Airline pilot and “Transferable skills”
In my previous blog I have shared with you how COVID has changed my life as an airline pilot. As a result of one of the many changes I am currently writing to you from my quarantine room where I will be residing the next two weeks. Leading up to this I have been operating in a quarantine bubble for over 5 weeks. I will dedicate a blog to this experience in the weeks to come, once I have completed this journey and can reflect on this new concept of airline operations.
Currently I have taken a pay-cut for almost 18 months and my flying has reduced to minimum, just enough to stay current. I guess looking back the first 6 months of 2020 I was struggling to cope with the “new normal” and I was still living in hope that by the end of 2020 the operation would return to normal, even this thought was not based on any facts just the shear reality of not being able to comprehend the situation we had landed in. I assume most people around the world would share that thought. As the year progressed, I learned to accept my “new normal” and came to realize I needed to look for a back up plan because it became very clear that if you lose your job in aviation there was nowhere to run anymore. As I am writing this, I just posted an article this morning which states that currently in excess of 10000 jet airliners are parked up around the world, which currently represents 1/3 of the world airline fleet.
As I started to look for other avenues to make a living the situation looked pretty bleak at first, as I realized I have not worked in any other capacity other than being a pilot my entire life. To offer an employer any kind of experience was out of the question. This made me look at transferable skills.
What are transferable skills?
“Transferable skills are skills and abilities that are relevant and helpful across different areas of life: socially, professionally and at school. They are ‘portable skills”.
Examples of sought-after transferable skills!
Creativity-People skills-Adaptability-Leadership-Time management-Technical-Communication-Critical thinking-Multi-tasking-Teamwork
I was surprised to see that most transferable skills I use every day as an airline Captain, team worker, communication, multi-tasking, technical skills, time management people skills, leadership, adaptability to name a few
Armed with this information I started to review my CV and explore an area I have always enjoyed besides of course my flying. For me personally this is administration, however I had no concept of the internet and social media so I took on the challenge of setting up my own website which took me several months. I need to say it has been a great distraction from my dire situation as an airline captain, it was the perfect time killer during my months of no pay leave and I guess mentally it has helped me to cope with the added daily stress. I finally got the website up and running but my bit of paranoia and superstition made me hold of to go public till the new year 2021. Which at this stage has proven to be not much different from 2020. Early this year I started advertising my side on social media which has opened up a whole new world for me, firstly I enjoy this and secondly, I am securing a second income for my future through my own small busines. This has been a great stimulant to kill my abundance of free time.
To all my aviation colleagues start exploring your transferable skill and you may find that the employment market isn’t looking so bleak after all. Hope this has inspired some of you and wish you great success in securing a new or second job in this uncertain time with huge pay cuts. Please keep me posted on how you go about exploring new ideas and updating your resumes.
Besides focusing on transferable skills to make ourselves employable again we obviously deal with high stress levels at the moment until we can see some light at the end of this dark “aviation tunnel”. In my next blog I will share with you some tips how I cope with this added stress even when I need to face the cockpit for the few flights far and in-between.
I look forward to the day we are put in the hold again or get slowed down for arrival!!!!!
Stay safe stay healthy 350VA