Finding Aviation Jobs Online
If you are looking for a new job or career in 2015, and it has been a while since your last job search, you might be in for some surprises. Not only have the ways of searching for jobs changed, so has the process.
It will take you longer to find a new job now as compared to 10 years ago. Some of this change is simply due to the economy. It’s also due to companies’ and recruiters’ dependence upon online job listings.
You would have thought that recruiters would be nearly obsolete by now, relegated to niches such as executive search, high specialty personnel or those handling overseas assignments, but this is clearly not the case. In fact, it seems that recruiters use the Internet rather than reach out through personal relationships to identifying candidates. This widens their potential pool of candidates for their clients, and allows companies to shield themselves better from lawsuits relating to recruitment by outsourcing this function onto these recruiters.
On the flip side, those searching for a new job are able to more quickly and easily identify new opportunities. Due to the myriad (and mostly free) Web sites, you are now able to sort through job postings using various criteria (“What, no 401K at that company? No point in applying there … “) with barely any effort expended.
History of Online Job Sites
Online job Web sites have been with this since the 1990s, and these were some of the original profitable ventures which were entirely web based. Two of these, Monster.com and CareerBuilder, were among the early entrants into this market and survive to this day. Thousands of such sites have launched since, and most are cross industry, with a smaller number specializing in a particular industry.
Various media companies that had portals for their readers to access their content wisely added their own job posting boards. A more recent trend was Web sites that scrape the content of other Web sites and combine the results, imitating how a search engine gathers and presents data.
Let’s go over each of these, from a point of view of that might appeal to someone involved in the aviation aftermarket industry (mechanics, management, repair, support, inspection, technology and administrative, etc.).
General Job Sites
These are the largest sites and they attract the greatest number of job listings and visitors. They quite simply cast a wide net and generate revenue primarily from two sets of streams: from fees paid by job posters, and from advertising revenue attracted by a large captive audience with a specific purpose in mind. These should be the initial step in starting any job search due to the large number of postings, but they might not always be the best place to find an aviation job, especially depending upon your geographic location.
First, let’s look at the rough numbers gleaned from researching data (which was performed in early May), collated into the table. Note that each site was organized differently and did not have the same categories or search criteria available, so it was not possible to have a direct comparison for each. Please consider each set of data as a rough estimate and partially complete.
There are also many specialized Web sites aimed at executives, management, and sales and marketing personnel, and some of these are not searchable by industry. Some of these are only searchable if you buy a subscription, so they are not easily reviewable.
Job Search Engines
These sites do not have direct job listing themselves, but instead they gather postings from other Web sites (job boards, company and government Web sites, publications, etc.), similar to how Google and Bing index Web sites and display results based upon the keywords you type into a search bar. Social media sites such as Facebook were not included in this study, since they are often aimed at different types of jobs outside of the aviation/aerospace industry.
Job search engines offer a quick way to peruse a wider variety of job listings, but require you to sort through the results manually for the most part. Each of these allows you to enter in key words, as well as combinations of words and terms to exclude. This assists you in your search but might not be as easy to use for applicants who are not well versed in using a search engine properly.
Aviation Industry-Specific Sites
There are dozens of aviation industry Web sites dedicated to listing open jobs and many of these are not worthwhile. Some of these concentrate on specific types of jobs, such as pilots, while others perform search engine data grabs from other sites in order to make advertising dollars on their sites. In the table below, our research identified some of the larger or better-known Web sites, which had varying results.
FlightLevelJobs.com and AvJobs.com could not be reached since it is behind a paywall. (You need to register and buy a package to peruse their listings.) Helicopter Association International’s Web site also has an employment opportunities section, but it is available only to members so it could not be reviewed here.
To Sum It All Up
There are hundreds of places to search online for a job and this is no longer an optional way to job hunt. While word of mouth and personal recommendations are still the best methods to find a new position quickly, nearly all employers now use job listing sites to find, sort through and categorize candidates. While this might be a cold and impersonal way to find future employees, it saves a considerable amount of time and expense. Due to the prevalence of social media, employers are able to find out about your professional and personal life, so be careful with the wild vacation pic being posted. (While you might have enjoyed sipping margaritas nearly naked at the hotel pool surrounded by a bunch of wild strangers, you might want to think twice before posting it for the world to see).
For job seekers, this can also be used to your advantage if used properly. By using websites such as LinkedIn, you are able to find others who work in a company you are considering applying to reach out to (especially if you are connected socially in any way), or even those who may have held the same job before you. There are other websites which offer employee reviews on many employers (GlassDoor and CareerBliss). Quite simply, you can arm yourself with much pertinent information before you apply for a job, or before an interview. It has never been easier to be better informed.
From the results of our searches for aviation aftermarket keywords on each of the sites listed in our tables above, you can surmise that you should be looking at a various number of sites to perform an extensive job search. The ‘General Job Sites’ results are rather spread out, and each of the sites has its merits, so prior to registering on any of these and creating an online resume on each, you should perform a search for the specific position you are seeking in your location and eliminate websites which do not have potential positions of interest. In the ‘Jobs Search Engines’ category, SimplyHired had the most aviation industry results to choose from, being the clear winner in our study. In the aviation industry specific sites, it is quite a bit more mixed, with Aviation Week’s website having the most jobs listed, but D.O.M. Magazine and the AOPA Job Board having significant sector specific listings available.
The end result is that if you are looking for a new gig, you need to spread your effort among several websites. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Just with a lot more typing on a computer nowadays.
John Pawlicki is CEO and principal of OPM Research. He also works with Information Tool Designers (ITD), where he consults to the DOT’s Volpe Center, handling various technology and cyber security projects for the FAA and DHS. He managed and deployed various products over the years, including the launch of CertiPath (with world’s first commercial PKI bridge). John has also been onic FAA 8130-3 forms, as well as in defining digital identities with PKI. His recent publication, ‘Aerospace Marketplaces Report,’ which analyzed third-party sites that support the trading of aircraft parts, is available on OPMResearch.com as a PDF download, or a printed book version is available on Amazon.com.
