nieworld.com

Teachers

Students

Families

Projects

Email NIE

Monday, November 12, 2001

Slump strands many pilots

By JIM HAUG | News-Journal Business Writer

DAYTONA BEACH — Susan Karkman loves to fly, but her career as an airline pilot has been grounded since October.

A furloughed Trans World Airlines pilot and a 1999 masters degree graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Karkman returned to her alma mater Wednesday to hand out resumes at a job fair.

She once flew Boeing 717 jets between Minneapolis and St. Louis. Now she is considering a job in sales, perhaps doing some demonstration flying for aircraft manufacturers like Piper and Cessna.

Karkman, a resident of New Smyrna Beach, can't be picky. "Nobody is hiring," she said. "I've been looking all over."

While Karkman has nearly two years experience as an airline pilot for TWA and Comair, the job market is even tougher for recent graduates without much flying time. Jeff Lumburg has been looking for a job since he graduated from ERAU in August.

"I'll fly anything with wings," he said.

In the midst of industrywide slump, Lisa Scott, the director of Career Services at ERAU, is telling students they're going to have "to be patient" in landing their dream jobs.

Pilot graduates may have to work a few years as flight instructors before they hook up with an airline.

Students will have to set loftier goals in school. "Instead of graduating in the top 30 percent, they may want to graduate in the top 10 percent," Scott said.

Still, Scott was encouraged by the job fair, which attracted 69 companies.

"It's less than last year, but it's still pretty good considering we're in a full-blown recession," Scott said. "Some were not hiring, just accepting resumes, but we're grateful they came."

The job outlook is more promising for students with engineering, computer science and business majors.

The Lockheed Martin Corp., which has just landed a $200 billion contract to build fighter jets, is looking to fill 2,000 entry-level positions, said Elisha Lewis, campus recruiting representative of Lockheed Martin Corp. Many of the jobs require relocation to Fort Worth, Texas.

Lockheed Martin, along with companies like Rolls-Royce and Raytheon, were interviewing job seekers at the ERAU Career/Expo.

While Boeing Co. is much more "selective" this year, it has not cutback on its summer internship programs, said Mark Lyden, a Boeing recruiter. Many times, internships lead to full-time jobs.

Of the few airlines that participated, Delta Air Lines was not hiring and JetBlue Airways was not interviewing.

Delta Air Lines, which is laying off 13,000 employees, almost did not come, but decided it should participate to "maintain its ties with the university," said Jay Tanguay, a Delta representative and '97 graduate of ERAU.

Rob Rance, another Delta representative, advised job seekers not to get discouraged.

"We're still taking resumes because at some point we're going to enjoy the prosperity we have had for the past five years," he said.

HICI Special Report — Stock Market: Shares and Scares

Copyright © 2008 NIE WORLD (www.nieworld.com). All content copyrighted and may not be republished without permission. The News-Journal has no control over and is not responsible for content on other Web sites. Privacy Policy.