Airline Pilot Forums

With all of the dedication, hard work, time, (do I even need to mention money?) that it takes to finally get on with an airline I was curious if anyone has ever just up and quit because they didn't like the airline they were working for? If you do quit how hard would it be to get on with another carrier?

First off, congrats on your upcoming PhD - very well done!!! (I saw your post in another forum).

Secondly, it would most likely come up in a subsequent interview. But, so long as one had a good logical reason, I believe it'd be fine. What interviewers don't want to hear is about how one quit due to personal spite, scheduling problems, bad management, etc. If it comes downs to a personal reason, for example a dying airline, imminent layoff, and you quit in order to cut your losses and pursue something else and then decide to go back to the industry at a later date, I don't think it'd be much a problem in an interview. However, even this reason might require some sugarcoating.

Some other ramifications - if you quit, you don't have the lack of currency excuse that can be used by a furloughee. IOW, it behooves your resume to figure out a way to stay in the air as much as possible. Furthermore, unemployment becomes unavailable if you voluntarily quit. Therefore, most people without an underlying excuse would come to the sound conclusion to stick it out at a particular employer until either a layoff occurs or another opportunity comes available.

Sounds much like how it works in the government, too. I just wondered how much flexibility you have as a pilot once you get hired. I have heard good and bad stories. It would just be sad to be stuck somewhere you didn't like. But if you get to fly maybe it doesn't matter so much.

Someone once told me logic is a pretty flower that smells bad. I imagine no logical reason would matter to an interviewer.

Thanks!!

With all of the dedication, hard work, time, (do I even need to mention money?) that it takes to finally get on with an airline I was curious if anyone has ever just up and quit because they didn't like the airline they were working for? If you do quit how hard would it be to get on with another carrier?


LOL, go back to the 2006-2008 hiring boom and look at Kit Darby's reports for the number of THOUSANDS of new pilots hired.... then realize that most of the airlines were not adding new airframes during that period and you are left with what.... basically they were hiring to fill attrition... and from the looks of the seniority lists I've seen, it wasn't the folks with 5+ years of seniority leaving or the old folks retiring.... it was the new hires and first year or so folks becoming totally disgusted with what they got themselves into...


That all being said; if you were to attempt to enter the profession a second time it woudl depend largely of the demand at the time. If the airlines were in panic mode hiring as they were in 2006-2008 they'd gobble you up in an instant... if it remains as it is now, you will need a good explanation as to why you left.

Use that PHD, and some plain logic and you could have answered those questions yourself.

Well, I never made it to an airline so forgive me for not knowing the answers to those questions!! I don't exactly follow industry hiring practices as it has no effect on what I do. I was simply asking a question because I was curious. :(

Use that PHD, and some plain logic and you could have answered those questions yourself.

Quit being an a$$.

I have more friends quit at airlines than I have fingers and toes....I have only heard of 2 no shows, but generally if they quit they all give their 2 weeks.

Did your friends that quit find other jobs flying? Or did they find other careers?

Did your friends that quit find other jobs flying? Or did they find other careers?

I think that most went on to other careers. If you just walk off the job it is a signal that you have had enough of all of it.

I like to study hiring numbers too and most of the hiring over the last 7 years or so was due to regional burn out and leaving the profession.

Skyhigh

Well, I'm glad they found other careers. It is just a shame to put all that effort into pursuing an aviation career only to hate it when you get there.

Well, I'm glad they found other careers. It is just a shame to put all that effort into pursuing an aviation career only to hate it when you get there.


I suspect that a lot of people who pursue aviation as a profession come from wealthy parents who have the contacts to get their kids a real job once they have had their fill.

My theory is that when faced with going to college what is better than making your parents pay for airline fantasy camp in lieu of actually studying something of value?

If colleges were smart they would also open professional race car driver degrees and perhaps an ultimate fighting certificate with a mountain sports minor?

Skyhigh

I suspect that a lot of people who pursue aviation as a profession come from wealthy parents who have the contacts to get their kids a real job once they have had their fill.

My theory is that when faced with going to college what is better than making your parents pay for airline fantasy camp in lieu of actually studying something of value.

If colleges were smart they would open professional race car driver degrees and perhaps an ultimate fighting certificate with a mountain sports minor?

Skyhigh

Ouch!

That is all.

Ouch!

That is all.

I have never thought that professional pilot programs belong in a university. Flying is a vocation and not in intellectual discipline.

Skyhigh

These pro pilot university programs are designed to monetize the dream to fly - the shiny brochures, students gazing contemplatively into the sky as a jet flies overhead, etc.

Financing is fairly easy to get at a large school, as opposed to a freelance loan. ERAU is charging something like 40-50k per year to attend their school. Nevermind the ABSURD interest the loan underwriter is making on these long term, relatively high risk, loans.

