Originally Posted by troyb

This is so true and the most common point that airline pilots overlook. The grass always looks greener outside of aviation but I can tell you that it's not from personal experience working for a so called stable company that used to be number 21 on the Fortune list. Just like you said, I have my MBA and I worked sometimes from 7am to midnight only to be at work the next day at 7am, my laptop and blackberry always followed me home on the weekends. I've watched not hundreds but thousands of people get laid off over time, management get hacked in half and combined with other divisions.
Yes if you compare the airline job to what it used to be before deregulation or even 911 it has gone downhill but try comparing aviation to what it's really like outside of aviation. Even if you get stuck at a regional living in base for the rest of your life, go try and make 100k in the corporate world with half of the month off. With that being said I will admit that if you get laid off from an airline job it doesn't even compair to a corporate layoff because you can't move laterally and you have to start from scratch. My point is just like you said, that the airline job isn't perfect but neither is the non-aviation corporate job.