Originally Posted by SkyHigh

I choose to be a pilot for Alaska Airlines even though there were many other viable alternatives. I limited myself even though I knew there were few good jobs to go around. By placing so many limits on my employment I screwed the pooch.

It is one thing to fill out an application to be a fire fighter and get turned down. All that is lost is the hour it took to put together the application, and a lifetime of dreams and preparation. Just getting to the point where one can fill out an application for a major airline involves most of a decade, or more, and hundreds of thousands in education, training and lost wages. Few lay out the facts to young pilots. Like lambs to the slaughter they are fed lies about pilot shortages and false dreams of a fast trip to the left seat at SWA. This applies to many other college grads, just look at the employment rate and level.

Why else would rational people invest so much unless they expected an equitable return? In the end the choices are bleak. Quit what you have so much invested in and start over in a new path while still carrying the debt load of their dead employment dream or stay with the sinking ship. The setback of a failed career in any field is hugely painful and effects ones life for decades.

Had someone honestly laid out the facts to me, other than a Captain or two, as a young person I swiftly would have chosen a different path. I believe that most others would do the same, however there is no profit in selling the reality. The system is designed to create false hopes to keep the education bubble busy.SKyhigh