Aviation management alumnus Jamie Donaldson graduated from London Met in 2009, he is now a Route Manager for easyJet. We caught up with Jamie to talk about his university experience and how his course has helped carve his career.
I’m glad I chose to study aviation management at London Met, as the course content itself carried a really broad range of areas much more so than other courses I’d seen at the time. It was also exciting for me to study in London, this city is so culturally diverse but it is also one of the biggest aviation hubs in the world, which for me was a pull factor when deciding what university I should go to. I am now a Route Manager at easyJet for London, so I look after a portfolio of routes that we offer to our customers from London. It is my job to choose the destinations, schedules and frequencies and look at what our product is for the customer. So it’s up to me to allocate easyJet’s capacity profitably across our London network.
The course was useful for me because actually without it I don’t think I would be doing the current job that I do now. The fact that I had this degree really helped me when I was applying for jobs. One story that I always tell everyone is that when I was going through the recruitment process for my current job the deciding factor between me and another candidate was the fact that I had this degree.
The thing that got me interested in aviation was a flight simulator that my parents bought me when I was a child and ever since that first go I was really addicted to aviation and I knew from the age of 6/7 that that’s what I wanted to do with my career. The fact that you can connect people globally is what really counts and that’s something I can do on a daily basis which is really nice. For me personally, I really enjoy travelling so the fact I can work in an industry I truly am passionate about is really important.
The advice that I would give someone who was thinking about a prospective career in aviation would be to just go for it. The industry is huge and it’s global, if you enjoy travelling the opportunities are endless. The course itself really helped me and it helped me secure my role today.
If I could describe my experience at London Met in one word I think I would use transformative. You go into the course as one person and you come out as another. The course itself helps you develop personally and professionally, it gives you such a broad range of industry and interpersonal skills that by the time you do graduate you have a very well-rounded skill set to look for that all-important job.
