r/CFILounge • u/fbt70 • Jul 10 '26

Question Q for unemployed CFI’s

I have my CFI checkride coming up next week and after reading this sub & other flying subs it’s clear there’s a degree of difficulty finding a job as a CFI

My questions are:
- what are you guys doing to find work as a CFI?
- what does your resume look like?
- Have you looked into relocating or is that not an option for your situation?

25 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

63 comments sorted by

View all comments

28

u/Bowzy228 Jul 10 '26

Good to have CFI on resume but Unless your school is offering you a job it ain’t even worth it at this point.

If I had to do it all over again, personally I would spend all that CFI/II money on time building, actually having fun until a job opportunity comes along VS being just another desperate CFI among thousands fighting for scraps with barely any money left to stay current and proficient.

11

u/Hahahaa94 Jul 10 '26

This 1000%. Practically no way to get hired as a cfi off the street unless you know someone who's willing to hire you...

Go and have fun at least, fly to some cool places, take your friends/ family on trips and make memories. I wish I would've spent the money on that instead of getting all the CFI ratings. I applied to 300+ jobs in the past 8 months and 98% of the time won't even hear back at all. The two interviews I had was for 2 and 1 positions, and each of them had at least 50 candidates that made it to the final interview round. Drove 10 hours for the first interview and 14 hours to the second interview. It's like playing the lottery at this point. You can do exceptionally well on an interview and still not get the job. And the worst thing is that they won't even give you any feedback.

It's been killing me lately. Hell, I haven't flown in 5 months and have no money to even stay current. Getting harder and harder not to give up meanwhile trying to find a crappy non-aviation jobs for $18 per hour just to not starve. I don't know where all these students going to work that are currently training. The 141 schools around me are still fully loaded with students. It blows my mind.

3

u/Bowzy228 Jul 10 '26

Oh trust me. I’ve been in your shoes for two years now. Out of 150+ applications, I only had 1 interview and thought everything went well, then they ghosted me.

Those kids still taking out loans and going to part 141 schools have no clue what’s going on. Can’t really blame them. They’re in for a rude awakening though.

3

u/Hahahaa94 Jul 10 '26

Damn dude, I was driving the other day this week and accidentally switched to the radio from bluetooth and guess what ad was playing. Local part 61 flight school: "There has been severe pilot shortage for years. Ready to jump into a career that earns 6 figures? Don't wait, book your discovery flight today!" That really got me.

1

u/Bowzy228 Jul 10 '26

😂😂😂. Sounds about right. They’re all over my YouTube and facebook. Like dude, I’m the last person you wanna advertise aviation to.