Which Career Are You Leaving?
These questions are for considering leaving the career. I know I've missed some, please add the questions you've asked yourselves, and/or others, and any pro/con mitigations you've cooked up for yourself. Maybe this thread can be useful in asking the right questions to get a personal decision.
Which career exactly are you considering leaving:
Flying as a first year F/O at a regional?
Flying for a bottom feeder 135 outfit?
Flying for a 134.5 outfit?
Being furloughed for the first or fifth time?
Having to deal with the uncertainty of the job being around tomorrow?
Being a flight instructor?
Facing your fifth pay cut, essentially requiring you to work for free for the next [insert number here] of months?
Doing the same thing every day?
Working for a boss you hate?
Working with people you despise?
Working with poor, or even dangerous equipment?
Having to explain your actions to some desk jockey that wasn't there, couldn't possibly understand the situation, and is insulting your intelligence and questioning your integrity?
Being gone all the time?
Being home all the time?
Being on call 24/7?
Sitting on airport watch duty?
Is it solely the money?
A combination of the above?
Next, this isn't the 1960's, no job in any field is safe and secure, even the most dreary. Stability that the baby boomers enjoyed is gone. No career field is going to provide stability or safety. It's up to the individual person to provide their own safety net. Therefore, job security can be crossed off the list of reasons to leave [insert name here] career field.
The people factor: There are co-irkers and mean bosses everywhere. While there are some cases where a change in employer might help, a few studies (NIH I think?) found job changers tended to find the same co-irkers and mean bosses at the new job, once the honeymoon was over.
The bad news factor: Sensationalistic bad news sells. It appeals to our voyeuristic nature. But too much can really drain a person, lower their defenses against the next onslaught of bad news, and after awhile change a positive outlook to a negative one. Is there too much internet negativity affecting your outlook?
What needs to be changed to make conditions tolerable and are those conditions possible? Would changing the type of flying be tolerable, or do you need to walk away from aerial vehicles completely?
Do you have a mentor that could assist you with career decisions?
If you leave, can you come back? In ten years? After the kids are grown?
Which is more important to you, family or career? Don't have a family but want to find and/or create one? Can it wait a year or two to get your feet back under you, or is the next person that winks at you considered marriage material?