FLYING HIGH

Peter Vanspall, Chair of BITAx, talks to Seth Vanbeek about the power of perseverance

BITAx is the chapter of BITA aimed at helping younger members with Education, Experience and Expertise. We were founded in 2017 and have been expanding since with new members and informative events.

Before the plague, we were meeting every month at the Steel Yard at Cannon Street, and since we went virtual, we have hosted a steady stream of events featuring incredible young people who have been extraordinarily willing to share their hard-won life lessons and experiences with our audience.

We’ve had an exclusive live interview with Dean Kelly, who holds the record for fastest zero to exit sale of a recruitment company, exiting for an 8-figure sum in less than 3 years at 30 years old, and spoken to entrepreneurs about the best time to start a business.

Most recently I was pleased to be able to speak with Seth Vanbeek and interview him live at a BITAx online event. Seth was the UK’s youngest qualified commercial pilot when he qualified at 18 years old, and we spoke about how persistence was key to achieving his goals.

Talking to someone who has achieved so much and strived to achieve their dreams at such a young age was inspiring. As Seth told us, to get qualified you need to pass an 18 – 24-month long course, consisting of 830 hours of theory and 250 hours of flying. Which is a reassuring amount of time, I’m sure you’ll agree! Following that, some commercial companies require an additional 5,000 hours of training which, timed with the arrival of Covid, made it difficult for him to find a job.

‘I was naive enough initially to send out my CV with an email, and I realised that this wasn’t a strategy that would work – especially when going up against 90,000 unemployed pilots, who had many thousands of hours flying experience.’ Seth realised that he needed to use what he had to stand out. ‘I started attaching covering letters, newspaper articles and online pieces that had been written about me as the youngest qualifying pilot, and even then, it wasn’t working and around 90% weren’t getting back to me.’

This is when Seth realised the importance of relationship building and networking. He went to LinkedIn and started connecting with heads of recruitment companies and people who hired in the companies he wanted to work for and started messaging them to build a relationship.

As we at BITA know, relationships are key and as Paul Whitnell often says – ‘People do business with people.’

Seth even started looking for the CEOs of companies and sending them messages; ‘Most of them didn’t reply, and it’s tough because you can see when they’ve read your message, but it’s expected, and you just need to keep pushing.’

In the face of such a difficult start after all the work he had done, and the challenges of trying to get hired as a pilot when the air travel industry has been decimated, it’s doubly impressive that he continued. ‘All I needed was one person to respond, and to agree to talk to me on the phone so I could explain my vision’ elaborated Seth.

Even though there were less demand for commercial flights, corporate aviation saw a lift, with many high net-worth individuals taking to the sky in smaller, luxury, corporate planes. It was here that Seth found his foothold.

‘I started making phone calls to corporate aviation companies after looking up their CEOs, and asking to be put through to them, or getting their email addresses. But at least at this point I know I’m speaking to a specific person, rather than a generic email address.’ This is what paid off for Seth eventually.

‘It’s about perseverance’ says Seth. ‘I managed to connect with one of the people hiring, and I just kept checking in, saying hello, and he called me one Friday morning and told me that there was an opportunity if I wanted it.’

Seth doesn’t feel like he has started his journey yet and still has a lot to achieve. He is from an underprivileged background and was raised by a single mum; he wants to inspire people and show them that with hard work and perseverance, people have a real shot at achieving their goals.

His next goal is to break the record for youngest captain of a commercial aircraft and has plans to set up foundations, to help others gain access to the opportunities that he had to work hard to create. We wish him the best of luck and certainly found ourselves inspired.

The video recording of this interview is on the resources section of the bita.ie website