Q3 is over, which usually means a slow down in hiring.
And as usual, here’s a digest of all the jobs for low-time pilots that I tracked over the summer.
Kind of jinxed it when I said August could be as busy as July in terms of quality and quantity of jobs advertised…
The reason why I document and share this, by the way, is for future reference. Not necessarily for me and you, but even for pilots just wrapping up their training
I wish I had a summary of the ebbs and flows of the job market back then, because it would’ve helped me plan better.
So here are the jobs I found the past 3 months.
July Report (click here)
August x September Report (10 listings)
Northwoods Air was accepting resumes for a week in early August. They got about 160 applications during that time, which might seem low when compared to other companies. But first of all, that’s still a lot of competition. Second, if they decide to post online again next year, and if their minimums don’t go up, I’m sure they’ll get a LOT more.
Pro tip: some of the applicants listed their Seminole and Seneca time as Aztec time. Maybe don’t do that. I know they look about the same and are all Piper aircraft, but insurance doesn’t care, and hoping the person reviewing your application won’t notice is just not a good look.
I don’t really know who other than Skydive Ocean City this would be, so I’m not sure why they posted anonymously. Kind of tough to be needing a pilot in the summer, so I’m curious to know what happened there. If you’re the guy who left mid-season and happen to read this, feel free to reach out!
First time I saw a shorter term full-time contract for survey. Might also be someone leaving mid-season so they were looking for a last-minute fill?
I actually still would welcome any information about these .gov jobs, should you know anything!
This one was actually pulled from BizJetJobs, and I’m really not 100% sure it was legit. Why wouldn't it be? These automatic job boards pretty much run on their own, which causes them to occasionally fire off when the company isn’t necessarily looking.
That’s why I do this manually in a the Pilot Job Hub, just to act as a final layer of control and filter what jobs are worth your attention or not.
Talos Aviation Group received 334 applications in 24 hours, and as of a week ago, were just starting the interview phase of the hiring process. It’s pretty cool to see these companies try to communicate what they’re doing transparently.
I’ll reiterate: if you are on LinkedIn, do follow Brian for more low-time pilot content and tools. His map of companies that employ low-time pilots is really cool.
This C208 FO job at Surf Air was up for only 2 days, and is a reminder that speed matters too, not just quality control: when applying online, it’s best to submit as soon as you see the job post.
This post is just a couple days old. I haven’t heard feedback from anyone in the community yet, but I’m curious to hear more…
This one is from yesterday, and is probably still looking. Tour pilot jobs are usually too niche for out-of-state pilots to even have a chance, but never say never.
Here’s what you might’ve missed:
JAV Imagery and Optic Air are responsible for a good chunk of the summer hiring. They didn’t promote any openings online this year, but they did have some. It just seems both companies had enough internal recs and resumes on file to go off of.
So if there’s one thing you need to takeaway from this report is how important building rapport with these companies is.
Yes, I still believe a thoughtfully written cover letter can get you hired.
I actually have built a playbook entirely around that idea, to help newer readers of The Road to 1500 with writer’s block (or just bad writing as a whole)
But I also know nurturing relationships is an aspect of the game that cannot be overlooked.
I should be getting pretty busy here soon, but if you have questions about anything, even if you’re not part of the community, please, just reach out.
If I can help in any way, I will.
Blue skies,
— Ivan
P.S. if you’re a new reader and want my list of 28 jobs to keep an eye on for the rest of the year, and in 2027, grab my free starter kit