A&Ps: The Female Workforce

Tips for Success

• Get involved!
  
  
• As far as schooling goes - get in/get out/ get on (with it).
  
  
• Show your interest in maintenance to your teachers (they get special job offers and will pass it on to their most interested students).
  
  
• Get an internship; volunteer if you must.
  
  
• Participate in the FAA AMT Awards program.
  
  
• Show your support for industry associations; and take advantage of their scholarships.
  
  
• Go to the association conferences.
  
  
• If you want a corporate job, hang around corporate people. If you want an airline job, hang around airline people.
  
  
• Ask lots of questions!
  
  
• Ask for help if you need it!
  
  
• Write for scholarships!
  
  
• Get more training. It doesn't all have to be paid training. Find someone you admire in the field and get some tutoring.
  
  
• Be a better mechanic. Learn advanced troubleshooting or avionics.
  
  
• If you find a company you want to be with and they don't have a maintenance position opening but one might open up later, keep yourself forefront of the director of maintenance (DOM) or hiring person and don't give up! Show your interest and enthusiasm!

Industry Leader

Women get into aviation for some of the same reasons as men, a love of the industry. And this is certainly true of Mary Ann Eiff. Starting with model airplanes and Wylie Post biplane restoration projects, she has made a successful career for herself and is helping others pursue it as well.

Last year she received the Phillips 66 Aviation Leadership Award at the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture for her efforts to introduce young people, especially girls, to careers in aviation. And PAMA awarded her an Award of Merit at its 2004 annual symposium for her professionalism and contributions to the industry. (And she also won last year's PAMA Snap-on toolbox raffle.)

She received her A&P in 1980, and also holds a bachelor's degree and master's in adult education. Eiff has worked in general aviation and for the airlines, along with teaching maintenance (A&P) classes at Purdue University and ATA Airlines.

Eiff was a founding board member for both Women in Aviation (WAI) and the Association for Women in Aviation Maintenance (AWAM). And as WAI scholarship chair she has administered awards totaling $4.5 million over the past 10 years. This year there are a total of 63 scholarships to encourage people to enter or further develop careers in aviation.

Eiff's recommendations for those considering the aviation field: "Go for it. Airplanes don't care who fixes them."