Episode 257 Having Impact

Ready 4 Pushback

Nik Fialka

Business, Careers, Leisure, Aviation

4.8 • 716 Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this solo episode, Nik dives into one of the most important, yet often overlooked, aspects of building a career in aviation - impact. Whether you’re a student pilot, CFI, or trying to move up to the majors, the question is the same: What separates you from everyone else? Nik shares a story about a young pilot named Will who took action, stepped into leadership, and created real value in his community. His decision to start a new Professional Asian Pilots Association (PAPA) chapter at his university not only built his reputation—it earned him a scholarship and is accelerating his path to the airlines. If you’ve ever wondered what “doing the extra things” really means—or how to get noticed without hundreds of hours or a shiny resume—this episode is for you. It's not about gaming the system. It’s about showing up, giving back, and leaving an imprint that goes beyond flight hours.

What You'll Learn:

Why impact is your most valuable differentiator

How involvement in pilot organizations can help build your career

The importance of proactivity, mentorship, and community

How one aspiring airline pilot turned leadership into opportunity—and how you can too

CONNECT WITH US

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SPONSOR

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Big Rock - Take the Lead by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, pilot, welcome back to Ready for Pushback. Solo show, here we go. Today, we are talking about
0:09.8	having impact. Most pilots don't understand what career opportunities are available in the world
0:17.2	of aviation. They're making career decisions based on advice from friends or posts on internet forums,
0:24.3	meaning they are taking huge risk with their livelihood without having all the details.
0:29.5	This podcast was created to help you understand the aviation industry so you can find your dream job.
0:36.5	Let's get ready for pushback. Here's your host and my dad,
0:41.5	Nick Fialca. People always ask me, what can they do to separate themselves? What can they do
0:50.1	to get the job? Why are they not getting called? What are the extra things? And it comes down to one
0:57.4	thing. Impact. Having impact in what you're doing is so important. When I started this show,
1:06.3	Tron Williams, the owner Spitfire, came to me and said, this is going to be a big deal. You are going to
1:13.3	have a lot of impact in this industry. And I kind of shrugged him off a little bit. I didn't, I didn't
1:20.7	really, I don't really think anybody listened to me. I thought maybe I just do this thing for a
1:25.9	couple months and be done with it, but he was
1:29.4	right, basically. This thing has turned into something huge. And I thank you for listening. Thank you
1:36.1	for being part of that. I certainly don't take that lightly. I think it's amazing that I get to
1:44.1	talk about what I love. And people,
1:46.6	people appreciate it and people can get some value from it. And people, people can grow and,
1:52.4	and make their, make their situation better. And that's, that's what I want to do. Like, this is,
1:59.6	the thing I want to do is give what I can to help you.
2:04.5	And it's been great.
2:06.0	It's been really great.
2:07.3	It's been a lot of work.
	...

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