I wouldn’t be surprised if you think you’ve never been trolled on the internet before because you are incapable of picking it up.

really? now you know me? you know my capabilities now?

I mean, if someone really spent a lot of money getting their certs and ratings because they really want to fly, it’s a lot to think about. Speaking from experience, IT skills are great to have. But the job has its own kind of stress (work constantly coming home). I don’t see this as a troll post and I’ve seen what troll post look like here at APC.

Agreed. I was in a similar position as OP, albeit not yet hired by an airline. Had some very good, high paying non-flying offers on the table. Turned them down because I wanted to fly, and I hated sitting behind a desk. Happiest I have ever been was back when I was making about $70k/yr, with no responsibilities other than flying. I’ll take that over $140k at a desk any day of the week.

Even after COVID, it’s hard to walk away from flying. I learned a long time ago that money doesn’t bring me happiness, but at some point you need to pay the bills.

Best of luck to OP.

Really want fly, yes that's something to consider.

Time and money already invested.... that's sunk cost, cannot be recovered and should have no bearing on choosing the best path forward. Common mistake in any businsess/finance decision is to let emotion associated with sunk costs influence objective decision making.

Not disagreeing, but it’s not as cut and dry either. Money isn’t end all be all. My point was refuting Lonestars accusation of the OP being a troll.

If I am the OP, I take the job and I probably will not look back.

Hey OP, any suggestions on making the leap to Software from aviation? Like is a degree actually necessary, or can one of those bootcamps actually get you a job? Thinking about picking up new skills while on reserve or maybe next year if this all doesn’t get better and lots more of us get the boot.

The bootcamps may work, at least pre-covid, I'll try to remember to ask my brother about that. With bootcamp-type training you're limited to more basic, front-end work unless you REALLY have a knack for coding and self-study. That would suffice for a furlough job, if you're looking at a career change, you should probably ultimately get a degree (perhaps a masters if you can get into a program). Lots of kids were getting hired half-way through a degree program and simply dropping out at that point. For crushing code, they just want to know you can do it. For a career in software engineering, they probably want a degree.

Update: My brother says that the boot camps work best for those with prior experience, who are learning a new language. He's also a bit jaundiced, as a multi-degree professional, he's had some bad experiences with boot-camp types. Also says many of the boot camps are pretty shady, so caveat emptor.

If you’re furloughed why is the seven a question?

Boot camps are good for getting your fingers wet and learning. But what will get you going a new career of software development is the ability to demonstrate that you have a solid understanding of coding. That’s where you will have to learn it and develop something solid.

Degree will help a lot as well if you don’t have an Software development background.

There are other parts of IT industry that isn’t too difficult to get into such as Network administration. There are a ton of certs that that will open the door.