After 4 years, a graduate will have a CFI ticket, 300-400 hours, an airport management degree, bleak career prospects, and $200,000 in debt.

Considering such a degree is useless and that the useful part (the flight training itself) can be had at a fraction of that price, the only winner in that game is the school.

My CFI told me to get my degree in something other than aviation. Which I did. I couldn't afford any of the universities that had aviation programs so I just did my flying with a small flight school.

Sadly, even that was expensive. Being a single mom and trying to fly and work full time and go to school full time got pretty difficult. So I just focused on school and got my degree (in physics). Now I work for the DoD and am finishing my PhD and have great job security. But I miss flying terribly. Everyday.

Go fly. With a PhD, you ought to have enough money to fly for fun.

Go fly. With a PhD, you ought to have enough money to fly for fun. Well, I'm not done with the PhD yet, but soon. And I work for the Department of Defense. Which means I'm not exactly paid all that well, especially for being in DC. So it isn't all that simple.
:)

I came from the other end of the spectrum, flew for 4 years (1 year instructing, 3 years airlines) and have since transferred over to the DoD. I don't miss flying EVERYDAY but on occasion when southwest is overhead, turning base to final, i miss it.

After getting on board with the airlines it's probably a good idea to decide if that airline is a good fit for you VERY VERY SOON. During a hiring boom like the last few years, people who made the jump within the first couple of months really had it pay off (typically) but those who stuck it out will find it harder to leave later.

Unlike other career fields where people can ensure they're salary (within reason) will stay the same from one company to the next based on their experience levels, the airlines are different. You'll know going in how much you're going to make, give or take a few pennies, but any time you leave Company A for company B, you'll find yourself at the bottom of the food chain all over again, and on first year pay. So, if you jump from one airline to the next, to the next, over say a 3 year period, that'll be three years of your life at 20k/yr...and that's not going to pay for a nice apt. anywhere, much less D.C...

PM me if you've got anymore questions...as it stands for me, DoD security, pay raises, and my pay (for living in the midwest) is pretty good, and can be pretty darn awesome in some years to come....The thought of throwing all that away for the joy of flying airliners again seems foolish to me at best....But that's just my situation, and yours might be different. My biggest question would be, if you left your agency, would you be able to get back in relatively quickly? For me, i think the answer is no, and that's something i'd have a hard time walking away from.

I have never thought that professional pilot programs belong in a university. Flying is a vocation and not in intellectual discipline.

Skyhigh

I agree with Sky 100% on this one

I suspect that a lot of people who pursue aviation as a profession come from wealthy parents who have the contacts to get their kids a real job once they have had their fill.

My theory is that when faced with going to college what is better than making your parents pay for airline fantasy camp in lieu of actually studying something of value?

If colleges were smart they would also open professional race car driver degrees and perhaps an ultimate fighting certificate with a mountain sports minor?

Skyhigh

LOL!!! It is not sooo far fetched...

Major: Mountain Climbing
Minor: Geology

Seems stupid...right?

Major: Boating
Minor: Oceanography

Seems stupid still right?

Major: Flying Planes (Aviation)
Minor: Physics

Sadly this one is real.

Aviation as a B.S. should not exist. It is all backwords...the minors should be the majors in the above rediculous examples. The minors have something to do with the majors so it is called an education.The last one is also rediculous.

Working for money and flying for fun is really where it's at. Work has a way of sucking the fun out of flying anyways. I get more "self-actualization" out of the ratted out C-150 I bought and have tied down at the local airport, than the turbofan contraption I fly for in the military. No FCIF, homosexual training CBT, nastygrams from the bean counting pigeon colonels about SABC, pointless CORIs and endless ORM sheets to tell myself "am I ready to fly today?". Granted, I get to serve my country in a flying capacity (most of the time I guess) so that provides me with self-actualization, but generally I deal with less BS to get on and turn the key and fly on the former. Same goes for the airlines. Just thinking about 121 hoops and being gone from home just as much as if I was deployed, just to get to "turn the key" on the thing, makes me cringe. (And we know how ironclad them domiciles are for homesteading....)

Now if we could only make Cessna quit that foolishness about calling a $120K Skycatcher "the affordable avenue to the dream of flight" then we would have less broken dreams and people mortgaging their future on the no longer true outcomes of their parent's generation. In my book a great job is one that allows me the ability to afford and the time to go fly my own airplane (with my family too, what a concept) to my heart's content.

Honestly, I find more genuine aviation lover's at the local mom and pop breakfast fly-in than the people I "fly with" at work. Hardly anybody flies "for fun" in my shop, most rather hunt, fish or buy SUVs and guns than go fly. And the thing is, military flying is really not flying at all, it's a structured and rather scripted (even for us of western doctrine) employment of a weapon system. So quite literally, flying is but work to them; meh, I'll pass on that outcome.