Emailed Resumes

[TG]

Then you would eliminate all that can't speak your language.

I hope sometime you all give a little slack for a spelling or two mistakes when a resume comes from Quebec. Or if a last name seems to imply that English may not be his or her first language.
Things like that..

Especially at "starting" companies.
But no excuse when applying for big 705 ones, at this stage a person should be able to master English as second language.

[SuperchargedRS]

It's like that old joke, "Please God, I want to win the lottery!" "Meet me halfway, buy a ticket!"

Supercharged, what sort of person would you like to fly you? Detail-oriented, checks his work, gets it correct, does his research to learn his subject?

You seem to prefer someone who is lazy, slapdash, feckless, irresponsible, sloppy?

At the risk of repetition, pilots don't have to be formally educated, but they have to have many of the attributes of the educated. They have to be dedicated, detail-oriented, conscientious, prudent and have the ability to analyze and make a decision. How else, from a selection of 100 or so pilots standing in front of you, do you find the one or two that will be good employees? Have you got weeks to get to know them all? Usually, you would eliminate all those who dress funny or don't groom themselves. Then you would eliminate all that can't speak your language. Then you would eliminate all those who don't have the experience you need. Etc etc.

You can do this faster with a resume and a cover that you can read.

So, if your resume is scruffy, covered with errors, over-complicated etc., it gets eliminated. It won't be read at all.

It's your choice.

I understand, and agree to a point, if there is some silly little typo mistake, something like "I got by type rating at XYZ" vs "I got MY type rating at XYZ" that shouldn't change your opinion of a applicant.

Now if the entire CV is in texting lingo, "I went 2 flight school and would like to work 4 u" yeah, round bin it.

As a ATP/Instructor/Medic and real college grad, I'd like to think I'm a good catch for a employer and my current job seems to agree...that said, plenty of college educated folks who can write one heck of a CV who I wouldn't even trust to drive a lawn mower.

I'd pick a pilot based on the content of their CV (shy of huge grammatical errors), move up to a phone or face to face and go from there.

[xsbank]

Thing is, all the resume does is get you in front of the guy who will hire you. You still have to interview and pass the drug test etc etc etc.

But if your resume is poor, The process stops.

I have read stuff from very experienced pilots where you had to hunt and scratch to find out how many hours they've got. Or what license they've got. Really.

Do you think most hiring people will bother if there is 50 or more resumes on their desk?

[Redneck_pilot86]

Personally, I like to see the cover letter as the body of the email, and the resume as an attachment, .doc or .pdf. File needs to be something not generic, so that I don't end up with a folder and 15 files called "resume.pdf"

I like the cover letter to be in the body of the email, as sometimes I read them on my phone. I have a blackberry, which is just shy of completely useless for opening any kind of attachment, and sometimes emails get lost in the shuffle if I try to read it on my phone and can't.

Grammar does matter, this is not a text to your girlfriend or a post on Avcanada. You have the time to go over it before you send it off. Attention to detail matters in this line of work, and your resume is my first indication of how much you care. Also, if you send a resume to more than one employer, don't do it all in one email CC'd to every company you can spell.

Another feature I like is the actual subject line of the email. I am not interested in hiring 200 hour pilots. I like the subject line to give me some indication of what is inside. Something like "2400 TT 2200 PIC pilot resume" is great.

Don't write a generic cover letter. Tailor it to the company you are applying for. Don't apply to HR at a mom and pop operation. Don't apply for a first officer position on a 172. Try to have the appearance of wanting the job you are applying for, even if you are desperately spamming every company in Canada.

If you cold call me about a job, I am most likely going to tell you to email a resume. I don't have time to spend 30 minutes answering questions for every unqualified pilot that calls. If you have sent me a resume and call to follow up on it, it is a different story. Then I know who you are, and have a rough idea as to whether we might have a place for you or not.

[rob-air]

But no excuse when applying for big 705 ones, at this stage a person should be able to master English ...or french...as second language.

every pilot in canada at 705 level should master both officilal languages used in canada.....

I understand, and agree to a point, if there is some silly little typo mistake, something like "I got by type rating at XYZ" vs "I got MY type rating at XYZ" that shouldn't change your opinion of a applicant.

It wont, he is type rated!

Now how about using actual paper and mailing it, like a nice handwriten letter on jet fuel scented parchment paper. Extra pionts if paired with a box of chocolats fins de luxes.

[YYZSaabGuy]

every pilot in canada at 705 level should master both officilal languages used in canada.....

Why?

[rob-air]

Why?..well last time I checked Canada is BI. How are you going to order coffee at a timbo in the french speaking parts.

