargaining in good faith. Where management took an aggressive stance and tried to screw over their employee groups at every turn, those employees elected combative union leaders who sometimes took things farther than was good for the company or the employees. The painful concessions of the early 90's that went unrewarded in the mid 90's produced the prohibitively expensive contracts of the late 90's, which contributed - along with considerable mismanagement - to the legacies' current troubles, as BC mentioned.
The fact that this unhealthy cycle has taken place at some unionized airlines - does it condemn the unions, perhaps even the very principles of unionism? What role did management play in all this? Let's say that a Crandall or a Ferris was successful at breaking their pilots' union. Would they have suddenly blossomed into a benevolent Kelleher once the money was theirs for the taking? I think not. If anything, breaking the union at Continental made Lorenzo even more ravenous.
Of course, there are non-union carriers out there, and my dire predictions haven't played out there, have they? Ryan says he's going to work at a non-union carrier, and I applaud him for putting his money where his mouth is, so to speak. But I wonder if his non-union carrier would treat their pilots nearly so well if it wasn't for the hard work unions have done at all the other carriers. Management at Skywest, Allegiant, and even jetBlue offer their pilots just enough to keep unions off their property. What would happen if that disincentive was removed?
BC says that "strong unions don't make strong pilots, they make strong unions." In other words, they are for-profit organizations that are no better than management in screwing over workers for money. Again, there is a kernel of truth here. The main organizations have attracted a lot of greedy and corrupt individuals over the years - my own union, the Teamsters, got so bad it was put in federal trusteeship for a time. Even rather uncorrupted organizations like ALPA have shown favoritism towards whoever is paying the most dues money, principles be hanged. But the real strength of a union lies with its active membership, the volunteer pilots who serve and lead at the local level. This is where most of the decisions are made and where most of the work is done - and these pilots usually have only the interests of the membership in mind.
Unions are by no means perfect. Their history is spotted, their imperfections are currently glaring, and I doubt they'll be really fantastic in the future. In short, they are a human institution. They did a great deal of good in building up the aviation industry and the piloting profession - and they've done plenty to screw both up lately, too. That doesn't mean they should be discarded entirely. Aviation history has shown them to be all too necessary. We do, however, need to work to improve them. That's why I suggested that new pilots resolve to get involved in their unions: not because those unions are so great, but because we need them to be better for the good of the profession. There are encouraging signs. ALPA members just elected a reform-minded President. Teamsters Local 747 members, including myself, just elected an Executive Board with a reformist majority. I'm personally volunteering for my union as an editor and writer for our quarterly periodical, and I'm seeing more young pilots become similarly involved. Things like this make me hopeful that we'll be able to stem the tide using the system in place now - which is good, because I haven't seen any realistic alternative.
In short - I'd rather patch the roof than tear down the house and pray for sunny weather.
(...and that's the only short thing about this post!)
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Make It Better
My last post and the response in the comments section made me realize something today.
I'm really getting tired of moaning and complaining about the downfall of the airline industry and the piloting profession.
True, things have become worse the last few years. Yes, old-timers would be appallled to see how far the profession has fallen. And yes, anybody considering a career in aviation needs to take a good look at the true cost of this career before jumping in.
But the reality is, it can still be a pretty good career. I very much enjoy what I do for a living. It's usually interesting, I work with great people, and I see breathtaking sights every day. Even at the "regional" level, it's paying the bills and I'm living comfortably, albeit with two incomes and without kids. I've had some neat adventures here and abroad thanks to this job.
Furthermore, I should be about the last guy to talk about the uncertainty and suffering that an aviation career can bring, because I haven't experienced any of it. The worst I've dealt with is some unexpected time freight-dogging, a little time in a hiring pool that didn't pan out, and the prospect of a longer-than-average upgrade. Boo-freaking-hoo. To learn about the worst that aviation can do, there are plenty of furloughees and merger survivors and newly pensionless retirees you can talk to. I really have no right to do so.
But the main reason I'm tired of complaining is that it really doesn't change anything. My blog posts, crew room gripe-fests, flightinfo.com bitterness - has it all done anything to reverse the slide? I'm not sure it has. What are we expecting to achieve, anyhow? Are we hoping that by making aviation look so horrible, we'll shrink the incoming labor pool and thereby improve our lot? If so, it's dishonest and unfair. Having achieved our goals, it's hypocritical to deny others theirs. When nice guys like LoadmasterC141 want to get into flying, I should be encouraging him, not dissuading him.
