Hello,

My humblest apologies to everyone if this is the 100th similar thread, I tried to browse several pages without success.

So here I am, looking for career advice from those with the experience. To cut it to the chase here it goes:
I'm now approaching my mid 30s and I'm completely in a different business than airlines (engineering for all that it matters). And I'm having enough of it, and want to start flying.
And that's exactly the same feeling I had in the midst of my studies, but I thought that I should finish my degree since I've invested so much time on it already and should therefore squelch that mood swing. And that's what I did. I finished my M.Sc. I got the job. I eventually got a nice expat assignment here in Hong Kong, but now I'm back to square one. The industry does not appeal me at all. I'm doing my job as hard and as well as I can, but my motivation is plummeting. This city and continent is everything I'd ever wanted, except for the job. I'm again craving for the career of a pilot. Here or elsewhere.
My assignment here is going to end up within roughly a year, so it's soon enough the time to make some big decisions. I'll still most likely get a vacancy in my home country when I'm finished here, which will probably pay me better than any starting pilot job. However, despite of that I have little to no interest of going back there for good, other than maybe doing the ATPL license. Or in the very unlikely event of scoring an airline job there. The economy back there in the god-forsaken outback of the EU looks very grim, plus like I said, my field of engineering does not seem to be the right choice after all for me. Getting a cut to my salary for switching job is not a concern for me. At least I'd be able to do what I want, but being hopelessly unemployed for years, now that would be a problem however.

So what do you think I should do? Should I take the risk, chase my dreams and do the ATPL, and then preferably look for a job (somewhere in Asia)? I guess the job market is quite horrible in the EU, so my chances there could be slim to none? Is it equally bad here in Asia for fresh foreign graduates? Also if I leave now for the time to do the licenses, I'm going to be as unwanted as any other foreigner as my residency here will expire, right?

 

Look into Cathay, they hire low time pilots or at least they used to, and they like pilots to be based in HK.

If you can get right to work in the US, opportunities here are great and will be for at least 10-15 more years.

Also the website pprune.org focuses more on the non North American airline environment.

 

Yes like rickair7777 said, if you have a HKID you can apply to Cathay Cadet pilot program.

Singapore Airlines just opened application window to their Cadet program for all nationalities (like today or yesterday). Also check Scoot from Singapore they have a cadet program too, although I am not sure if you are eligible.

I take it you may be from UK, have you looked/applied to BA Future Pilot thing? They may not accept applications at the moment however. Apply to Flybe MPL via CTC Aviation - it is closing in a day or two. Although not sponsored, it is the quickest way to the right seat with a guaranteed job and type rating in the end.

The job market in Europe is actually not bad at the moment, but opportunities are way fewer than in US. If you choose to self sponsor instead, get all the tickets, grind out the experience instructing etc. look for jobs a year or four unemployed it could take you 5+ years to get to the same right seat position in the airlines (if that was your goal). And the market may not be as good anymore. On top of that you would most likely have to pay for your type rating - a sad reality in Europe today. And while not old, being mid-30s you may not exactly want to waste any years in the process.

It is great that you got your degree and you are an engineer. You are at a definite advantage when the people at HR browse through the applications, trust me. If I was you, I would apply to all the cadet schemes possible, prepare your tail off when invited to the aptitude tests, ace them and get the position!!

 

Big thanks for the replies.
Sorry for having my original post unclear about it, I don't possess the permanent HKID and I'm still ~5 years short of reaching the 7 year limit for that, which means the cadet programs around here are out of my reach.
I'm not from UK, and in my home country there doesn't seem to be much of these "guaranteed" job programs available. So the plan would likely be to resign when I return and then enroll to some program with a hefty price tag and no guarantees of any job. Or try to enroll to whatever program abroad I'd be eligible as EU passport holder. The price or going abroad I could probably handle, but the question about scoring a job of any kind is obviously what makes me hesitant. The economy back home is proper bad and on my field of engineering you don't need many fingers to count the job openings there. So even for the few available positions, in case I fail to score a pilot gig after the courses, I don't know how well the employers would treat someone who decided to ditch engineering for aviation, but is nevertheless applying for a position which he obviously is only committed until gets an aviation job.

 

None of those European cadet programs listed (along with few others) require to be of the same nationality. They all ask "Right to live and work in EU" which you have. Start applying!

 

So looking at 'starting pilot training'? How much $$ do you have? How about the 'fast track'? What is the motivation level?

Had I listened to a college advisor back in the day I wouldn't be here. Do we wait for life to happen or 'make' it happen? You know you better than we do. I certainly don't think it's insurmountable, but you need a plan, realistic starting expectations, and some $$$.

 

I'll probably be able to push my cash and liquid reserves to around $80-100k by the end of my project here, which I'm pretty much forced to finish. The estimated finish will last roughly by Q4 of this year (will be 33 at that time).
The motivation is there, but the reasons listed earlier are still making me hesitant and confused. If my company does not decide to chop down my unit, there's probably $50k/y for me when I return. The job sucks though, and there's always the concern of being axed, despite of making decent results.
Thanks for the many advice, I keep on looking at the openings on the cadet programs at least, which don't seem to be that many at the moment. Good for me however that I'm not available for the next 6-10 months or so.
The fast track options seem interesting as well, the ~1year stint seems reasonable. Or do the airlines frown upon people from such courses? It's quite fast paced so are them treated like rushing into things?
And a quite vague question is about the certainty of the employment after the cadet programs, if I have the chance of a lifetime to join one. I've been in the corporate world long enough to know that there's no certain things, but is there any overall approximation of the success rate of those?

 

Everybody hates their job. Pilots are no different. I wouldn't do it, but that's just my personal opinion.