gotcha. I thought you were including the schooling.........

 

Right. Not all do. Depends on the geographic area, and if it involves litigation, etc.

 

My brother- in- law got 110K a year to start, out of college. Environmental Engineer.

 

Offshore oil rig. GED or high school required. 47K first year. Persona safety is better than your run of the mill midwestern metal product factory (as opposed to what TLC shows portray). Also, for the white collar track, petroleoum engineering, 125K fifth year. If you can stand 14 on 14 off not a bad deal at all. And they don't take work home either, they can't lol.

My fiancé works 7-5, landscape design, loves the work but doesn't take work home either. So it's not just airline pilots who get the bragging rights of not taking work home with them. If that's the upper hand, then you guys are spiking the kool-aid.

I think most people in this industry have problems reconciling the overwhelming trend that the long-term viability of an airline career is largely out of your hands (i.e. low pay versus other jobs that take you away from home, no lateral career options, inelastic labor force undercuts your income power etc) with the widespread 20th century middle class work ethic mantra of "hard work" and "persistence is valuable in it of itself" that we were all force fed as students in grade school and college. That mantra requires a set of conditions, "assumptions" if you will, to hold true in order for the "persistence" approach to work. Those who insist on pursuing an airline career with that attitude are just hitting a brick wall. Yet when then say "well it was a good run" that's just retionalizing that they were aloof to the idea that work ethic is not a guarantor of success and that there are plenty of jobs out there where you don't have to be philosophically married to the "idea" of your job in order to be successful in it. Heresy on my part!! And that honestly scares people because it strikes a blow to our self-worth when we are quiet busy lemmings and yet don't get the carrot. Look, the industry is screwed for the median, don't keep spinning your wheels calling folks like skyhigh negative, yet privately clicking your heels that the airline fairy comes to the rescue of your career or your W-2 dodges the bullet for longer than 10 years.

If I was a guy whose only access to professional flying was the regionals, man I would go do something else. Honestly. If you're unwilling to relocate to the middle east where people are actually getting paid right (and I wouldn't be willing to, my home is here) I'd just pursue something lucrative and fly on the side. Like I said before, airline pilots are not the only keepers of "not taking your work home with you" so there's jobs out there that allow you to make enough money and allow time to pursue flying recreationally or even do some instructing/niche flying (more fun) on the side. You just gotta de-construct the manufactured reality that your airline dreams will come true as a sole function of time and effort.

 

Right on. All the cool-aid drinkers on here think if you're not flying, your job sucks, and you must be stuck in a cubicle somewhere.

 

I,d fly for free !
Well almost .







Just kidding here .

 

"All the cool-aid drinkers on here think if you're not flying, your job sucks, and you must be stuck in a cubicle somewhere."

Not really. My problem is more with the people who don't fly, saying "if you are flying, your job sucks"....

My only comment to Hindsight would be that not everyone needs to make over 100K, or be an airline pilot, to be happy in life. If one is happy at 50K living in Wenatchee, WA flying Lears 300 hours a year. Who is gonna tell him it's wrong for him to be pleased with his career choice?

Skyhigh will. And that's what I have a problem with.

 

Ya know there are people who are happy with prison life. It does not make it a good idea and should not be recommended to others either.

If someone wants to make mailman wages after spending a fortune on college and flight training then that it their choice. However it does not make a lot of sense from a financial perspective.

SkyHigh

 

I make less than $50k, support myself, my wife, and putting her through another 2 yrs of college. I rent a house, have her 04' car payments, mines paid for, I own 2 motorcycles, college loan payment, and I've been on 3 small-ish vacations this year, plus already put down money on a Vegas vacation this winter. We're seriously looking at a house(about $200k+ range) in the next 9 months as we have a very nice savings that can easily be used for down-payment and what's left will supplement on the mortgage payments until she graduates in May.

It's not just about the "amount" of money you make, it's about how you spend it. I don't go buying stuff just because. Everything I buy has to be able to be paid for in short order.

So I guess that whole not making any financial sense thing must not be working for me. Then again, I don't work for an airline either, and I'm home most nights, wife just went with me last week down to FL for recurrent training, and our business has actually picked up recently.....go figure.

 

I am glad that it works out for you. Everyone has a different situation. My point is that college and flight training costs around 150K plus the lost years it takes to get there. Some could get all that for less but that is the number from my local university flight program.

50K is just not enough to justify the investment. I am glad that you are happy with it though. I however went into aviation so that I could have a better life than if I hadn't. The American dream usually includes a spouse, 2.3 kids (a stay at home parent), house, retirement and middle class lifestyle or better. It takes a lot of money to be able to support all that fully.

All things being equal, when evaluating aviation as a career choice most people who examine the costs must hold the expectation of a quick career progression to SWA or UPS after college simply top be able to afford the student loans. When the reality of the average career return is to hopefully make plumber wages one day while living in a big city then the logic stream falls apart.

It sounds like you have found a good situation for yourself. At this point if there was a similar deal that I could do in my home town that paid 50K I would probably do it. I have already blown my money and have wasted my years building experience. To those who are just starting out however it would not be a good idea to blow the money in education and training to hopefully make 50K one day.

SkyHigh