FMGEC

Just need to vent this out-

Think back 20, 15, even 10 years ago; The airline pilot gig wasn’t so good for many, and a lot of us were out looking for jobs/looking for a change. Many of us, including myself looked into corporate flying and went through friends/acquaintances/networking connections asking for info and assistance for jobs. The reasons for looking into corporate were many, but I remember many of my corporate friends talking about how much they loved their jobs.
“It’s been great for my golf game!”
“I’m home every night with the family.”
“Pay is double/triple what I’d get at the airlines.”
“Excellent health/retirement/vacation.”
“I get paid airline tickets and hotels, and I get all the miles and hotel points. Took the family to Hawaii last month and it cost nothing because it was all on points!”
“Greatest job in the world. Never want to go to the airlines.”
Sounded great, and it was nice to hear from people that were happy, while us airline guys were getting our skulls beat in.
So, when times were tough I asked a couple of those guys for recommendations to get into corporate world. Responses were very similar-
“I’d love to help you, but it’s tough to get into corporate if you’re an airline guy.”
“Corporate is service-based, and they don’t like airline guys because they won’t throw bags into the cargo space/clean the airplane/blah blah blah”
“You’ll need to go to FlightSafety and get yourself a [insert type rating here] type in order for anyone to look at you. Even then, they won’t take you cause it’s too competitive amongst those already in corporate.”

But now that times have changed, those same corporate acquaintances of mine are in a rush to get into the airlines. Now I’m getting asked- “Can you help me out? Can you send in a recommendation for me?”
I ask them why they want out of their corporate gig-
“My pay sucks”
“My retirement is nothing compared to what I’d make at the airlines.”
“The flying is boring.”
“Job security is marginal”
Asking them further, has their pay been cut? Have they lost benefits? What’s the big difference compared to when they were happy people 10+ years ago? Basically, there wasn’t much change, just that they haven’t gotten the pay increases to the levels that the airlines have over the past 8 years. (Trying to explain to them that the pay rates at the airlines are not increases, more like restorations to what we were at 15 years ago minus inflation.)

One dude I know wants to go straight to FedEx. Says he likes their benefits and pay. Almost implies that he should have a good chance at a job there. He’s never flown anything bigger than a Citation, and has zero 121 time, including regionals. And his yearly flight time is under 300 hours. He doesn’t even know anyone at FedEx.

Have a couple others that are of the same mindset- that they should just be able to get an interview at SWA/UAL/DAL/FDX/UPS immediately because there is a “pilot shortage.”

So, my vent is- what’s the deal? Airlines suck and people want to go to corporate... “Good luck- that’s not gonna happen.”
But now that airlines are better, corporate want to go to airlines and they should be an easy application/interview/hire. Just kinda rubs me the wrong way.
I dunno-

And another thing- my bourbon glass is empty.