For some getting your first flying job can be the toughest thing about aviation. Many people have completed their licenses and tried hard to get a pilot job and ended up giving up their entire dream because they were rejected time after time and finally, to them, their dream seemed completely hopeless.

I'm here to tell you not to give up! I've watched the industry for years now and it is interesting to me to see those people that end up with really good flying jobs and those who give up flying completely. In every instance there has been one common key ingredient among these people that have succeeded- they haven't given up. In some cases it may have even taken years to realize their dream but they did not give up!

I completed my aviation training in April of 2001. I tried hard to get my first job. I was out meeting people sending out resumes doing everything I could to get a job. I was tired of hearing people say: ”We're looking for someone with more experience”. I kept saying to myself, “Well how am I supposed to get that experience!!” I had no idea how hard it would become.

Everyone knows what happened in September of that year - 9/11. I thought it was tough before. Now, I felt it was completely hopeless. But I didn't give up. Even when it was almost impossible for a young low time pilot to get a job I was still trying. Long story short it wasn't until 2003, nearly two years later, that I finally found my first flying job in Canada.

You have to keep trying. You have to keep meeting people. And you have to keep sending those resumes out. You have probably heard people say over and over, “you have to be in the right place at the right time”. Here's the thing - how can you ever be in the right place at the right time if you aren't out meeting people and trying to get your name out there?

Getting your first flying job isn't about luck. It's about math, and probability - let me explain. If you are out there meeting people, getting your face and resume out there, at some point soon you will find that YOU will be in the right place at the right time and YOU WILL land your first flying job.

Keep trying, don't give up - and your dream will become reality sooner than you think.