I thought I would add my .02. Doctors arent paid as well as they used to be. With the advent of HMO's and PPO's, Doctors no longer have the luxury of charging patients whatever they want for a visit. For most doctors coming out of Med school, it is more like a meat shop where they have to meet a quota of patients each day. Dont get me wrong, being a doctor is a great job, however you work a ton of hours in General Medicine. Unless you are a surgeon, you can look at capping out around 130k. I 100% agree that becoming a pilot is no guarrantee that you will ever be a CA for a 777, so what, as far as I am concerned if I can become a CA at a regional and make 85k with 15 days off a month I have achieved my objective. Just to give you a real life example, my sister is a Doctor at Northwestern Memorial in Chicago, IL. She is a peditrician, and is required to see at least 65 patients a day. She works 12 hour days most of the time, and makes 90k a year. She just got out of Med school, and enjoys what she does. Compare that to my friend who works for Skywest as a 4 year Captain. He makes 85k a year, and has averaged 16 days off a month for the past 6 months. 5k less for almost half the work. I think so many people on here bash the career because for some reason b/c they think they are entitled to make a king's ransom once they start flying passengers. Just to let you know, when I graduated college and worked in the business world, my salary was 32k. Being a pilot isnt that bad, and the grass isnt always greener.