Brian's Quest for Airline Employment

Well, today's been a pretty good day, I must say. For those that don't know, I've never been an airline employee as long as I've been here. I had a seasonal position with NW in Summer '08, and it was the best job I've ever had, but I couldn't stay with it forever, especially since I was going to college in Eau Claire, WI... about 100 miles away from my hometown by MSP.

Flash forward to last fall. I was in Seville, Spain for a study abroad program, where I read online that EAU would be serviced by SkyWest serving UA, rather than Mesaba for NW (which I'd been trying to work for for about a year). I ended up missing a hiring session/open house when I was out there, and probably could have had the job if I weren't in Europe. Then, wouldn't ya know it, it opened up again over winter break, and there would be an open house on the day of my first day of the semester. This is when I also found out that I'd have to go to DEN for 3 weeks for training. Ouch. Better keep trying, I guess.

Position came and went mid-semester, but I knew I couldn't go for it because of training. I went the the open house anyway, just to keep my name there, and the woman running it encouraged me to drop off a resume with the station manager and talk with him in case a position opens up when I can train. Sure enough, towards the end of the semester, a position as a Cross-Utilized Agent comes up. These are the people that do both customer service and ramp work as needed. Applications were accepted until a little after the end of the semester.

Early June, I got a call from one of the employees, asking if I could come in for an interview, which I did a couple weeks ago. It went very well, I figured, and found out that there were 3 positions and 41 applicants (not all of them got interviews, though). I was supposed to hear back by 6/25 (my birthday, interestingly enough). I didn't hear anything, and was starting to feel a bit discouraged. Sure, it seems like they can be a little slow with that, but my nervousness didn't help much.

Then, today, I got a call during my lunch break. From the station manager, specifically. I was offered the position, and I'll be going to Denver in a week and a half! Even if I can't go out as much as I did 2 years ago, it'll be great to be able to go out of town every now and then. Needless to say, I'm pretty happy :D

Congratulations Brian, your persistence paid off.
So you'll be working customer service and the ramp - can't wait to hear about your adventures. LOL

Happy belated birthday
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Good work Brian... know what your benefits are yet?! haha

I've got an idea of things, but I'm not 100% sure. The last flight I've been on was a UA flight ORD-MSP operated by ShuttleAmerica. I asked the FA about their benefits, figuring SkyWest might be similar (he said it was). He said he had free flighs on Shuttle America (since that's his airline) and other UA flights (mainline, etc) cost $10 each way or something like that. Not too bad, and there are quite a few flights from ORD that SkyWest runs. I'm really interested in what they offer through DL, though, since SkyWest services them as well... they really cover South America and Europe, which I'd really like to see. Then again, maybe we should meet in HKG or something, eh Nick? :)

Good for you. It took me 24 years to get on with DL. I applied once in Aug., 1960 and the again in Nov., 1984. Retired in Jan., 1996. What a great ride.....

Hooooray for Brian!! happy belated bday! I broke the speed limit yesterday with mine...
Great to hear that you'll actually be in the aviation fold. Congrats!

That's great man. It seems you've been bitten by the bug, and may not be able to recover.

As with any job, there are some trivial things to deal with, but I had a blast as a cross utilized CSA. I know you'll love it, and hopefully(or hopefully not, depending who you talk to) you can parlay this opportunity into a great aviation career. I know at this point, there is nothing else I want to do. Aviation is just so awesome!!

My job requires that I travel to central Wisconsin somewhat regularly(I've been 4 times this year). Usually I fly into LSE or MSN. Next time I have to go I'll see if I can fly into EAU and maybe I'll run into you.

Good luck!

Out of curiosity, when you say central Wisconsin do you mean CWA (Wausau, WI; CWA = Central Wisconsin Airport), or the region as a whole? MSN is a great city, and I'm actually going to LSE on Thursday to meet up with friends from when I was studying abroad. Let me know if you're in the area sometime, and I'm sure something can be arranged

Brian, welcome to the team. Hopefully everything goes well with your new job. I also hope you are able to take advantage of the benifits as much as you can.If you have any questions just ask, I will try and help. I am not a CSR so I can not help you there but I could possibly help with any flight benifit questions. You should also be informed about them in Denver.I am an Avionics technician at the SLC hub. Luckly here we get both Delta and United flight benifits so it really helps when having to make up backup plans.Tony
Why does the line return and multiple spaces not work all the time when posting????
I must be doing something wrong

I think it helps to have an empty line in between. Test:

This is line 1
This is line 2

This is line 3

Edit: Maybe not. Hmm. Works fine for me. Aw well, thanks! By the way, are you United or Delta dedicated? Or do you not deal with that if you work in avionics? How about mainline or other regional carriers, how do things look for you in that respect? There are some destinations on Delta that I would absolutely LOVE to take advantage of that UA is relatively lacking in, mostly South America and Europe.