I went the corporate route, first for a really big name that moved us out to the west coast. Then five years later I was lured away to work for an individual, back in the southeast.
It ain't group hugs all the time, but my department is small with 2 airplanes and 5 guys. We all like each other. My boss is a decent and genteel man with a nice family. He's a workaholic. We fly a busy schedule mostly domestic, some international.
I had taken a leave back in the mid-90's to manage a corporate flight department and had really enjoyed it and when it came time to make a change, I had some idea what I was getting into.
This work here is varied and it certainly isn't for everyone. There's a whole lot to be said for the showing up, flying the trip and the going directly home aspect of an airline pilot. On the worst days I get a little sentimental for those days. For example, one day I could be cleaning the office commodes, the next helping to install a garlock Carbon seal on an engine accessory drive pad, the next, meeting with sales and technical people from an OEM to spec our new plane. Arranging charters for extra lift. And oh yeah, flying trips, meeting with vendors, paying my contract people, shopping for supplies, meeting with payroll once a month. On and on.
But I haven't worked a Christmas or Thanksgiving, Fourth of July or wedding anniversary for the last ten years. We are paid a salary and have no work rules. We are not scrutinized very much by the FAA as a Part 91 operator. Obviously that is a liability if you're stupid, a blessing if you're not.
If the scales on this site are correct, I earn more than a 10 year Delta wide body commander, have no contribution obligation to our family medical plan, and as the song goes, "I don't pay no union dues." (Is that a "crapload"?) There's horrible corporate jobs out there, just like there's horrible airlines. There's great ones, too. I don't have much stuff, own neither a boat or light airplane. I run so my investment for stuff tends toward running shoes, earphones and cold weather gear.
Diring the 2007-2009 economic troubles, I paid a guy $25K down in South Georgia to requalify me for spraying. That was an interesting reboot. I didn't have to play that card, but I would have if things kept heading the way they were going. Pretty sure I would have been happy. The young guys were infinitely amused.
When asked by some of those young people which aviation path they should take I would usually ask them if they wanted to be "a guy" or did they want to be "the guy"? No wrong answer, and it depends on one's own constitution and disposition. But it's a simple enough thing to ask and answer; always surprised how little it gets asked.