I have been racking my brain to think of any kind of second job to backup my pay as a first year reserve FO that lives at base. Any ideas? What have or are others doing to get by?
Go to a grocery store and bag groceries. Thats what I did when I started being a cfi. Had only 3 141 students, but stuck with it and got enough to fill my schedule with 5-7 hours of flight training a day. Glad I stuck with because now it would be hard to get a cfi job or anything now.
The only thing that sucks is that you will be one of the most qualified employees i the store and be on the bottom of the totem pole like you are now.
A plus is you can be flexible with hours and get some extra cash. And a little exercise by being on your feet all day.
At one point I worked as a carwasher for a rental car company, always hiring and the pay is not too bad. Plus, very flexible schedule. Line service is always a good one as well, decent pay, hopefully tips from crews, networking, and working outside if you like that sort of thing.
Delivering pizzas is not a bad gig.. I did it for a while when I first started instructing until I got too many students. All you do is drive around, listen to music and collect money,... and sometimes other things
I've also heard that substitute teaching isn't a bad idea either. Very flexible.
Trying to find a job that lets you leave in a moment's notice when on call is pretty tough. My first year at a regional I just sucked it up and squeaked by financially. However, I used all of that extra time to really get in shape, read books I've always meant to and surprise the wife by picking her up for lunch every so often.
So long as you can eat and have a roof over your head, the first year at a regional can be what you make of it. Best of luck to you.
labbats made some good points. my sugestion is this, if you ever bartend/serve before, doing it in a rest or bar is kind of hard since they do the schedule on weekly basis, and for them to hire you on limited basis is not going to work for them, so go to large hotels/resorts/banquet facilities and try to get on as an on-call banquet server/bartender. you work when you want, and depending on the function, it could be 4 to 8 hours -or more- and the gratuity is pretty standard. making 80 to 300 dls in one day -easy work also- is not uncommon. have been doing it for 10 years and it works. good luck.
oh and another thing, if you end up in a national chain -like a marriott, hilton, etc.-, you'll get employee rates in their properties. between non rev flying and discounted hotel rooms, taking my family away it's not that expensive. make it work for you.
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