r/aviationmaintenance • u/Icy_Feathers • 1d ago
What is corporate like?
Would love to hear from someone in corporate currently or in the past what kind of experience it is. What type of schedule is it usually, pay, job security if there is any. Compared to majors what’s the biggest differences?
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u/jhsantacruz63 23h ago
Im DOM for a small company. We manage 3 super mid, 2 medium and 1 large aircraft for clients. Currently we have myself, one full time tech, one part time tech and two pilots who are A/P's and help out when we need them. All of our aircraft are less than 7 yrs old so they dont need a ton of work.
We do quite a bit in house and if its too big of an inspection or we need warranty work done we will send them to a service center. Ive been with the company for about 10 yrs and started as an A/P coming out of a GA flight school. Worked my way up and pretty happy with where Im at.
Sometimes it sucks, like tonight I was there until 7pm working on a lav but most of the time its pretty good.
As others have said, you gotta get a little lucky and find a good place. My company has taken good care of me and while there are some things I would like done differently, its never been enough to roll the dice with another shop.
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u/Sawfish1212 hangs out at airports to look at airplanes, amazingly gets paid 18h ago edited 18h ago
The best gigs are found by word of mouth and insider connections, through other mechanics and pilots. You need a couple years of experience on corporate aircraft, usually gained at a service center or MRO, though some get it from corporate AOG. Then it's all about the right opportunities opening up.
Just be aware that you'll be married to the jet, so your life will be scheduled around when the jet comes and goes, and when it's flying, you're going to be tracking it and coordinating any AOG issues. This isn't the airlines, where you forget about it until you punch in for your next shift. Normally you're salaried and that salary means that there's no overtime for late nights and weekends when the jet is broken, and your phone cannot be on silent when the jet is on a trip.
You've got to be extremely detail oriented, and stocking, cleaning, polishing is often part of the job, even if there's a cleaning crew and an exterior appearance contract company. Also expect to be out of a job if the company has a bad year, gets bought out, or the owner gets into tax issues. Be aware of any news about your jet being for sale, it might be your only clue about what's coming. Always keep your ears open for opportunities from other insiders, and remember that people you hire can easily become an opportunity to something better, so tip them well so they want to come work for you again and remember you when they hear about a job opening somewhere else. One of my coworkers is someone I hired to come do testing on my aircraft previously.
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u/itsjacob04 17h ago
I work in MX planning a fleet of 20 or so jets from g5s to citations, our shop, which in our case is a sister company has about 15-20 techs I believe, it’s no more than finding a job on indeed, I’ve worked at 135s, 145s, 121s, the job it self heavily depends on the shop your at. At my current place it’s pretty much everything except engine overhauls. I’ve worked at cargo charter companies that pretty much was the same, I’ve also worked private fleets that you just did smaller scheduled and unscheduled MX and had to travel to the AC.
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u/cancerous_176 “Looks good from here” 13h ago
As many have said, it wildly depends on the outfit. Some shops are excellent and some are nightmares.
Find a good shop or MRO like standard aero and make good connections, work hard, and have high standards of work. Eventually an offer will come for a private flight department that pays very well.
Right now I work for a private department owned by a UHNWI. Less than 20 real hours of work a week, but when he travels so do you. The plane goes AOG you work till it’s fixed.
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u/Ready-Salad-2288 1d ago
Corporate varies as much as any maintenance operation. Some suck, some are cushy dream gigs. My rule of thumb - the bigger the operation the worse it usually is for mechanics.
I work as a 3 man mechanic team for 2 medium large corporate jets. Owned by a local CEO who loves us to death. Salary, benefits match close to his C-suite. If no major maintenance and he isn’t flying, might be at work 10hrs a week keeping things clean. But if they blow a tire 4 states away? Well, time for a little trip. He sends us first class. If we hit a phase or TBO, we work until it’s done. Sometimes I worry about skill rot, but not really.
Early in my career I worked for bigger corporate outfits that were just awful. Even more of cheapskates than your regular GA owners.