Airline Pilot Central Forums - Flying versus Engineering

Airline Pilot Central Forums (https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/)

- Career Questions (https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/career-questions/)

- - Flying versus Engineering (https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/career-questions/81050-flying-versus-engineering.html)

Quote:

Originally Posted by E2CMaster (Post 1631080)

Hate to say it, but it's kind of that way on the outside.

Try getting out of the military at 33, and going right into the job where guys who have worked there since college are. Not going to happen in most places.

I got paid essentially the same, worked the same, and shat on the same as a kid who graduated from school a month before I got out of the Navy.

You may not have been looking in all the right places, although I understand the market's tough now. There are some companies who hire ex-JO's for specific management tracks (LockMart comes to mind) where they know they have to get you up to speed and they dedicate a couple years to doing so. They also may be looking for specific degrees.

The reason some companies are willing to bring in ex-mil guys who are ten years behind their peers is because they know that on average the ex-mil person will hit the plates running and be a long-term asset. But you need to find a company that wants to put you on a track, as opposed to one that's just looking for reliable entry-level labor.

I heard what you are saying now, when I was getting out.

I have about 9 other Pilots/NFOs/SWOs I have known since OCS that all got hit at the same RIF. 7/9 of us were more or less treated like entry level labor in the grand scheme of things, having been told "perform, and you will move up faster"..

Only 2 of us actually saw anything resembling that.

My experience is a lot of companies say they value veterans, preferential hire, blah, blah, rah rah.

It's mostly talk and little action on their part. Most of us heard the same thing, perform, and move up quickly.

By every metric the company tracked, I was the #1 Engineer/Project Manager in the Rocky Mountain Region. I had a reputation for getting the impossible done, keeping equipment running when others would be hard down, etc. Customers would specify "Master comes or no contract".

Yet when I asked for a raise/promotion when I had another offer, I got an ass chewing asking how dare I even ask for a raise when Melonhead (a ****ty engineer) has been there 6 years and hasn't been promoted yet.

So I left. Much happier now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by E2CMaster (Post 1631080)

If you worked on Turbines contact Solar Turbines, Ive never worked with so many ex-mil guys in my life. I was the only non-military guy in my dept of 12 people.

They actively recruit guys getting out of the Navy

Quote:

Originally Posted by E2CMaster (Post 1630753)

For those who posted Petroleum Engineering as the "big money ticket", there is a similar thing in that field to aviation.

Start off at a service company, and try to get on with a major.

If you don't get on with a major in 3-5 years, you get branded a service company "lifer" and would take a major pay hit to got to a major at first. So a lot never leave.

I made $115k or so last year working for Baker Hughes. (Service Company).
I was on the road 330 days last year. I had 20 actual days off all year, weekends, vacation, holidays all together.

I was also working 14-18 hour days, 90+ days without a day off. And the second a customer so much as balked at the bill or "your trucks left ruts on the access road" they would dock half your pay (half-ish was salary, another half was "operations bonus", so ****ty, but legal).

Leave on a "2 week job". Come home 4 months later. Be home 36 hours then go to Africa for 2 months.

F. That. Noise.

If it was $250k a year, it may be worth doing for a year or two to pay off student loans, buy a house cash, etc.

But for $115. No way.

Also, if you think Airline company management sucks.. BHI owes me $6k in pay, and I'm having to sue them for it. Why? Because my company issued laptop, that was 2 years old, has scratches on it, and my company iPhone has a small crack in the screen (can't even see unless it's out of it's Otterbox) and they "have to take the cost of replacement" out of my final check. Nevermind it's lived on oil rigs for the last two years and the scratches are only cosmetic.

Oh, and to buy that exact laptop new from Dell is about $1200.

I work in the same industry and while most of it is right, some of it doesnt smell right. They dock your wages because your truck left ruts in the road? Even KBR doesnt do that.

Im in a tougher position to leave the industry for aviation, got myself onboard with a chinese major working a 28/28 rotation in Kazakhstan.