As rickair7777 said, there is no other job I know of that's quite like being an airline pilot. You work a fixed schedule and have a pretty solid work environment. When you're off, you're truly off. No phone calls or emails once you walk away from the plane. No daily workplace battles that stress you out that you take home with you on the weekends, no having to playing politics, no yearly performance reviews, etc.

I want to be a happy person. I was miserable in my old career.

 

I was in your boat a few years ago (better environment) and know quite a few in it now. Use your $200k+ as a tool...put away as much as you can because you will most likely not be making that at least for the first 3-4yrs. If you have family, the stress of heavy cut backs makes home life tougher. Also use that income to improve your resume. You have something that a lot of 23yr old CFIs dont have, the ability to pay for flight time/ratings. If you dont have an MEI, pay to get it done. I instructed while working in my previous career and any money I made instructing went back to payinbg for flight time. I would encourage you to use some discretionary income for more Multi time, ATP/CTP or even an ATP rating. Everyday more and more CFIs are getting put in the 1500hr pool, some now have 2,000 hours. Do something that makes you stand out. I was during COVID, didnt know how long that bad hiring environment was going to last but if you wait until hiring begins, youll be too late.

 

Your "fixed schedule" changes every month. Very senior in a seat, be it CA or FO/FB, can often fly the same trip, and/or work on the same days, on the w/b jets. But it takes a LONG time to reach that stability. Obviously you reach it quicker as FO but it still takes a long time, like 20 years.

Most trips run as planned, sometimes with delays, but you normally return to your base around the scheduled arrival time with occasional delays.

 

Trust me, our schedules are fixed by comparison. Unless you have very weak work rules that allow them to fly you into a day off. Or get stuck overnight in IROPS, which happens to me about once a decade.

If you make our kind of money in white collar, you're on call 24/7 365 and had better respond to texts and emails from bosses and customers at 2300 on your day "off".

It's actually worse today compared to when I did it... back then we had less access to work info on the internet, so if the boss needed something done after hours they would usually have to call you in, and also come in themselves to get the ball rolling. Today they can just fire off a text, launch you on a 30 hour urgent project over a holiday weekend, then roll over and go back to sleep. They're not shy about sending that text, to keep their bosses and customers happy.