Taken in Hamburg at Lufthansa Technik. It sort of has that generic “get a job” vibe to it. That’s my balding head chilling on the couch.

I am often asked ’œHow do I get an airline job?’

Luckily, I have some background in this area. I worked as a career counselor at the University of Washington for about five years (go Dawgs), I currently recruit for a $3 billion company in the greater Seattle area, and I have talked to hundreds of airline insiders over the last decade. Through my experiences I have learned a few things (at least I’d like to think so) about getting airline jobs. I also get to see the same mistakes over and over and “omg are you kidding me” over again. I decided to combine my worlds a bit here and give some advice on how to get an airline job (in reality, this advice works for most other jobs as well).

To be clear, these are my personal opinions and thoughts on jobs. Not those of any airline, nor my current or previous employers. These are overarching and for sure will not work for all companies, positions, and people. I like to think I am more right than wrong, but look forward to seeing your ideas and opinions in the comments. I love giving job advice and talking about airlines, so this story could easily go over 10,000 words. Do not worry, I kept it under 2,500 (Editor’s note – it’s 2,566) and I was able to hit all the major pieces.

When looking for a job, always assume that competition will be fierce. Let’s say there are 200 applicants that applied and the hiring manager only wants to phone interview eight. That is not always easy, since there are likely going to be more than eight qualified applicants and 192 people that need to be rejected. This is where small details matter. If a hiring manager has a hard time finding information on your application or you make a few minor errors — you can quickly end up with the 192. Do not be one of them! This is really about quality vs quantity and my advice might be some tough love, but I want you to get that airline job!