Earlier in the year I stated my career
plan after graduating from college. According to me, “As far as my future
aspirations go, I would say that it is a tie right now between three different
aviation routes. The first being the somewhat traditional route of working
first as a ramp employee at my flight school, then instructing, all while
building time to apply to a regional. Which would probably be Endeavor
(formerly Pinnacle) Airlines since I interned there this previous summer. The
second route would be to instruct for a shorter time than the previous route in
the hopes of securing a cargo job at one of the few 135 operations at willow
run with the overall goal to someday end up with a FedEx or UPS flight outfit.
While the third would be to try to obtain a pilot slot with the Navy or Air
Force through their officer training programs after I graduate with my degree”.
Although this career plan is not
very defined, considering the three distinct different routes, I can say that I
have narrowed it down a little farther after this course. The path of working
at a 135 operation is probably not a focus of mine after taking this course. I
thought it would be a good way to defer some time spent flight instructing. But
after listening to some of our guest speakers talk, I now do not think of
instructing as such a bad job. Also, because of learning about the potential
hiring spree at the Regional level, I thought that just instructing for a few
more years would not be that bad in order to ensure a better seniority spot.
As for the most interesting blog
topic of the year, this had to be the looming pilot shortage. Mostly because,
this was the topic that I probably already have debated with fellow classmates,
parents, and pretty much anyone willing to listen, before taking this course.
So when the time came to collect information on the topic, it seemed somewhat
enjoyable because of my interest in the topic. But my least favorite topic
would have to be creating a blog post for the Asiana airlines crash that was
listed in the syllabus, and then it never being picked as an actual topic. This
was because I went on a mini-vacation one weekend starting on a Thursday morning,
and would not be able to finish my work over the weekend. So, I had to make a
gamble Wednesday night as to which would be next week’s blog topic, and I
picked wrong.
The guest speaker I retained the
most information from would probably be Captain Harmon’s presentation about the
Marine aviation. Partly because his presentation was the most recent and fresh
in my memory. But also because it falls in line with one of my two path career
plan of joining the military to fly and was very informative as to how that
could be a possibility. However, the guest speaker for tomorrow, discussing the
possible “flow through” program with ExpressJet, might end up being a very key
presentation as well. This is not much of a surprise to me, as both presentations
relate to my initial goal sheet I filled out back in AVT 100.
After graduation, I think my first
plan will hopefully be working at Eagle Flight Center as a dispatcher. I have
put in my application before, and with a group of instructors on the verge of
leaving, this will cause a shift up of the current dispatchers, leaving
openings working the desk and working the line. This is great because almost
all dispatchers from Eagle end up instructing there at some point, and I
personally think that as far as instructing gigs can go, Eastern is pretty
good. Also, my plans after graduation will be to keep up with flight training
beyond the required ratings to graduate. As well as trying to keep building that
résumé by gaining any aviation experience I can.
