Originally Posted by Duffman

I left a 6-figure job as an engineer, got stuck in the right seat of regional during the pandemic, and this is still the best job I've ever had. I'm curious what other jobs you know of that pay people $200k/yr. The only way you can make that type of money is if you have your business. As an engineer, I was looking at topping out at maybe $150k, and that was as a commercial heavy construction manager (the actual engineer jobs paid less). My aero engineer and mech friends have even worse prospects because most of those jobs are govt or working for large corporations with set payscales. Hell, my cousin is a doctor, top of her class in med school, and she'll be lucky to make narrow-body CA pay one day, after residency. In the real world there are no 117 limitations and if you're not doing 60-hour work weeks, you'll permanently dead end in some soul-crushing, fluorescent light, cubicle farm, making $60k/yr, where you'll still have to deal with just as much BS from management (likely more, because their office is 20' away). And that's for a govt job. In the corporate world they'll just fire you and hire someone fresh out of college whose looking to prove themselves on Burger King salary. If you're complaining about the decreasing purchasing power of $300k, imagine how much more that sucks for most other white collar professionals who barely make 6 figures. I doubt their pay will triple and ours will stagnate.

Also, even getting 11 days off, I have more useful time at home than I ever did when I was an engineer, and that's not factoring in the overnights with 117 rest requirements in pretty decent hotels. On top of everything else, flying is like riding a motorcycle or hiking Zion; it never gets old. As far as I know, there's nothing else that will pay you this much to work this little, and is actually fun.