The Success Behind the University of Waterloo Aviation Society’s Inaugural Professional Development Day
As many upper-year aviation students complete their final study terms at the University of Waterloo, the transition from university to the aviation industry can be difficult and demanding. To ease this process, the University of Waterloo Aviation Society (UWAS) came together to create the first Professional Development Day specifically targeted for Waterloo aviation students. Although the University of Waterloo is very co-op oriented with many career resources available, we wanted to create a resource catered specifically for an aviation career.
This development day consisted of aviation alumni and keynote speakers who dedicated their time to speak about building your aviation portfolio, business etiquette, interview preparation and much more. In addition, the University of Waterloo Aviation alumni generously gave their time to conduct mock interviews for the fourth-year students, helping to give insight on what airline companies might be looking for in a successful aviation candidate.
With the help of Jessalyn Teed, a Sunwing Airlines first officer and student mentor, Tyler and Jeremy from UWAS spearheaded this initiative. Tyler, the current president of UWAS, and Jeremy, VP of Outreach, dedicated their time and effort to create an event where students can take away valuable lessons and information to help guide them into the aviation industry. Mock interviews was the foundation of the event, aiming to give additional knowledge on how aviation interviews are conducted.
I, along with many of my peers, were extremely excited about this new and inspiring event as it assisted in easing the transition into a career as a pilot. The attendance for this event surprised me, as so many more students had signed up than we anticipated. As I sat in the audience during each presentation, I looked around and saw many engaged student pilots taking notes, myself included, and wanting to develop their understanding, comprehension, and expertise. In my opinion, the mock interviews were one of the highlights of the development day, and hopefully it was for other pilots as well.
Although the event had a few hurdles in relation to event spaces and a limited number of interviewers due to the outstanding number of interested students, UWAS was able to find other solutions and have a highly successful day regardless of the challenges. We also created a feedback form for the attending students to help identify opportunities to enhance the event for next time, in hopes that it will become annual and increase its success.
The outstanding teamwork amongst our UWAS team, guest speakers, and students, was the sole reason we were able to make such a memorable inaugural Professional Development Day. The tremendous support from the alumni, graduates from 1992 to 2019, demonstrates the incredible vibrance in our aviation community. It is not easy to plan such a big and profound event, but the hard work, diligence, and commitment of everyone both in the spotlight and background made this a resounding success, and we truly couldn’t have done it without them.
As many of our students are now entering the hiring process, we are confident that the new resources and expertise from PD Day will help contribute towards our students’ success landing their first flying job – a small step towards a bright career ahead.