None of this is to say we should ignore the problems bedeviling aviation. It might still be a decent field but if the present slide continues, it will not always be. The generation that came before us did a pretty lousy job; we need to do better.This starts with educating the pilots coming up through the ranks. Those of us currently at the airlines need to do a better job of reaching out to those just starting their own careers, helping them in their advancement as well as educating them in the history and responsibilities of their chosen profession. Without hitting them over the head with gloom and doom, we need to make it clear to them that the future of this career is in their hands, and depends on them rolling up their sleeves and getting involved.
So those of you who are new to aviation, who are considering a career as a pilot, who are working their way up the ladder: I apologize for occasionally discouraging your dreams with gloomy pronouncements of what a shambles aviation is in. I should be encouraging and helping you. At the same time, I do want to urge you to get informed on what's going on in your profession, and do your part to make it better. "What can I do?" you ask. In general terms, consider yourself a caretaker of the profession and resolve to leave it better than you found it. Consider the effects each of your choices has not only on your career but also on those who come after you. Specifically, once you work at a unionized carrier, get involved in your union. They're only as good as their volunteers. They can use your skills. No part is too trivial - even seemingly boring jobs free up resources for other important tasks. This is a small price to pay for a rewarding career and a job that you love.
I'm really getting tired of moaning and complaining about the downfall of the airline industry and the piloting profession.
True, things have become worse the last few years. Yes, old-timers would be appallled to see how far the profession has fallen. And yes, anybody considering a career in aviation needs to take a good look at the true cost of this career before jumping in.
But the reality is, it can still be a pretty good career. I very much enjoy what I do for a living. It's usually interesting, I work with great people, and I see breathtaking sights every day. Even at the "regional" level, it's paying the bills and I'm living comfortably, albeit with two incomes and without kids. I've had some neat adventures here and abroad thanks to this job.
Furthermore, I should be about the last guy to talk about the uncertainty and suffering that an aviation career can bring, because I haven't experienced any of it. The worst I've dealt with is some unexpected time freight-dogging, a little time in a hiring pool that didn't pan out, and the prospect of a longer-than-average upgrade. Boo-freaking-hoo. To learn about the worst that aviation can do, there are plenty of furloughees and merger survivors and newly pensionless retirees you can talk to. I really have no right to do so.
But the main reason I'm tired of complaining is that it really doesn't change anything. My blog posts, crew room gripe-fests, flightinfo.com bitterness - has it all done anything to reverse the slide? I'm not sure it has. What are we expecting to achieve, anyhow? Are we hoping that by making aviation look so horrible, we'll shrink the incoming labor pool and thereby improve our lot? If so, it's dishonest and unfair. Having achieved our goals, it's hypocritical to deny others theirs. When nice guys like LoadmasterC141 want to get into flying, I should be encouraging him, not dissuading him.
None of this is to say we should ignore the problems bedeviling aviation. It might still be a decent field but if the present slide continues, it will not always be. The generation that came before us did a pretty lousy job; we need to do better.This starts with educating the pilots coming up through the ranks. Those of us currently at the airlines need to do a better job of reaching out to those just starting their own careers, helping them in their advancement as well as educating them in the history and responsibilities of their chosen profession. Without hitting them over the head with gloom and doom, we need to make it clear to them that the future of this career is in their hands, and depends on them rolling up their sleeves and getting involved.
So those of you who are new to aviation, who are considering a career as a pilot, who are working their way up the ladder: I apologize for occasionally discouraging your dreams with gloomy pronouncements of what a shambles aviation is in. I should be encouraging and helping you. At the same time, I do want to urge you to get informed on what's going on in your profession, and do your part to make it better. "What can I do?" you ask. In general terms, consider yourself a caretaker of the profession and resolve to leave it better than you found it. Consider the effects each of your choices has not only on your career but also on those who come after you. Specifically, once you work at a unionized carrier, get involved in your union. They're only as good as their volunteers. They can use your skills. No part is too trivial - even seemingly boring jobs free up resources for other important tasks. This is a small price to pay for a rewarding career and a job that you love.
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