Physician wants to change careers
#1
New Hire
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Feb 2008
Posts: 3
Physician wants to change careers
I'm 37 and a physician, married with one child, and I've always wanted to become a pilot. Sad to say I hate going to work, though I like helping people, but the field has become more of a paper shuffle with insurance companies/billing etc. No I havent been sued or lost my licenses...If I did goto an accelerated school like atpflightschool (I live in D.C and they have a campus in Richmond) would I really get hired? I mean wouldnt prospective airlines look at my CV and just laugh? Also I read that the average salary for regionals is 20-30K per year, for how long? I'm not expecting to make over 100K, just 60-80K in 5 years. I've really thought about this for a long time (too long), and my wife is supportive. Any advice would be appreciated.
#3
I couldn't recommend changing careers to airline pilot.
5 years is possible, but highly improbable. Most people will take 10 years to make $80K+.
You can plan on a year getting your licenses.
Another year+ building flight time.
Another 2 to 4 years as FO making $20K to 40K
Another 2 to 3 years as captain at a regional making $50K to 65K
Finally get hired by a large airline and go back to $30K to 35K as FO.
Finally make 80K+ after 3 or 4 years at the large airline.
Most have been flying for 6-10 years before they get hired at a major airline and they still have to start over at $30K/year.
Plus you can plan on getting treated lousy by your bosses, having to move all over the place chasing employment, being on reserve and never knowing when you will work or when you'll be home (and I don't mean you'll be late for dinner, I mean you're 1000 miles away and can't get back for 4 days).
5 years is possible, but highly improbable. Most people will take 10 years to make $80K+.
You can plan on a year getting your licenses.
Another year+ building flight time.
Another 2 to 4 years as FO making $20K to 40K
Another 2 to 3 years as captain at a regional making $50K to 65K
Finally get hired by a large airline and go back to $30K to 35K as FO.
Finally make 80K+ after 3 or 4 years at the large airline.
Most have been flying for 6-10 years before they get hired at a major airline and they still have to start over at $30K/year.
Plus you can plan on getting treated lousy by your bosses, having to move all over the place chasing employment, being on reserve and never knowing when you will work or when you'll be home (and I don't mean you'll be late for dinner, I mean you're 1000 miles away and can't get back for 4 days).
#4
#5
Agree with all the above. Don't do it unless you are absolutely through with being a physician. I would try making flying a hobby and there are lots of doctors and lawyers who fly for fun and enjoy it. There are quite a few outlets for hobby pilots, such as flight instructing, skydiver flying, and angel flights. Becoming an airline pilot is a huge investment in time and energy and is not warranted by the monetary compensation for most. However, if you really want to do it and have the money to burn you can expect to make the majors within eight years or so from scratch. I would start down the training road now in an FBO setting and not an accelerated school, and commit to a career change only at a much later date if it seems to be what you really want.
Last edited by Cubdriver; 02-13-2008 at 01:35 PM.
#6
I'm 37 and a physician, married with one child, and I've always wanted to become a pilot. Sad to say I hate going to work, though I like helping people, but the field has become more of a paper shuffle with insurance companies/billing etc. No I havent been sued or lost my licenses...If I did goto an accelerated school like atpflightschool (I live in D.C and they have a campus in Richmond) would I really get hired? I mean wouldnt prospective airlines look at my CV and just laugh? Also I read that the average salary for regionals is 20-30K per year, for how long? I'm not expecting to make over 100K, just 60-80K in 5 years. I've really thought about this for a long time (too long), and my wife is supportive. Any advice would be appreciated.
Try flying as a hobby.
If that's not enough, get your ratings on the side and do some flight instruction.
If that's still not enough, get a citation type rating and try to do some corporate flying on the side.
If you did go the regional route, you would EVENTUALLY have time to moonlight at urgent/ER and make up some of the lost income. At your age, the price in seniority and QOL to reach the major airlines would be very high.
#7
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Sep 2006
Posts: 926
I left law enforcement at 28 to fly, and I wouldn't do it over again.
Here's something that I know of another police officer doing: He's in a "20 and you're out" retirement plan, started when he was 21 and is going to retire at 41. By then, he'll have all of his ratings and some pretty decent time built up and ready to go to the regionals.....all while drawing retirement. If all goes well for him, it'll be possible for him to still get 20 years in at a major.....of course, there's still about a million things that can go wrong with that plan.
If a person could work something like that, I'd say do for it, but even even at my age, I felt pretty out of place with the other younger flight instructors that I worked with in my first job and really think twice about my decision when I see friends and former co-workers moving on to advanced positions within the department, buying houses and having kids while I'm still not even close to being settled at now 34 YOA.
Unexpected things that I've encountered:
-training seemed to cost almost twice what I had planned for
-companies and with "less than ideal" moral direction both for training and subsequently to be employed by -this is a big one and could very well torpedo your entire effort
-long hours for very little pay as an instructor
-health insurance considerations (I hesitate to bring that up given your current profession)
-an unstable life. I know that your wife is supportive now, but do you really think that she'll put up with an unstable life for the rest of your working career? I have a friend that used to work on the same police department as me....his dream was to be a Minnesota State Trooper -one of the best law enforcement job out there- and his wife claimed that she fully supported him....the day he got the offer for a training date, she served him with papers.
