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Originally Posted by Skybird
"The most important duty of ours is to be happy in this life." (D.H. Lawrence, in these or quite similiar wordss). |
this is very true. I am happy in my current job for the most part, i like to road trip in my RV, which i get to do a lot of obviously. I enjoy being able to help people, and i get paid really well in the process. the downside is it is a lonely life. I cant drag the family along, and even if i could my productivity would suffer. Its not out of the question to be the only guy assigned to a project so if you have an opportunity to hit the local bar for a couple of cold ones after work, your doing it solo. With a 14 hour day you have little time to get to know your RV park neighbors, i often find myself doing paperwork until 11pm, and work defines every moment of my life through about 80% of the year. but the stretch of off time to do whatever i want from November to the end of February is kinda nice
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skybird
I know nothing about the pilot business, but I saw documentaries about it on TV, and they painted a very gloomy picture. The young ones entering training have to pay for it all by themselves at Lufthansa, leaving them with debts between 150 and 200 thousands at the end. They then need to collect flight hours, and many accept to not get paid but to pay the airline for getting allowance to fly, because over here they will lose their license if they do not show up with so and so many flying hours per years. And in Germany, they then count - before the (social) law - as "unemployed without job training" Many accept to get treated like flying slaves by airlines in the cheap-flyer-segment of the market. And when they get a sorted employment, they then need long time to get rid of their monumental debts.
It is no dream job, it seems. Not at all.
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this is largely true in the US as well, you can go to one of these 2 - 4 year universities and learn to fly and get a degree in aerospace. but whats that good for if your aviation career doesnt work out? the cost of these schools can be as much as a new home. or more.
Much of the attraction of the job is being an AA captain or a FedEx Captain making $250,000 a year on the upper end, $180,000 a year on the lower end. but it takes a lot of strategy, planning, and patience to get there. Somewhere there is a lot of luck, being in the right place at the right time and having the planets align and being born under a lucky star as well.
there are a lot of things that can force you out of the business long before mandatory retirement. If i become diabetic for example... well i can still do my current job, but im OUT as an airline pilot. so that 52 year old guy who has been flying since he was 19, its all he knows, now he has atrial fibrillation bouts... done. congratulations, you get to hurry to start over in a new career at 52 and your daughter is in her 3rd year of college, and your house is 18 months from paid off... now what?
a "pilot shortage" has been forecast for many years, word wide. and especially in the US. though im not sure the current situation is the result of a shortage because it seems like the result of mismanagement of personnel. Once i completed my research into the company and asked questions, they need captains badly right now, hundreds of them. but thats only because they have so few first officers hitting their minimum hours to qualify.
so hire in a guy like me. Sit captain as a bandaid on the problem just to keep a seat filled, and when the first officer who has been with the company for 2 years before me meets his hours... he gets my seat.
what i got out of the deal was $45,000 cash bonus and a $60,000 a year salary
ummm no thanks. i can go hit one good hail storm for 6 or 7 weeks and bank that same $45,000. solid pass. especially if i am going to have to sit airport standby 8 hours a day in New York waiting for the phone to ring. no
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skybird
It reminded me of the situation many students at British, french and American universities, who leave universities with so high debts that they are extremely vulnerable for gettign totally exploited by the job market and cannot find a chance to breathe and think just in their monthly struggle to get themsleves and their debts financed, somehow.
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you're right, its not just aviation industry either, its across the board... as Mike Rowe says
"we are loaning money we dont have, to kids who cant pay it back to give them educations they cant use."