Jonatthomp

I was mainly thinking of getting on LinkedIn to network to get a foot in the door with a unit near me. I’ve only got 5 or 6 places around me that I can apply to between Guard and Reserves and commute from where I live. The wife has a good job and we don’t want to move right now.

The problem that I have is that I’ve worked for my dads company since I was 15. I only recently got a job as a flight instructor in July. So not sure I’ve been there long enough to ask for LORs.

Is it weird or a bad idea to reach out to current pilots in the Air Force Reserves or Air National Guard through LinkedIn to try to network? I’m a CFI with about 400 hours and just had lasik to hopefully be picked up by a unit after the 6 months recovery time is up. I know rushing is huge part of applying to different units, but I’m not sure if that’s really a thing right now. I’m studying really hard to take the AFOQT to get 90s across the board and 99s for pilot/nav. Where I think my application will lack is my LORs and not having any connections. I was searching LinkedIn and there are a lot of pilots on there who are currently with Guard or Reserves. I want to take the AFOQT and get my scores back before I reach out to anyone, but I am just curious peoples thoughts on whether LinkedIn is an acceptable form of networking right now given the circumstances. Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!