You know, I was going to jump on the bandwagon about your negativity, blah, blah, blah, and I do think it’s funny that you say it’s a grueling job - I guess everything is relative. But coming from the point of view you posted above, it does change perspective a bit. While I can’t think of a less stressful, less all-consuming, easier job for equal level of pay, I really don’t think leaving a 300k/yr career (unless you absolutely hated it and/or it went against your values as a person) to start in this industry would be high on my list.

 

you sound fun

 

Yeah maybe not, but then again he could be. Plenty of reality in that block of information most have experienced or are experiencing. Not all flying gigs are created equal so - May everyone find what’s tolerable, manageable but most of all enjoyable.

 

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, besides CRNA, what other jobs you know of that pay people $200k/yr. You make it sound like this is the rule rather than the exception.

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.

 

Unless I missed something, I read it that he was making 6 figures, as in $100k+. Captains at the regionals make low 90s with normal lines, more if they're check airmen or sim instructors. I think most people on here have never worked in a real office and really underestimate the hours of mind-numbing work and overestimate the pay. Personally, switching careers was the best thing I ever did.

 

My neighbor is a bond trader and makes 500k+ a year. Most finance and medical professionals make more than 200k. They also sleep in their own bed every night.

Once the novelty wears off, you’ll realize how much life leaves you behind while you hang out in the double tree with strangers you’ll never see ever again. Kids grow old, spouses leave, family members die.

All to aimlessly bounce around the country as a glorified truck driver.

 

I see what you're saying, but what I've seen from my personal experiences and all my friends in their respective industries, is that life is really hard for professionals. Even sleeping in your own bed every night doesn't mean much after working 10-12 hour days, plus commuting home in rush hour traffic, and then working some weekends. Coming home exhausted, reheating whatever I find, then going to bed, and doing it all over again with maybe a Sunday afternoon with the family wasn't quality time. When I'm on the road with the airline I have my nights to myself, with no other distractions, to do whatever I want, often in a city that's worth exploring. A few years from now, I'll have even more nights at home and overnights in generally a better pool of cities. In my professional experience, most people work themselves to death, and in the airlines, it's much less so.

 

Some good points made from both perspectives here. A few years prior to retiring from the military I was working on my MBA. Flying professionally after the Marines wasn't really on my radar. For many military aviators (not all), the mindset is "I gotta go to the airlines, that's what people like me do." I wasn't really like that, and knew there were plenty of cool things to do besides being an airline pilot. But as the time got closer and hiring really started to pick up, I did some soul searching and number crunching and realized (through many conversations with friends in the business world) that nowhere else was someone going to compensate me this well for this amount of work. Yes, there's a lot of responsibility in the sense of many lives depending on you not screwing it up, but it isn't the responsibility of being beholden to a corporation and management 24/7 as a salaried professional. We are highly skilled, trained professionals, and making an airline pilot isn't easy, but our day-to-day job is ridiculously easy. Widebody captains making north of $400k per year basically have the job obligations of a minimum wage worker (show up on time, do your job, don't steal anything, don't yell at the customers). Again, we have a lot more riding on our performance, but it isn't like we're sitting up there white-knuckled, sweating under the pressure.

I know everyone can point to random cushy corporate gigs or working for certain small business sectors where the pay is really good for not a lot of stress/work. But those are the exception. Fortune 500 management types with graduate degrees from really good universities and a decade plus of experience are fighting to crack $200k, and they are working their asses off to get it. Making that as a five year FO at a legacy/major is the norm. I know the regionals are a different story and that it's not guaranteed, but in the current environment, it isn't a complete stretch to think that a regional pilot today who keeps their nose clean has a pretty good shot at getting hired by a legacy eventually.

Now, commuting will obviously add to your stress level and time away from home. That last part, time away from home is the biggy. Regardless of how you slice it, you will be gone a lot. Some people mentioned that their "useful" time at home is actually better as a pilot, as opposed to working long days and only seeing your family a bit in the mornings and evenings. I get that. Still, at least for me, there is a difference between being gone several days at a stretch and seeing your kids a little each day. As much as you try to amp up the family time when you are home as a pilot, they still have school, activities, life that goes on, so I don't think it completely evens out.

But ultimately, if you get to a point where you live in base, and have a bit of seniority built up, it can be an extremely flexible, lucrative and stress free career. And even though the romantic nature of flying does wear off quite a bit, you still occasionally enjoy things about that as well.

 

This all day long...VERY well said. The guys that are the worst to fly with are the guys that think we're curing cancer or something. To me, if your family/life/personality can handle the away time, I can't think of a better gig.

 

Median = The median is the middle number in a sorted, ascending or descending, list of numbers and can be more descriptive of that data set than the average.

(No clue how accurate this table is. Note the (*); some of these figures are averages, not medians)

Personally, I'd say over the life of a pilot career, it feels about right. Maybe even on the low side. Good money for the amount of work involved.