{"id":18449,"date":"2013-04-15T11:34:24","date_gmt":"2013-04-15T18:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smartrecruiters.com\/blog\/?p=18449"},"modified":"2017-10-17T10:12:59","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T17:12:59","slug":"how-to-hire-helicopter-pilots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartrecruiters.com\/blog\/how-to-hire-helicopter-pilots\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Hire Helicopter Pilots"},"content":{"rendered":"

First, find a pilot. No, really, that\u2019s my secret. Okay, I guess I can elaborate…<\/p>\n

A few years ago I started working with a defense contractor in Huntsville, AL. One of our government contracts includes providing instructor pilots in the UH-60M Black Hawk Helicopter. As you might imagine, these guys are not hanging out at the local employment office seeking employment.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I have no military background, so I was fairly certain that even if I managed to find one of these guys somewhere, I\u2019d run them off through my sheer lack of knowledge about their profession. But I hung in there anyways. In the past few years I\u2019ve talked with dozens of pilots, hired a few, and learned more than I ever imagined about helicopters, flight qualifications, and what makes these pilots tick.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Helicopter<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

How I Find Pilots<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I said in the beginning, I\u2019ve realized that my biggest weapon in the recruiting<\/a> battle is a referral. The pilot community is incredibly tight-knit, and there\u2019s a good chance that a contact will be able to refer someone to me. Over time I\u2019ve built a network of dozens of pilots, and when I have new jobs I reach out to each of them with a custom message asking for assistance. I have great success with those contact emails.<\/p>\n

Sourcing is next. Sometimes those referrals don\u2019t turn out, so I go to Google and start looking. It doesn\u2019t always turn up a contact, but more often than not I find someone to reach out to. This is how I built the original referral network and now I add people to it every time I have a new job opening.<\/p>\n

Finally, if the other methods aren\u2019t returning positive results, we consider posting on niche boards for pilots (CopterJobs, FindAPilot, JSFirm, etc.) or purchasing short term database access to search for candidates. This is a last resort, and we\u2019ve only done it once in the past 2-3 years, but when you are up against the wall, there\u2019s not a lot you can do.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Understand the Qualifications<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes a qualification that\u2019s listed as \u201crequired\u201d in the contract is actually more flexible, especially if the pilots are difficult to find. This was a revelation for me, and it has come in handy a few times when we were close on a deadline.<\/p>\n

For instance, a current opening requires me to find a Bell 412 EP instructor pilot with search and rescue experience. If you hadn\u2019t guessed, that\u2019s a mighty small niche to target. However, the flight qualification says Bell 412 EP or equivalent aircraft. We talked with our customer and found out that \u201cequivalent\u201d is a pretty open range of aircraft, which means I am not killing myself to target only that type of pilot.<\/p>\n

Knowing when to push back and ask questions about \u201crequired\u201d qualifications is a critical skill.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

We\u2019re Kinda Cheap<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve realized over time that there\u2019s no real strategy behind our lack of spending on resources, niche job boards<\/a>, database access, etc. We\u2019re kind of cheap. That\u2019s not necessarily a bad thing, and I\u2019ve been able to push for spending when it is completely necessary, but a search that might take two weeks ends up taking three or four because we try to avoid any additional expenses.<\/p>\n

I do all the sourcing. I do all the interview scheduling, candidate follow up, etc. It\u2019s a lot of work, but it\u2019s also very exciting to know that we could have gone to a third party agency (there are some that exist exclusively to provide pilot candidates to companies like ours) and paid 20% of a 100k+ salary for a direct placement, but we avoided that entire expense and filled the job at virtually no cost.<\/p>\n

In summary, we use a combination of referrals, sourcing, and niche job boards on rare occasions. I\u2019d love to hear from anyone else who might have additional ideas to share!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\"UpstartHR\"Ben Eubanks spends his days working as an HR Generalist for Pinnacle Solutions, a defense contractor in Huntsville, Alabama. Pinnacle provides instructor pilots, software engineering, and technical publication services to the military. For the past four years, he has managed upstartHR, an HR blog focusing on entry level HR<\/a>, culture, and leadership. Ben also co-founded the HRevolution unconference in 2009. Connect via Twitter (@beneubanks<\/a>), LinkedIn<\/a>, blog<\/a>, or email\u00a0ben@upstarthr.com.\u00a0\u00a0Image Credit\u00a0Ely Tran<\/a>.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

SmartRecruiters<\/a> is the hiring platform with everything you need to source talent (recruiter marketplace<\/a>, database sourcing, job boards, etc.), manage candidates and make the right hires.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First, find a pilot. No, really, that\u2019s my secret. Okay, I guess I can elaborate… A few years ago I started working with a defense contractor in Huntsville, AL. One of our government contracts includes providing instructor pilots in the UH-60M Black Hawk Helicopter. As you might imagine, these guys are not hanging out at […]","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":18452,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":""},"categories":[841],"tags":[196],"series":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/www.smartrecruiters.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/How-to-Hire-a-Helicopter-Pilot.png","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/www.smartrecruiters.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Podcast-icon.jpg","download_link":false,"player_link":false,"audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/hiring-success-podcast\/id1472174987","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9oaXJpbmdzdWNjZXNzcG9kY2FzdC5jYXN0b3MuY29tL2hpcmluZy1zdWNjZXNzLXBvZGNhc3Q","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"soundcloud":{"key":"soundcloud","url":"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/smartrecruiters\/sets\/hiring-success-podcast-1","label":"SoundCloud","class":"soundcloud","icon":"soundcloud.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/3bM8YzLjM2G9qJXLBBySaB","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/www.smartrecruiters.com\/blog\/feed\/podcast","embedCode":"

How to Hire Helicopter Pilots<\/a><\/blockquote>