Employed Once Again!

On June 1, I became the new Director of Supply Chain Strategy and Analytics at Flexjet. I'm excited for it: the role is aimed at the kind of process-building that I greatly enjoy, the team is high-energy and passionate, and I get to stay in the aviation industry.

I spent 14 months unemployed (while serving as a stay-at-home parent and through bouts of self-employment and otherwise occupying myself), and I want to reflect a little on my job hunt.

The job is on-airport with easy access to the ramp! Photo by me.

The opinions expressed here are my personal views and in no way reflect those of my current or former employers.

Reflections on Job-Hunting

When I began my job search, I looked for aerospace companies in Cleveland.  I drove past Constant Aviation's aircraft-modification hangar every time I drove to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, so they were on my list.  Constant became part of Flexjet, so I ended up on the Flexjet career page. I networked my way into consideration for a role (which I did not get) and stayed aware of them throughout my job search. Eventually, a different suitable role came up and I applied for it, at which point my now-manager plucked my application out of the queue and asked me to talk about about Strategy and Analytics instead.

Early in my job hunt, I asked my friend and mentor MH how he had landed his next role after unemployment and he told me that he found a job online, applied for it, and got it. The same happened to me: it turns out that my intensive networking didn't land me my next job. That said, networking helped me reconnect to a lot of people I hadn't spoken to in years, and my friends, contacts, and friends-of-friends got me considered at many companies. Any of those could have worked out, and so I'm glad I networked as hard as I did.

THANK YOU to everyone who returned my call, email, or message and chatted with me during my unemployment. You provided leads, advice, and social interaction that kept me sane.  You opened doors and improved my job-hunting skills.

Adaptation

I worked at the same company for over 17 years, so I'm having to start over in many ways during these first few days. Simple things like "where do I find a template for my email signatures?" or "how do I connect to a printer?" have to be discovered. Complex things like "just because they're both in aerospace doesn't mean that an operator and a manufacturer act the same" mean I have to watch my assumptions.  This is a learning opportunity:  I plan to spend a lot of time listening.

Old and new: my old company manufactured this G700 landing gear, and I did some financial modeling and supply chain work to support it. Photo by me.

My first day at Flexjet was smoother than my first day at my old company. In 2007, I arrived at our primary manufacturing site in Cleveland to sit in a cinder-block maze to sign HR forms and get my photo taken at the guard shack. My office location was at a satellite facility several miles away, so I had to drive to that office after officially becoming an employee. As I prepared to leave (making sure of my directions because this was the pre-smartphone era), I realized that I had locked my keys in my car! AAA eventually let me in, and taught me an object lesson on how much less secure the car is when using the interior lock button rather than the key.

By comparison, the troubles this past Monday were more about getting three young children ready-enough for their day that I could leave on-time. This was a huge change for me:

• My eldest was born during the COVID-19 pandemic after I was sent home: I had never held an onsite job as a parent
• My youngest was born after I was laid off: I had never held a job with three kids. Alternatively, my youngest had never had a father who was employed.
• The whole family had 14 months of routines built around me being at home full-time, including my getting the kids ready for school / daycare / whatever every morning.

I look forward to learning and growing at Flexjet, and all of us in my family have a happy reason to figure out new routines.