The aviation industry is a dream arena for millions of male and female candidates worldwide. The type of career and lifestyle this industry offers is phenomenal.
However, entering this industry and surviving here is quite a challenge. You can’t have too many opportunities to continue with repetitive mistakes in responsibilities. What may follow is the early termination of your service without prior notice.
Hence, we’ve brought twelve vital mistakes to avoid in the aviation industry to save your career. Remember, these mistakes may encompass both pre-employment and post-hiring processes as you’re about to take on your journey in this vast industry.
1. Inappropriate Recommendations During Interview
When you’re opting for an interview, ensure you’re ready with appropriate recommendations in your resume. For instance, the recommendations on your resume should be strong and verifiable if you’re seeking a flight attendant career path.
However, if you don’t have any recommendations already, try to trace a retired person from the aviation industry who would happily put a word or two about your potential to serve well to the company’s goal.
Avoid referencing your parents at all costs because that will not go down well with the recruiting panel, compelling them to reject your application in the first place. Nonetheless, an exception can be made only if either of your parents served in aviation as engineers, pilots, mechanics, or crew members.
2. Being Rude About Former Employers
If you take backbiting about your former managers as an effective way to make your way into another company in the aviation industry, it will not work well. Instead, the hiring personnel will only perceive you as a problem child with the prospect of making trouble for the company.
As a result, the recruiters may choose someone with fewer qualifications instead of you as they won’t prefer going forward with your application.
The same will happen even if you’re an existing employee with the same attitude at your daily disposal.
3. Not Elaborating on Your Endeavors
Whether describing your previous work experience or sharing how you’ll execute your responsibilities to your hiring managers, be precise and elaborate on your narratives.
Employers will most likely verify your responses to their expectations with your previous employers to substantiate your claims. So, to excel in this part of your interview, research your previous work records to streamline everything you accomplished and achieved.
Making vague claims about your capabilities will only reduce your chances of getting selected by an airline or aerospace company for the next round of interviews. Try to gather at least documented experience of the last five years if you’re a veteran in the industry, so your future employers can be assured of your past endeavors.
4. Lack of Enthusiasm
If you’re aiming to see yourself as part of the aviation industry, be it in the military, airlines, or anything else, it must show in your attitude and gestures.
Employers will want to see some sort of energetic vibe in you during interviews and in the execution of your daily responsibilities. Your answers must be polite but, at the same time, precise and quick in projecting how you’re planning your next career step in this industry.
Remember, you’re most likely to be rejected or terminated if your demeanor is shabby and your posture is out of place.
5. Unrealistic Salary Expectation
Aviation industry must be a huge arena where one may get to the zenith of success if one persists. However, you’ll always start from the bottom in a new company, even if you’re experienced in this area.
Hence, if you ask for an unrealistic compensation package, it won’t settle with the employers of the hiring company well. The same applies if you’re an existing employee in a company and asking to raise your salary by an unexpected range.
Things that might follow will end with getting yourself rejected in the first place.
6. Indecisive Attitude
Most aviation industry employers seek motivated and specific goal-oriented people in their lives and work. If you’re a person who’s confused about what you want to achieve in your profession, it’s not going to benefit you in the interview.
Aviation professionals and management people want to look for sheer confidence and clarity in your eyes and answers.
You can’t share vague ideas or fantasies with the hiring personnel, which ultimately will result in your rejection or discontinuation of service.
7. Lack of Communication Practice
A good interview requires practice and rehearsals. Suppose you ignore the importance of rehearsals or plan to get away with it nicely without thinking about it ahead of time. In that case, you’re making a major mistake taking on such a challenging interview.
The interviewers belong to reputed aviation organizations, whether aerospace, airline, or military. They all have strongholds in their position, and they can determine whether you’re eligible to go forward with them.
So, the chances of getting selected are slim if you display signs of low confidence, stutter, or come up with unrelatable answers to their questions.
8. Inappropriate Presence
When you’re aiming at cracking an interview in an aviation company, you’re supposed to look fit for the position with your personality and sense of attire. Don’t just put on a shirt and trousers; add a commanding touch with a blazer or a business suit to impress your hiring managers in the first place.
Pretend as if you’re reporting to your first commanding officer or supervisor, so you must dress that way. A lack of dress sense in aviation interviews often puts the managerial people off. Hence, a rejection is on the card.
Additionally, keep in mind that you can’t wear clothes to your liking all the time when you’re hired. You must put on a designated uniform to carry out your duties.
9. Shallow Industry-Related Research
If you’re looking to be a part of the aviation industry, you must research well before you land an interview. Interviewers are eager to know what their candidates know about their business and the industry as a whole.
When you show them that you’re well-informed about the industry and how each sector functions here, your impression on your hiring managers will be lasting.
In contrast, if you’re not providing them with the right information as being asked by them regarding the industry, they’ll lose faith in your candidacy.
Hence, you’ll either be turned down in the selection process or you’ll find no further interest in pursuing your career in aviation down the track.
10. Arriving Oddly at the Interview Center
Are you planning to show up at the interview center with a sports jacket around your shoulder or a pair of sneakers on your feet? That’s a red flag right there. Some people might even think about taking their kids to the interview center. That’s in no way acceptable.
Remember, you’re presenting yourself as an efficient and sensible employee to your managers, who’ll assign you critical tasks in the future. But if you’re taking the idea of getting interviewed too lightly, those people on the other side have no reason to hire you while adding a liability to their resources.
11. Not Clarifying Any Criminal Record
Applying for a criminal record may sound scary in the aviation industry, but hiding it may pose a threat of a full stop to your potential aviation career forever. Be it major or minor, you can’t hide any criminal record from your hiring employers because they will find that out sooner or later in the background check process.
So, explain to them if your professional career was stained somehow in the past, so there’s a scope of consideration on the employers’ part. Clearing a criminal case from your end may get you through to the next round of interviews and make you appear honest and redemptive in your profession.
12. Are You Boisterous on Social Media
This might sound weird, but employers from all sorts of industries nowadays, including aviation, research their potential candidates on social media platforms. So, rearrange your social media accounts to eliminate anything awkward, violent, or anti-social.
You should be more worried in this case if your accounts are public. Private accounts are less likely to be discovered when searched, while leading to less controversial questions.
Maintain decency in your offline and online lifestyles so it doesn’t create any crease in your work ethic and the company’s reputation.
Final Words
What you can take away from this article are some surefire ways to keep yourself in the safe zone while pursuing your career in the aviation industry. It’s hard to land the perfect job in commercial or military air services. So, meddling with one will significantly cut your chances of sustaining in the industry. If you’re serious about prolonging service in the aviation industry while saving your career, learn about the mistakes we’ve mentioned above to ace your interview and post-hiring responsibilities.
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