Corporate F/A Dispatch

If you aren’t familiar with the layout of this site, there are several ways for you to find out information about food service, particularly in-flight catering.

Visit Corporate Jet Catering for member posted catering information. Typically, one of your colleagues has posted one of their recent experiences with a caterer to this site. It is a “no holds barred” chance for people to give their honest assessement of a specific caterer.

You can also find helpful articles on the Food and Wine page; download your free copy of the helpful 26 page Catering Guidelines For Flight Attendants booklet; and take a catering mentoring program class with an NBAA recognized caterer.

Finally, visit our Inflight Services forum on the message boards for specific queries about catering, etc.

From time to time I am asked by members whether they can post their resume to the site. At the moment, new resumes are not being accepted but I expect to start again shortly after Labor Day.

If you would like to have you resume posted, simply fill out the related form and I will contact you once things open up again.

I read with interest this morning the plight of one of our forum members, GalleyKat and her discussion about contract rates. It seems that she hasn’t been charging extra for international work, something that several respondents have urged her to do.

Of particular note were the comments by Betty Boop concerning base rates. As BB noted, GK’s base rate is on the low side, even below the rate of newbies in this business.

One thing I have tracked over the years in an informal way are business aviation salaries. Having worked with corporate flight attendants for nearly 15 years I can tell you that salaries are, indeed, all over the place. Still, if you are not asking enough for yourself for contract work, you could be losing out.

Figure that every time you fly for $50 less, that is $750 per month or $9000 per year fewer bucks for you, if you average 15 flight days per month. I don’t know about you, but maybe it is time for you to give yourself a raise.

Could it be time for you to reexamine your rates?

For those of you with hiring authority, please feel free to use our Job Opportunities forum to post your next opportunity. Simply log on to the site, post your information with the relevant contact/response details, and you can expect a flood of responses. List full time, part time, or contract positions…that is your choice!

From time to time I notify all of our members of job opportunities via a mass email action via the forums. If you would prefer that I post the information instead, simply contact me at matt@corporateflyer.net and I’ll handle that task for you. Most opportunities are listed within one business day.

One of our forum members started a thread recently about an upcoming 3 minute video interview she was to have. This particular style of interviewing, unheard of a decade ago is growing in popularity and may soon become a method that more and more operators employ to screen candidates. Instead of going through the expense of flying you in and back for an interview, the video interview is used. Supposedly, if they like you, you’ll be brought in later for a face to face interview.

Oddly, the length of the interview is only for 3 minutes and it seems that in this case the candidate will be providing a 180 second monologue with no dialogue taking place. The typical video interview is longer and involves back and forth conversation much as a face to face interview provides.

A few of us chipped in our advice, but I can’t say if it will help this person. Regardless, you may one day find yourself the subject of a video interview. How do you think you would perform before a camera?

This morning I was pleased to read that one of our forum members, Ladi, is going on an interview today. I, and others, recall when she first visited the forums and the questions she had about business aviation. Several of us have felt that her friendly demeanor and inquisitiveness are both pluses.

It can be fun to follow the progress of people as they go from wannabe to newbie to veteran. Particularly helpful to everyone are the personal comments shared as they give reality to what is a difficult, sometimes daunting process. Nevertheless, if you work hard and persevere you may do well.

Best wishes to Ladi and everyone else pursuing a career of corporate flying.

Well, not really. As you might guess, finding work in business aviation is usually accomplished through personal contacts and not via whatever else I am able to find and post online. Still, if you haven’t checked the forum’s Job Opportunities in awhile, you may be missing out on something that is just right for you.

As with all listings on the site, the sooner you apply the better: most jobs are filled well within the 60 days of alloted listing time…so, hurry!

For the most part, conversations on this community’s message boards are civil and banter is free flowing and interesting. From time to time, more provocative threads are created and the exchange between members can even get pretty heated.

I moved two threads to the site’s “Soap Box” area and later locked them down once the conversation went beyond meaningful dialogue. I, for one, invite people to express themselves, but I do draw the line: when conversation becomes filled with personal attacks and are dominated by vitriol it is time for everyone to move on.

Yes, you can start another thread and have at it. I suppose there is a bit of speech control going on by me, but hopefully not so much that I put a complete chill on things.