Originally Posted by
FullFlaps
Everyone's journey is different. I left finance to pursue aviation (the total opposite of your experience). Once I get to the airlines maybe I'll form a small firm on the side but I realized what I wanted in life and the kind of people I want around me. Money
prestige power isn't everything . Find what works for you and its different for everyone.
I worked in finance before and after the crash. After the crash pilots were hurting but finance was abysmal. Guys with PhD's (literally rocket scientists) taking entry level jobs. Desks that were 20 people cut down to 2. It really was just survival by any means necessary back then.
I ended up starting my own firm which went well then decided to go in house at a larger firm. Moved around at a few firms climbed to senior roles at a primary (finance lingo for one of the big boy banks). What I realized is that senior management at many of the larger financial institutions today were not the best just the most ruthless / dishonest / connected or lucky. People were literally sabotaging each other to get ahead, even today. Many heads of very large institutions don't really understand finance today, they've just created and climbed in a beauracracy that allows it.
I took a look at life and what I wanted and while I haven't experienced it as yet I think QOL as an airline pilot is far better than in corporate America. This is subjective but I'd rather have a dense schedule with a max number of hours per month or year and defined days off.
QOL in finance as you climb gets worse and worse. My average work week was 80 to 100 hours per week. When it's busy there have been stretches where I literally live on the trading floor or in an office for 2 week stretches. Once I have a line if I need more money I'll find or create a side hustle. Even as a wide body captain at a major I'll never make what I was making before but hey I'm ok with that. The are other perks, I'll get to watch sunrises at FL350 every morning.
Happiness is very subjective, glad you found yours. Side bar the fact you're writing this or those articles something inside of you misses flying. Hope you make it big time enough to but a gulfstream or citation and get to fly yourself around! Cheers.
It sounds like you were immersed in the investment banking world. After being burned by the airline industry, I did a fair amount of research on corporate culture before jumping out of the frying pan and avoided investment banking as one of the notorious sweatshops in the fire.
From someone who has been on both sides, if you're looking for purely quality of life, the airlines aren't the first place I'd go looking. If you're looking for a stable industry compared to finance, the airlines aren't going to solve that problem either. As you already mentioned, you made more in finance than flying, so compensation clearly isn't driving you to make this decision.
However, if you're looking for sunrises at FL350, you'll have lots of those. For some people, nothing can compare with the joy of flying shiny new jets. Happiness may be subjective, but it is also dynamic and evolves over time. Over time, I felt like I had experienced the life of constant travel and was ready for a change.
On the contrary, the reason I wrote the articles was to give people the cautionary tale they needed to have a backup plan ready in case it didn't work out, and it ties into other aspects and philosophies of the site, including the ultimate goal of having all the freedom you can. Anyone who has worked or spent 100 hours a week away from home can appreciate freedom.