Some good & bad news…

Not a problem! 🙂

I opted for customer service roles, banking, retail and so on and I left the legwork to recruitment agencies who would call me if anything suitable came up. And you might get a surprise, like me. Despite choosing those particular industries, I’ve end up getting a job as a recruitment consultant!

Thanks very much for that advice T5, I have now signed up to Monster.co.uk, and will wait to see if I get any responses. Just out of interest, what categories did you put down. I have only put ‘aerospace/aviation’ and ‘airlines’ as my choices, as this is the industry I want to work in, is that ok, or should I widen my choice?

I have just finished my Bachelor’s Degree in a completely unrelated subject. I remember when I applied for the course 3 years ago. You had to have 5 GCSEs and then at least 2 A-Levels in related subjects in order to be accepted. Fortunately, I had the qualifications I needed and got onto it without any problems.

When I started and met the other students, I learned that many of them had been accepted when they didn’t have the qualifications that they should have had. They had been accepted because the demand for the course was low and the university was keen to beef up the numbers a bit, so they took on a lot of extra students at the last possible moment. Is there no chance that you could do the same? Look for work, but look at the possibility of applying just a few weeks before the course starts. If the college/university is anything like mine, they shouldn’t turn you down, especially not if they want a bit of extra cash for you being there. I can’t see any educational institution wanting courses to run without 100% capacity. By putting your application on hold, you are allowing those who scored the required 50% to apply. And the college/university wouldn’t really be favouring you if they were to accept you for the course after all.

Don’t forget that this time of year is without doubt the busiest for job-hunters. Thousands and thousands of students (like you and me) have recently finished our studies and we all want jobs, but there isn’t going to be a job for all of us. My degree was in Video Production & Film Studies and I had less of an interest in it than just about everybody else on the course – so unlike them, I didn’t really want to become an editor or camera operator. One piece of advice I gave to a friend was to find shop work or something equally as ‘exciting’ for now, stick with it for a month or two (until the massive job-rush dies down) and then continue your search again, when there are much fewer people searching and when competition isn’t quite so stiff.

My job-hunting started in early May by putting my CV onto Monster.co.uk. It’s amazing how many calls you will receive. Even more than two months after putting my CV online, I’m still getting almost a phone call a day from potential employers. As a result of this website, I have been offered a job, starting a week on Monday.

With regard to the experience, have you had a Saturday job in a shop or anything? If so, that would be relevant experience, especially if you were to become a passenger services assistant or something similar.

Good luck with the search…

Thanks for all your advice, will certainly bear it in mind.

Can I ask why you can’t stay on? To be fair most employers that I know would want to see a full degree, is it an option? Ignore my post if you prefer not to answer.

Yes rdc1000, you most certainly can ask…in fact that is the most popular question I am currently being asked at the moment. The reason I cannot stay on next year is because I only achieved 48% (minimum pass mark for Foundation Degree was 40%, so I just scrapped in!), and the pass mark for getting a place on next years top-up was 50%, so I was only 2% off, but the uni are not prepared to let me on as it is seen as favouring individual students, which is fair enough.

Get directly into contact with the airlines and airports would be my suggestion for you at this point.

I have also tried this method as well, but most of them have either said they cannot accept speculative applications or have just not bothered to reply at all… 🙁

Get directly into contact with the airlines and airports would be my suggestion for you at this point.

I left school at 18 and can honestly say the best thing that happened to me was refusing to go onto any of these schemes.

I went from Ops Assistant, to running an outstation, to becoming a Duty Officer, running a large multi-type fleet within 2 and a half years – half because of a vast industry knowledge, and half willing to put the effort in. I’m shortly joining a large lo-co as a Controller.

Unfortunatly, even with ths degree you will have to start at the bottom of the scale, most likely as an assistant. The Croyden area is probably one of the best positioned areas of te country. Try small (such as BAC Express at Gatwick, or any other smaller operator – frustrating I can guarntee, but great fun). Here is where we all get the experience. You must be willing to travel for work as it is very unlikely to appear on your doorstep – this is aviation, and how many UK operators are local to you! (my first job was over 70 miles from home).

Don’t try to show that because you have a degree you can jump in (most handling agent staff learn as much on the job as Airline Ops Grads staff go into – this is meant as a complement, not a detrement to Handling bods), purely as you learn from the environment your working in.

For new starters you are just as likely sending speculative e-mails out to companies as finding anything from aviationjobsearch – Flight International will only advertise for Duty Officers / Controllers as this is the captive market, and so will most airlines websites.

If I can be of any use please drop us a PM. Personally I am very sceptical of these courses as or dispatch courses you will be trained by your employer, hostie courses the same, Ops the same, and they seem to be a bit of a scam or stop-gap solution – I certainly know my school pushed for course if you didn’t want uni, and know from first hand experaince it is hard to get that first “foot in the door”!

Just try to get a temporary job outside aviation if you must. Anything to get some experience. Admittedly, I am not exactly certain what airport operations entails, so this advice may be entirely moot. But if it is the same thing as operations at the transport company I work for, then it might be worthwhile to start applying for regualr transport companies. Taxi companies, production planners etc.

Give it half a year so that you at least got some experience on your CV. Then retry the aviation sector. It is a pretty hard industry to get in as many companies have been scaling back the last few years.

Also, don’t be ashamed for starting at a position well below your education. Currently I am a logistics assistant even though I am a BA in international logistics. To all extents and purposes my education prepared me for a job 2 or 3 levels about my current level. But you got to start somewhere! And truth be told, despite the education I would be unable to perform effectively 3 steps above where I am now (2 steps though ;)).

Can I ask why you can’t stay on? To be fair most employers that I know would want to see a full degree, is it an option? Ignore my post if you prefer not to answer.