How to Email a resume

[disaviation]

to Pilots that are looking for employment:

I recently advertised looking for a Pilot. I have had several great resumes. I want to give my advice as to what really works to get attention.

I received over 30 emails;

the majority had little to say in the text of the email,

some had ZERO to say and just an attachment that I could not OPEN,

And a couple wrote a nice bit right in the text of the email with a PDF file attached.

I know you will have best results with the latter.

Sincerely
Tom

[moocow]

Wow. How hard is it to say "I would like to express my interest in applying for this position. Attached with this email is a copy of my cover letter and resume for your review and consideration"?

[Beefitarian]

Well moo it depends a bit on what you're doing. Applying for a job you heard about and want is one email. Not too tough.

Carpet bomb spamming a 7000 employer email list desperately hoping to get a call makes it a bit more work.

[DanWEC]

And there lies what can be perceived as a bit of a conundrum... making every single damn resume count. It's daunting, and this is a ridiculous industry. It's tough, but an absolute necessity.
Just think about the end result. What good is 200 useless wastes of time that will each get clicked to the trash can, even though that took you about 50 hours to do? Complete waste of time... but it does thin the field for the people who are really, genuinely TRYING to get that job. I can see taking a few pointless half ass stabs here and there if you don't want the job too badly for whatever reasons, and your just fishing, but that's a bit of a pain.
Even spending that same 50 hours on 50 proper resumes, with personalized cover letter, a nice note+thank you, and a follow up, is so much more effective.
If you can't take the effort to represent yourself to a prospective employer, you are wasting their time, and it's a showcase of what your work ethic is like.
I've hired plenty of people outside of aviation.... but take my advice for what you paid for it, as I'm currently unemployed as a pilot.

Thanks for starting this thread, it is great to see someone who wants to give back a bit as an employer. Genuinely admired.

[Beefitarian]

Are you saying not to text?

R U hiring.. I has 300 hrz

[Wacko]

I always cut/pasted the main part of my cover letter into the body of the e-mail and added a doc attachment of the complete cover letter and CV.

[alti2d]

I second Wacko's method. I include the cover letter and a cut and paste version of my resume (so that it's properly formatted for email), then include Word doc attachments of the cover letter and resume as a two page, single attachment. I like the pdf file idea though.

[767]

What I dont understand is that even when someone succesfully sends in a resume and gets hired, they are usually off to the next job within 2 weeks or 2 years. So why does it really matter how you send the resume if you are not committed in the first place? A simple phone call or email to the employer should be sufficient to get an interview, and the interview itself should be the resume. Anyone can go online and copy and paste a resume that looks good, and edit a few words here and there. I understand there are million applicants, but there should be a better system than trashing out resumes. I mean, some of those guys/gals worked hard, while some just put ink in the log book but learned nothing and probably have the same shitty habits.

Im just sharing my opinion, no offense to anyone. I just believe that only those who work hard, show commitment, know what customer service is about, etc. etc. should be the ones getting hired. Where you trained, who you know, etc should not matter when getting hired.

End.

[trey kule]

Let me share a bit of this from the other end of the stick, so to speak.

A resume normally will not get your hired. It should get you an interview where all the details and questions are dealt with.

As to hiring. The more organized companies have a process which they go through, where the pilots are looked at first of all, to see that they meet the mnimum requirements. While I find it almost impossible to get new pilots to understand this, the people that will be hiring you normally have other duties and things to do..Phone calls, are interruptions.
They dont account for much as the company wants to have a look at all the resumes. So a phone call does not get you to the top of the pile..This does not only seem to be me, as you will see ad after ad where they specify no phone calls..Some pilots just dont get this, and rationalize it one way or the other. My position is that you either a. Cant read and understand simple words like..dont, or b. you simply dont give a rats ass about anybody but yourself and your job search. The conclusion to both thoughts are not to hire.

What does your resume say about you? I do not mean how many hours, scout badges etc. But about your personality.
In broad strokes companies normally are looking for maturity, experience (life), and of course, the necessary flight prerequisites. How do you suppose it comes across when you send a "cutsy".....mature, or dumb ass silly? Do I want a 20 year old, playful type as a crew member on a multi million dollar aircraft? Will I be able to trust them not going for a joy ride, doing buzz jobs, or having fun in the 185 when they are flying by themselves?
Think about phrases like "I am wanting to learn" vs...I am wanting to work hard and do a good job"
Think about phrases like "I have xxxxxx experience in this or that, with a total time of 250 hrs..Do you really believe that (dangerous attitude), or do you think that the person hiring believes it (a bit offensive). Chances are that they know pretty much what experience a 250 hour pilot has.

Dont BS...I have seen resumes where a non IFR , non type rated , CPL claimed time in a plane that is not normally flown VFR and requires a type rating...Dont say you have tailwheel time, type on a specific type etc., unless you really do.
If you claim time on any plane that requires a PPC, make sure you can back it up with type specfic training to differentiate you from the guys that jumped in the right seat on a bag run, and then logged it.

The bottom line, is your resume can do you as much damage, as it can do you good. Others have set out some very good hints on how to prepare it, so I wont go into that.

Best of luck to all those that are looking for jobs right now.

[xsbank]

Good comments, Trey. I'd just like to add that many prospective candidates apply for jobs that aren't advertised and are doing cold calls. A follow-up call after a mailed resume may be annoying to the company but its just good sense for the candidate as this country is just too large to pop in for a visit. Usually a polite PFO on the phone is all that is needed if there are to be no calls, but please don't jump to conclusions about character based on a candidate's phone call.

I have heard that you need to send an average of 100 resumes to get one bite. That is pretty poor odds and verges on the "right sperm at the right egg" category.

It has never gotten any easier to get that first aviation job and it only gets incrementally easier for the next, and the next after that. Eagerness, excitement and frustration are inevitable after that long rush to get trained then the long, slow, evil search for meaningful work; although I deplore bad grammar, poor spelling and, well, embellishing resumes, some of these annoyances have got to be inevitable and understandable.

The only good thing about this process for the company is that many candidates are performing self-natural-selection!

[esp803]

PDF is your friend! Also check spelling, grammar and layout of the resume. Unless you are the supreme commander of an intergalactic battleship, one page should suffice. I generally have two PDFs (a cover letter and a resume), labelled esp803 -Cover letter and esp803 - CV respectively. The body of the email usually entails the entire cover letter. I know this seems redundant, but it seems to work.

E