Originally Posted by
Bzzt
That had less to do with a negative outlook and more to do with unfortunate financial circumstance. My wife was out of work at the time and we quite simply couldn't afford the pay cut + a month without pay + lodging during training. I wanted to go to CPZ and I really liked the people I met during my interview. Unfortunately I just couldn't make it work.
Like I've said before I use this forum to vent frustration. I come off worse than I do in life. An interesting note is that your career arc is what sells most of us on this career. Unfortunately you seem to be more of an outlier than the norm. Every year I get a bit older and the payoff of continuing to chase the mainline job gets a bit less. I'm approaching the "**** or get off the pot" moment, I'd like this career to work out but it seems increasingly unlikely. I'm not the only one who feels this way, so I try to provide the dark side perspective to guys asking questions.
I won't deny that when the door is shut the career is nice. Unfortunately there is also stagnation, regional schedules, low pay , and commuting that really suck the life out of me.
Remember that you got in at a time when the music was stopping. The last 5 years have been rather depressing for many involved. However, in the airline sector we felt less pain than many others in other sectors. Much of the fat was cut in the airlines post 9/11, but at the same time a bubble in the regionals was created. That's where the fat was in this last downturn and the bubble came to a head.
The music is starting again and at a rather dramatic rate. For example, Usair is at full training capacity and is still going to be several hundred pilots short of what they really need. DL is going to be critically short as well, despite running 50 a month. There will be opportunities to be had that are much better career places for most at a regional now. There will always be the outliers and the lifers, but for the majority, there will be good things to come.