Career Change
 

Hello,

I have been considering making a career change and wanted to get some feedback from some people in the industry, here is my story.

I started my aviation training back in 2004 at Eastern Michigan University and finished all my academics for my BS in Aviation Flight Technology in 2007; however because of financial issues my flight training has been very slowly progressing. I still have not received my degree because I have not yet finished all my ratings. I have 275 hours, PPL with an instrument rating and I am ready to take my commercial check ride (if I had the money). My goal when I started was to fly for Fedex one day via the old flight instructing, small cargo operation then regional route and I have been working for Fedex for the past 5 years part time to get my foot in the door and make a good impression as well as pay for school. Now because of life events (marriage, house, wife in grad school and newborn son), I can’t afford another student loan to take my commercial check ride yet alone get my ME and CFI. I have passed on full time positions many times to drive a truck for Fedex for a starting salary of $55,000-$75,000, depending if I drive city or road, because I don’t want to give up my dream of flying. The thing is that it is getting hard and very discouraging to only be able to fly once or twice a month because that’s all I can afford to do and at that rate it will take years to finish my ratings not to mention I am already 28 years old. The question is should I finally take the full time driver position and give up flying as a career just because I need the money?

Thank you in advance for any feedback.

Career Change
 

55-75k? Dang. 5+ years at a regional and I just broke 51. That was nearly timing out too.

take the job, and CFI on the side for fun.

Well with a family in tow the airline dream becomes a very long term goal. I am with you, I have shared the same dream although I never had to plan for a family. Even then it took me forever. Keep adding ratings and flight hours and resist any urge to use loans to pay for anything. Pay as you go. That way all the options remain on the table and believe me, you are going to need a light debt load when you make $28k the first few years of airline flying. You can do it though if you really want to, and if you are willing to manage your life in an intelligent way.

How does taking a truck driving job make you give up your dream? Please elaborate......I think it sounds like a great promotion, I've heard nothing but good things about driving for FedEx. Plus from the sounds of it..... having a larger paycheck will help you get rid of those loans that are preventing you from progressing to your "dream".

Don't get the cart in front of the horse.

Money, ratings, part time CFI job, leave FedEx on extremely good terms, full time CFI, regional job, back to FedEX!

Simple, really.

Yes, take the job driving the truck. Save as much as you can while flying on the side. There aren't many better feelings than paying off your student loans!!!

Career Change
 

If only you could try it both ways. I am the same age as you. I work at a regional as a first officer. I make 35k/yr on 5th year pay. I hope it is all worth it someday. I often think of a career change myself. What field would I go into? You can't trust the media on what careers will be in demand. I trusted the media once. The media would say to become a pilot because of the huge pilot shortage coming. I cant bare the thought of more student loans and years with no income so I stay. I set goals to gain enough hours to meet competitive hiring mins at a company, but after I get the time, competitive mins go up. I can't get a decent paying job right now. If I had a 75k driving job I would never want to go back to a regional airline job. That's easy for me to say only because I've done a lot of flying and at this point in my life financial stability is more important to me than flying. I am looking for jobs overseas. The job market for pilots is tough everywhere. I would take the driving job and wait and see if the pilot job market actually improves. If it does, you'll have more money to spend on flying.

Similar situation for me. I work at a bank and I just recently started ground school as the first step to making the jump into aviation - I am going crazy sitting behind a desk. The thought of leaving a $53K/year job to really an unknown amount as my goal is corporate or fractional is pretty scary. It really makes my wife nervous. I am really in the process of just trying to figure out the most cost-effective way to get to 250 and what sort of jobs I can get at that point.

I have read the book, magazines, blogs, etc. that really have a doom and gloom, school of hard-knocks sort of attitude of an aviation career and it makes me doubt my dream. It would make anyone question whether or not to keep going.

Keep in mind that it is all a process. If flying for a major is your end goal, don't make decisions that will derail it. Keep going man because I need to hear a few success stories about people who didn't give up when it got difficult. Stories like that give me hope that I can do it as well.