CopterJobs makes recruitment a click away for helicopter workers
Debi Irby always had a tough time finding new employees when she was chief pilot for various helicopter operators.

Debi Irby always had a tough time finding new employees when she was chief pilot for various helicopter operators. The inquiries that did come to her attention were either random résumés from unqualified people or former military pilots asking how they could get into the civil market. It didn’t help that even within the aviation industry, helicopter people were thought of as a wild bunch, she said, “but we are professionals.”

Two years ago, Irby decided that the helicopter industry needed its own professional employment Web site, not only to help with recruiting but also to illustrate how the industry has matured. Irby studied Web job sites for a year before she and graphic artist Caryn Hammond started working on CopterJobs.com. Getting the new site right took a lot of effort. “I was very picky about making it easy for job seekers and employers,” she said.