Thanks guys! Appreciate it. I will be EWR based for life since I'm from NYC...

I started college at the age of 16 and graduated at 20. I got all my ratings while attending college.. After graduating, I worked at the Blackstone group for 6 months(finance related, not flying)before leaving for a charter company(flying job)..The Gulfstream I fly now is also owned by Blackstone. The money at Blackstone was good, in the 6 months I worked there after graduation I earned 125k, ofcourse it was not a flying job. FO pay flying their Gulfstream is $120k per year so not a bad gig. You just don't fly much..

Also, I came from a poor family, my dad was a law professor in Pakistan and my mother was a Math Teacher..When they immigrated to the U.S in the 1970s, they had to start all over. My dad drove a nyc yellow cab for 25 years before starting a small food business and my mother was a stay at home mother in the states..I had a free ride at Penn so that helped(including room n board).. For flight training, I took out student loans from Penn for personal use but used them for the flight training..All in all, it worked out.

 

United was the only airline I ever wanted to fly for my entire life and the only airline I ever applied to.

 

Unicorns! Unicorns! Unicorns!

 

All 24 years of it huh?

Congrats, but my goodness it surprises me to see someone as intelligent as you flying for a living. Have you considered NASA? They are hiring astronauts.

 

Did you fly at KPNE? Hortman?

 

I know a few Wharton/Booth/Kellogg graduates, one of them being a current DAL captain who worked for one of the top consulting firms while on furlough. They all seem to spend more time in hotels and on airliners than we do. The Captain I referred to said it boiled down to the $$$$ vs time off that brought him back to DAL.

 

Hahaha, yea, all 24 years! I would have loved to have been an astronaut but those guys are much smarter than I am. How does one even become an astronaut? I thought one had to be a top graduate of the Air Force Academy or Annapolis and then a top fighter pilot in order to even be considered. If I had a chance, I would definately consider it.

 

Hey Paok, no, I did my flying at Farmingdale Airport in Long Island. I would drive home on Fridays, fly all day Saturday and Sunday then drive back to Philly Sunday nights for school on Monday. I found a very inexpensive way of getting my ratings there and that's why I went through the hassle.

 

Hey crewdawg, your friend must have been a management consultant. Those guys travel as much as airline pilots. I was in private equity, we didn't travel that much but our days at the office were very long. 7am- midnight, every day including Saturday's. We did get a free limo ride home every night and free meals. Senior guys in management consulting and private equity make $2-3 million a year easily but I don't want that lifestyle. You are literally always at work.

By senior I mean 10 years in the business..Guys who have been in private equity longer earn much much more, especially at a place like Blackstone..Management Consultants top out at about $2-3 million and then become C-level executives at the Fortune 500 companies..That seems to be the trend.

 

Sir, my hat's off to you for achieving your dream, and for choosing that path versus the temptation of $$$ for something you don't care for, and my hat's off to your folks for the values they must have instilled in you to get such a solid start. There is so much negativity on these forums its very refreshing to see someone who worked hard from a young age get a payoff out of it.