Career change
 

I have my doctorate in pharmacy and have been working as a pharmacist for 9 years and I am interested in a career change as a commercial pilot. I live in upstate NY and do not want to relocate (if needed) for longer than a few months for school. I have zero experience.
I have a friend in the business who advised me that I should be able to find a company that will cover training expenses but so far all I am finding are deferred loans, small sign on bonuses or significantly lower pay for the first couple years. Is there a better way to approach this or better places for training? Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated.
I was looking at airlineapps... is this something I can use to apply even with no experience?

I suggest that you do some more research (plenty of good info on this site if you use the search function), especially since you seem very uneducated about the whole process of getting your pilot's licenses/certificates. It seems as though your friend left out a lot of useful information and/or was not very upfront and honest with you in regards to how to get started in this new potential profession.

I'm unaware of any companies out there that will pay for your pilot certificates.

Your first job as a professional commercial pilot will not pay much, especially compared to your current salary as a pharmacist.

airlineapps is a site that experienced pilots use to send resumes to potential employers/airlines. It is not geared towards inexperienced student pilots.

My advice is to go to your local airport (since you do not want to relocate from upstate NY to get your flight training done), visit some of the local flight schools and take a tour of their facilities. Ask a lot of questions, and if you're still interested then take an introductory flight and see if you actually like flying.

Getting a 3rd class medical is also a good idea. You want to make sure that you are healthy and fit to fly.

Good luck

You need to do some serious research. Currently The average pay for a Pharm D in NY is about $120K. A SENIOR regional captain might make that. Most will not, and from where you are to even be eligible to get a commercial certificate is going to be a couple of years and $30-$40K of expense. A bare commercial certificate will allow you to actually fly commercially (ie., for pay), but that doesn’t mean anyone will actually pay you much until you get to at least 1200 hours when you can qualify for a Part 135 job that might pay you in the neighborhood of $45k. At 1500 hours total time you will be eligible to become a regional FO where you will make~$55k annually for about three years after which you can upgrade and perhaps make $80k annually for three or four years. Then, if you are fortunate enough to be picked up by a major, your pay will increase to approx $80k the first year and by your third year, anywhere from 8-11 years from now you’ll be back to making what you are making today.

Thank you both. I would consider myself very healthy but I agree it's a good place to start. I'm assuming relocating would give me more available flight time as weather would be less of an issue? I know the salary isn't exactly the same which is not a deal breaker. I was mostly curious as to if there are better programs/schools (although it seems like the cadet programs etc are just marketing) in your opinion if relocation was not an issue.

The cadet programs are mostly aimed at students going through a college flight program. Through the progression the student while in college will get there CFI and then instruct at the same school or at another associate cadet school until they reach ATP or restricted atp mins.

Not sure what part of upstate NY your from but if your near lake champlain, Vermont Flight Academy is a good choice. They have a variety of airplanes and some really good instructors.

I am about an hour from Watertown airport, 1 hour from Utica and about 2 hours from Syracuse.

Why even start with seemingly all or nothing? What you need to do, to explore this more, is hook up with a local flight training facility & get a private pilots license. Do this while keeping your day job.

You can even put yourself on the ‘fast track’, whatever you schedule, family obligations & $$ allow. I think that place where they pay for all of your flight training is with Uncle Sam, possibly not an option now.

Start today with some free FAA downloads, Flight Training Handbook & others.

If you end up keeping your pharma job & fly G.A., it’s still a winning hand.

That is basically my plan. Thanks for the suggestions about the downloads and training handbook, I will do that today!

Just get a First Class, that's what you'll need for airlines.

As others mentioned, there's no "ab initio" pay for training in the US (it's quite common overseas, but not here). You have to map out your own road and pay for it, although there are a couple of new trial programs where your career is essentially on a planned path to a major (but you still pay a lot for training).

Your approach so far has been to walk into a hospital ER, tell them you'd like a job as a doctor and will they pay for training. You need to go to med school first (on your own), complete internships, residence, etc and THEN apply for a job as a doctor.

Living in NY is actually good... NYC is a large domicile for many large majors, and it's invariably the most junior. So even a short commute (train would be great for you if that's an option) would be offset by rapid gains in seniority, QOL, and pay.

I have not applied anywhere yet, I was just searching for guidance. Thank you for the info about NYC. I am just trying to take the most economically feasible route without compromising training.