[glorifieddriver]

Why?..well last time I checked Canada is BI. How are you going to order coffee at a timbo in the french speaking parts.

Easy in English!!! Bi-Lingual means two languages...means you should be able to get service in either one

[YYZSaabGuy]

Why?..well last time I checked Canada is BI. How are you going to order coffee at a timbo in the french speaking parts.

Using that logic, shouldn't everybody in Canada be bilingual?
Why pick on 705 pilots?

[rob-air]

hahaha makes sense.....let me rephrase, every timbo employee suceptible of serving canadian 705 level pilots should master both canadian official languages.


My point exactly, lets have a big BI-Nation.

[glorifieddriver]

hahaha makes sense.....let me rephrase, every timbo employee suceptible of serving canadian 705 level pilots should master both canadian official languages.


My point exactly, lets have a big BI-Nation.

You made it sound like something else completely! Let's switch the topic back to the actual topic of the thread before it gets really bad!

[digits_]

I think what Digits is saying is, if you are going to take someone's time to talk about a job and say you are going to send a resume in, then do it. I can't think of a single anecdote that I know of, of someone who was hired entirely on word of mouth without a resume by a CP or DFO that didn't know you from God (sorry, we are pilots, it's assumed we are all gods right?).

So, without sending a resume you basically have zero chance of being hired.

Yes, exactly. The only alternative in this case would be that we contact you telepathically when a job opens up, because you are too lazy to send a resume

[Gear Jerker]

So assuming that you're sending in the two-in-one pdf resume/cover letter combination, what should the email itself contain, aside from a basic greeting.... attached is my CV and cover letter, etc.?

[cdnpilot77]

So assuming that you're sending in the two-in-one pdf resume/cover letter combination, what should the email itself contain, aside from a basic greeting.... attached is my CV and cover letter, etc.?

From my experience in going through 150+ resumes after having an ad out for less than a week, I would say it is highly unlikely that the body of the email will get more than a quick scan if it's anything other than a line or 2 long.

When I sent out resumes, I usually added in that both resume and cover are attached as a single file and in 1 line find some way in which you relate to the company or the CP or someone in the company to get into the left pile instead of the right (yikes....the right pile ). It's worked pretty well for me so far.

[xsbank]

Why would you send a letter saying you sent a letter?

As a CP, you are shopping to purchase somebody's labour. A bunch of people have some labour to sell. You know yourself how frustrating it is when you get into a website that offers to sell you something great, that you think you might want, but goes on for three pages then says you have to email to get the price? DELETE.

Why not just read the email? If it's an effective email/cover letter, [like the ones I write! 8^)] it will tell you what you want to know right then. You will know immediately if the applicant is a potential employee, or not, in just a glance. If he isn't, delete. If he is, read the resume!

The resume can be attached, so you can see all the hard work that went into making it readable.

The cover letter is the hook. It should tell you all you need to know about the candidate. Why write some useless stuff that isn't relevant, adds to the load of the CP (you've got lots of time to read emails, right?) and basically doesn't tell you anything useful? A letter to entice you to read the letter which will lead you to the resume?

Don't you think if the cover letter is the content of the email, it will make the CP's job easier? If you opened an envelope with a letter in it inviting you to read the cover letter and the resume? How many of those could you read before you took up serious drinking?

What, then, is the purpose of the "cover letter?" It's to get you to decide if the candidate is suitable and to get you to read the resume, which has details and references and such, without any bullsh*t!

So why insist on an email to get you to read the cover? I think it's pointless and a waste of time.

[angry inch]

I'm neither HR or CP, but that just makes too much sense! Less is more...

[cdnpilot77]

Xsbank,

I guess it depends if you are an old school Cp/hr or not. If I want to print off the resumes and covers, then Having them in separate files or one as an attachment and one as the body of the email is a pain in the a$$. You yourself said You want them to read the resume, the meat and potatoes of highlighting your experience, but then you say write the cover as the body of the email?

Maybe I misread your statement after taking some NyQuil and getting rudely awoken by the neighbours idiot friends doing burnouts in front Of my house, but wouldn't doing the cover letter as the body of the email be exactly counter to what you want? You want a cp to read the meat and potatoes of your resume and then hopefully go on to the fluff. Feeding him a bunch of fluff before he opens the resume attachment might just get your resume round binned. I never printed off any of the email bodies when selecting resumes to pull, it was always just a PIA to be able to compare to proper word/PDF resumes and cover letters. For that reason, when we put out a job ad, we specifically ask that resumes be sent in word or PDFs.