Originally Posted by
Engineer413
The experience was really good and they did not seem like sales people, they were completely honest with me in which I liked. Now of course is the hard decision. Im just starting to really feel like many people are not happy about that long rode ahead but why did some of you guys choose to be a pilot. I dont mean to disregard anyone, but post after post I hear the same thing, do not become a pilot, so well then why are you one? I know regulations and politics have changed but in the end you are still flying for a living. I know the hours, the pay rate, the challenge of finding jobs, ect.
I wouldn't trade being a pilot for anything.
That said, I'm not an airline pilot anymore, nor do I wish to be. It's a dead-end career IMO. It could "turn around", but it's set up like a pyramid scheme with too many factors that are out of your control. So I choose not to play the game. When I was in training, I thought getting a commercial certificate meant I could and should be an "airline pilot". That's the ticket and the line you hear the most, but guess what, you don't have to, no one has to. You can be a private pilot, enjoy flying, buy your own plane, etc. You can be a flight instructor, enjoy the new challenges that always present, get to fly to different places every day rather than being stuck on a route, and that's just the tip of the iceberg of things you can do as a pilot and connect it with employment...rather than just being an airline pilot. When you go to a "flight school", you are usually pounded with the airline "goal" so often that you can't really see what's out there and what you can possibly do in aviation. That's where more people should focus IMO. There's great stuff out there.