-Let's face it, the market value of the services provided by pilots had significantly decreased over the last 20 years and seems to continue to be in a downward spiral. I've checked pay rate for police departments in the last few months, and it would certainly be better for a 21 year old kid to join a department given the continuously increasing salary (not so with pilots), quality of life (not so with pilots), the retirement benefits, (not so with pilots) and the job security (not so with pilots). I had hoped that this pilot shortage would drive up the value of our services, and in my area of aviation, it has, but for the regionals and the majors, it has not and is less likely to now with age 65.
-my career change has left me in a financial pickle....I had hoped to get all of my ratings without being in debt, but that didn't happen, and now I have a very good paying instructor job for a JAA school and can't afford to move on to the regionals to work for that upgrade carrot to work for that 1000 turbine PIC carrot to work for that "major" airline FO job carrot to work for that upgrade carrot to finally get that decent paying job....any one of which can be derailed by an ******* boss or a medical issue.
My advice is worth exactly what you're paying for it, but I wold give serious thought to keep practicing until you have many of your ducks in a row financially. Maybe pay your house off (you might have to sell it later when you get based God-knows where), get a few cars that are dependable but don't have a note, have a good start on a retirement plan in place.
Good luck!
Here's something that I know of another police officer doing: He's in a "20 and you're out" retirement plan, started when he was 21 and is going to retire at 41. By then, he'll have all of his ratings and some pretty decent time built up and ready to go to the regionals.....all while drawing retirement. If all goes well for him, it'll be possible for him to still get 20 years in at a major.....of course, there's still about a million things that can go wrong with that plan.
If a person could work something like that, I'd say do for it, but even even at my age, I felt pretty out of place with the other younger flight instructors that I worked with in my first job and really think twice about my decision when I see friends and former co-workers moving on to advanced positions within the department, buying houses and having kids while I'm still not even close to being settled at now 34 YOA.
Unexpected things that I've encountered:
-training seemed to cost almost twice what I had planned for
-companies and with "less than ideal" moral direction both for training and subsequently to be employed by -this is a big one and could very well torpedo your entire effort
-long hours for very little pay as an instructor
-health insurance considerations (I hesitate to bring that up given your current profession)
-an unstable life. I know that your wife is supportive now, but do you really think that she'll put up with an unstable life for the rest of your working career? I have a friend that used to work on the same police department as me....his dream was to be a Minnesota State Trooper -one of the best law enforcement job out there- and his wife claimed that she fully supported him....the day he got the offer for a training date, she served him with papers.
-Let's face it, the market value of the services provided by pilots had significantly decreased over the last 20 years and seems to continue to be in a downward spiral. I've checked pay rate for police departments in the last few months, and it would certainly be better for a 21 year old kid to join a department given the continuously increasing salary (not so with pilots), quality of life (not so with pilots), the retirement benefits, (not so with pilots) and the job security (not so with pilots). I had hoped that this pilot shortage would drive up the value of our services, and in my area of aviation, it has, but for the regionals and the majors, it has not and is less likely to now with age 65.
-my career change has left me in a financial pickle....I had hoped to get all of my ratings without being in debt, but that didn't happen, and now I have a very good paying instructor job for a JAA school and can't afford to move on to the regionals to work for that upgrade carrot to work for that 1000 turbine PIC carrot to work for that "major" airline FO job carrot to work for that upgrade carrot to finally get that decent paying job....any one of which can be derailed by an ******* boss or a medical issue.
My advice is worth exactly what you're paying for it, but I wold give serious thought to keep practicing until you have many of your ducks in a row financially. Maybe pay your house off (you might have to sell it later when you get based God-knows where), get a few cars that are dependable but don't have a note, have a good start on a retirement plan in place.
Good luck!
#8
Just do it man !!
Life is short!!! You got to grab what you want while you can. Just focus on flying and let the rest of life's little details sort themselves out.
SkyHigh
What I mean is, please don't quit your Doctor Job. Being poor and abused by your employer is miserable. Your talents are better served elsewhere.
SkyHigh
What I mean is, please don't quit your Doctor Job. Being poor and abused by your employer is miserable. Your talents are better served elsewhere.
#9
New Hire
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Feb 2008
Posts: 3
I really appreciate the comments/input. Just so you all know I am not barely making the money you think I maybe making. I'm having trouble passing my boards and with that my career may end (Yes, insurance companies that you sign up with to see their patients, give you a limited time frame to become certified, otherwise they wont let you see their policyholders. As a specialist, I can't practice 'general medicine' cause you wont be able to get malpractice insurance for that. In any event, I''ll take that cold shower and wait a bit longer.
#10
As someone "making the career" change I'll tell you what's working for me. I started 4 years ago, getting ratings and building time. You have to shut off the "seniority is everything" BS and not worry about it. Especially since you're making way more money in future dollars and NOT going into debt like the "seniority is everything" crowd. i.e. I have no problem putting off the 20k a year job another year while I'm making far more.
At best I figure I'll get lucky and things will fall into place and I'll get the dream gig, at worst I can CFI part time and pay someone else to mow my lawn.
Get your private part time at an fbo, see how it works for you. I considered it 1 term of education tuition.
At best I figure I'll get lucky and things will fall into place and I'll get the dream gig, at worst I can CFI part time and pay someone else to mow my lawn.
Get your private part time at an fbo, see how it works for you. I considered it 1 term of education tuition.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
nealsapilot
Flight Schools and Training
18
04-09-2006 12:17 AM