IBM was a class act at one time, a bit of a mess the last few years. I hired a pilot away from them, so I have an idea. That’s a real danger at corporates, a lot depends on the Director and how he manages the department and the upper mgt.

Sorry, GOOGLES.

GF

 

This is an airline pilot website, so obviously the answers will be skewed that direction.

With that said, not a day goes by where I don't think about my former 91 jet job at a pharma company in the midwest. The CEO let the pilots lead and never questioned what we did. No last minute nonsense, good hotels, spend 22-25 nights a month sleeping in my own bed. I can't remember a single time we stressed about the schedule. If the plane was down or someone missed an airline flight (happened occasionally) it was a simple "Can't do it boss". No questions asked.

If we ever hit a snag a quick call to the CEO's cell got us a check cut to just about anyone for anything we needed.


Coupled with good people in the flight department, it's a dream come true.

 

How safe would you be in the corporate gig in the next downturn? Legacies will still have retirements which would probably prohibit a furlough.

 

Are you TRYING to provoke the gods of aviation misfortune?!


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Are you at AA? You can project your future seniority into different bid statuses and see what that schedule and pay is. Use the tools to find your seniority progression and compare today's 3XP's at your future seniority. In general the flying should be fairly stable going forward. A change of G3 vs G4 seniority should occur as 767's retire and are replaced by 787's. The junior 787 flying will be more senior than the current 767 seniority numbers due to the 20% pay raise(G3 vs G4).

Third year pay is roughly $165K. Fifth year should be in the $185K+ range and possibly up to $220K (?) junior G4 bases?
If you can hold CA in five years you'll be at $225K with a lower probability of $250K. Probably 2(?) yrs to be a lineholder ((2025). As a lineholder $300K+ is very achievable.

You say a RIF is coming. Will the corporate flight department survive the downturn? What percentage do you expect to get furloughed? When? That estimate can be used to compare future relative seniority vs today. If it's 1000 furloughs depending upon your current seniority, and which year you project the furlough to occur, you might have enough seniority to stay on the 'not on reserve' side of the curve.

With 800-900 retirements per year starting in approx. 3 years a small furlough (5%) probably wouldn't be worth it due to the training bubble that it would generate. Fifteen percent furloughs have occurred once in the last 35 years while ten percent furloughs have occurred twice in the last 25 years. Neither occurred while we were retiring 3-4% per year with annual retirement percentages of 6-7% about 4 years away.

 

Your not crazy..... just lacking in information. This exact thread comes up about, oh once every 4-5 months. Go research it. Put all the numbers facts from the corporate job on this thread. I bet they would love that. And all the other relevant info: stock options, pension, 401K, vacation, hard days off vs no days off, your military retiremen, how many years left, does wife work, divorced, cost of transgender surgery, etc......

I’ve done both extensively and have posted on this subject. Post all the info on this specific corporate department and you’ll get more reasonable advice.

As others have said this is mostly an airline forum, certainly less corporate. Until you give us some hard info on this Corporate Job, I can’t even begin to give you relevant advice. And even then, there are so many intangibles

 

As long as you retain your medical the airline path guarantees you a decade, or longer, of $300K + 16%.

The immediate $40K pay increase will probably be overtaken by the majors pay in the out years.

 

I’m not even hired so I dont have the specifics. The local corp job was a place I was hoping to work for a few years ago but never got past the telephone interview. You guys are right, I dont have all the specifics, when I do, assuming I get an offer, I’ll take a look at it again. Thanks

 

A lot depends on your financial situation. Married? Does your husband/wife have a high-paying job? Do you have kids you have to put through college or have they grown up already? No kids? How much time until you’re 65?

If you’re the sole breadwinner and have kids to raise I would stay airline for the stability and option to make more money in the future.

If your significant other has a good job and you don’t have kids to raise then that’s the only way I’d entertain the corporate job.

Good luck

 

If you interview, don’t be hesitant to ask about trip planning, handling, schedule and vacation, pilots per plane (4 is nice, 5 or 6 better, if lots of international), how they handle cleaning and stocking the planes, flight attendants, what hotel chains they use (Marriott seems to be best, but it varies), how the manage training, class of travel to position, in addition to th$ usual questions. The airlines are pretty simple, but every flight department is different. Get a read on how they are to travel with. The department I was in immediately struck me as a enjoyable gig—good people who made trips sail by. It remained so the 12 years I was there. There are plenty of departments like that and plenty that that the pilots can’t stand each other.

GF