Originally Posted by
ryane946
Shane, I have two pieces of advice for you.
1. CFI is definately the way to go. You are only 19. Most airlines won't hire you until you are 21 anyway. As a CFI, I average about 80 hours a month. I am young (22) and my flight school has a lot of "lifer" flight instructors. It turns out the younger students tend to like you. Don't worry, after 1-2 years of CFI'ing, you will have MORE THAN ENOUGH time to go to any regional you want! This is your big advantage. Not being able to spend more years as a FO at a regional (if you get hired at 19, you can't upgrade to captain until you are 23).
2. Are you going to go to college??? This is incredibly important if you want to have a good career as an airline pilot. Period. Most majors WILL NOT hire you without a college degree. If you decide not to get a 4 year college degree, you are costing yourself a good MILLION(s) dollars over your career. The fact is if you don't get a 4 year college degree, your career will likely end at a regional airline, making $90,000 a year. You will be excluding yourself from all the good jobs in aviation (major airline, cargo, corporate). With a college degree, your career is much more likely to end at a major airline making $200k a year. BIG DIFFERENCE! And that adds up over 10,20,30 years!
Sure, you might get hired a few years earlier if you don't go to college, but your argument about getting a job right now is like: Two 18 year old kids graduate high school. One goes to work at Safeway saying, "Hey look, I am making more money than you." The smarter one goes to college, does not make any money for 4 years. But we all know who is WAY better off in the longrun. Yup, the kid who went to college.
If you do not get a college degree, your career will likely end at a regional, making 90k tops. If you go to college, your career will more than likely end at a major airline making 200k, or perhaps FedEx or UPS making 250k. BIG DIFFERENCE! Suddenly those 4 years at regional pay are made in less than a year at a major airline.
That's the best advice I can offer for a prosperous career in the airline industry.
All kool aid aside, most pilots career will end at the regional level. Just crunch the numbers and realize that there is not an infinite amount of major jobs out there, plus the average age of the regional pilot is getting younger, meaning that the time the majority are retiring, you yourself will be on the tail end of your career, which is probably not the time to switch from a regional captain to a retiring major FO. not everyone is going to get to the majors, which in all reality with the equipment being flown at the regional level is not a bad thing.