Hang in there Saaberino! I know I can be a bit negative w/ my outlook re: the industry too. It sounds like you've reached an important crossroads here in your airline career that I think many of us are going through right along with you. That is to say, pilots are stubborn, they don't like to give up and they'll pursue their flying goals to no end because they're so goal oriented. We can only envision ourselves flying airplanes. That's what we were meant to do. Yet you have to be a realist as well, so you're considering your options outside of aviation, which quite a few more people are doing these days. This is healthy and means that while you're frustrated, you're well grounded and you are thinking ahead, as every good pilot should be predisposed to do anyway. Keep flying for now, just keep thinking about what you might possibly want to do outside of aviation should things worsen. Also, ask yourself how you could market yourself as a former airline pilot. I'm sure you've learned a whole lot while @ CoEx, you definitely know how to perform under pressure and you've got a sense of humor, so you are doing alright.

On a sidenote but sort of mirroring what you're talking about here, I knew a Mesa CRJ captain out of PHX several years ago who went back home to Australia to get his law degree. He was a commuter out of Santa Fe, NM. I remember talking to him before he left, he told me about his next door neighbor in Santa Fe. His neighbor was a municipal bus driver for the city of Santa Fe, turns out he made more money and had better benefits than this guy who was mostly flying the CRJ 900 out of PHX. This guy spent a portion of his career flying crop dusters in South/Central America in order to build up his flight time. He tried to climb the ladder as best he could and wound up being out-earned by a bus driver. I think that was probably the "moment of clarity" that convinced him to hang up his aviation hat. I realize most people will say "Well, that's Mesa for you!" But it is still a sad commentary on a job that is so under-appreciated by society.

Good luck, you already know it, but many of us are right there in the same boat w/ you.

The Duke