Job for sale

[eagle5]

Look I'm not completely against the boatpix thing, I do understand that if you can't find work and have an extra $25k lying around after training it could be your last hope of getting in.

 

However a job you have to pay to get does not belong on the job board! Come on man!

[WolftalonID]

I wish Walmart offered opportunities like this....it wouldnt be for everyone, but it would "really help those that take advantage of the training"!

[avbug]

Flying jobs that must be bought aren't really jobs; when one is paying to be the employee of a company, one isn't really an employee. One isn't even an intern. One is a client. A paying client.

 

A number of companies engage in this practice; it's underhanded, pathetic and poor, and it does no favors to those who avail themselves of this system. It lowers the bar for everyone.

 

Too often, the ones who wail the loudest about low industry wages are those who have helped lower that bar across the board, by buying a job. These pathetic individuals figured to cut to the head of the line, take the "shortcut" by accepting sub par wages, or worse, buying their job, and they went to the bottom feeders that were more than happy to take their money. Later, they whine about the low wages; they're professionals, they claim, they're worth more. They might be, if they hadn't made a bold statement to the world that they're not worth paying; that operators can get away with charging "employees" to come to work. Having defecated in their own bed, it's time to lie in it.

 

There are operators out there who will immediately round-file a resume if it contains pay-to-play "work history." I've chucked a number of them myself, and I know a number of individuals in aviation who won't give an applicant the time of day if the applicant has bought a job along the way.

 

When an applicant comes to the table, hat in hand, looking for work, one takes a good look at that applicant's background and history. If that applicant has competed for sought-after jobs and obtained and kept the job based on good performance, superior airmanship, and ongoing evaluation and training, it's a good indicator of the quality that other employers have seen in that applicant. If instead the applicant has elected to pay money to get a job, it also speaks volumes about the applicant; what's wrong with him that he couldn't get a job like the rest of us? Is he so poor, so low in quality, so objectionable, so unsafe, has such a poor attitude, is so antisocial, or is so undesirable that the only way he could find work was to buy a job? With so many applicants from which to choose, those who elect to buy a job, or who have worked for operators known to sell jobs, immediately lose their credibility and go to the bottom of the pile, (or in the wastebasket). Why waste time with them?

 

Tens of thousands of us have made a career by working for it; gaining experience, flight time, hours, type ratings, and all the other aspects that slowly shape us into marketable professionals. We demonstrate through the years a history of reliability, honesty, professionalism, and ability, and show it by our employment history, our continuous record of training, checking, and evaluation. We've covered the steps in the various career tracks of paths we've taken, moving upward toward the job we want, the paycheck we want, the location or aircraft we want, until able to obtain it, without ever having any need to pay someone money to say we've "worked" for them.

 

Some years ago I worked for a company flying Learjets. We obtained a couple of Gulfstreams, which in the fixed wing world, are the upper end of corporate type turbojet aircraft. In a conversation with the Chief Pilot one day, I learned that some consideration was being given to selling the right seat to time builders, people looking to log some jet experience. I told the chief pilot that the moment they did it, I quit, and he could consider my standing resignation to be on the table.

 

"Look at it this way," he said. "If I offered you a chance to fly the Gulfstream on condition that you buy the type rating, wouldn't you do it in a heartbeat?"

 

I told him absolutely not. What if he doubled my salary, he asked. No. Not at triple. No chance I'd waste a minute working for a company that asked that of an employee or potential employee, or that put such a practice in place. Regardless of whether I was ever asked to pay, I wouldn't work for or with an operator that held such a practice. It's dispicable, low, unethical, filthy. No way.

 

Many years ago I interviewed for large operation that flew me across the country and put me in a hotel. In the morning I had a large group meeting with thirty or forty other applicants, then a test, then was escorted to a room for the first of several face to face interviews. The first was one-on-one, and at the conclusion, I was given a chance to ask questions. Is it true, I asked, that the company is charging applicants for their training? Yes, but it didn't apply to me; I had adequate experience that I was exempt. Was that a problem, the interviewer asked. I thanked him for his time, left the room, and caught a shuttle back to the airport. Didn't look back.

 

If there are potential pilots out there who can't get a job any other way than to buy it, perhaps they ought not be in a paid, professional cockpit.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot today. He's not the best of the best, nor even top of his class. He's not particularly talented, or dedicated to his job or career. In fact, he couldn't get hired anywhere else. He's with us today because even though nobody would hire him, he paid us a lot of money, and we agreed to put him in the seat and fly you around. You won't mind, will you? No, he's not our first choice. In fact, we wouldn't have hired him either, except that he paid us off. That shouldn't concern you in the least. He does at least have a pilot certificate, and he does have a pulse, and if that's good enough for us, then it should certainly be good enough for you. Please hang on and have a good flight, and if that turns out not to be the case, kindly go your way after the flight and keep your traps shut. Thanks for flying with lowbrow air, and have a swell day.

[eagle5]

Wasn't trying to start another boatpix bash, there are enough of those already. I think that as long as you are the pilot at the controls its an ok deal for those who can afford it.

 

I just hate seeing it on the job board. I mean we all see the banner (just look up), we all know the offer exists, its not like a job has just opened up and he's looking to hire someone. Which is what the job board is for!

Edited July 23, 2015 by eagle5