With what's going on now, is this career worth it? Will this still be a decent job in 2025? Maybe i should do dentistry

Can't go wrong with dentistry!


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I hear there might be an opening a little north of here.
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too soon?

It has always been like this, flying is a discretionary purchase. If you love to fly, you’ll sacrifice a lot, but if you don’t it’s not a good career.

Nope, you and everyone else should get out as soon as possible.

It never really was a worthwhile career. The only reason why pilots came out of the woodwork after the lost decade was because the regionals were offering sign on and retention bonuses, increased their pay to attract more applicants, rotor-transition programs, paying for atp, etc

I doubt we'll see the regionals go back to the recent hiring levels anytime in the next few years. What we will most likely see is whipsawing which leads to closures / mergers of the regionals.....neither which are good for the pilots.

It’s interesting to see the extreme nature of the change in sentiment. 3 months ago, the original question would have already generated pages of W-2 figures, comparisons to attorneys and cardiologists and days off counts.

Fundamentally, though, the change just represents the boom & bust nature of the industry. Twas always thus, nowhere more so than in the US, but it’s prevalent everywhere. When times are good, they’re great, and when they’re not, they suck.

I’d say the answer to whether the career is worth it depends on your tolerance for that volatility. In my opinion, the time to get into it is when nobody else wants to - ie soon. There’s a long lag between starting out and getting to a major. The entire industry rides in waves, so getting into any part of it at the front end gives you a good surf before the next bust.

just my 2c

My Dentist friends are mostly sitting at home right now, only taking emergency cases “in office”.

A good friend of mine is an orthopedic surgeon primarily working with sporting injuries. He’s in largely the same boat.

I think it’s fair to say that those guys’ situation is a lot more temporary than ours.. When C19 dies down, they’ll be brimming again, but the economy will still be subdued, so we won’t, unfortunately.

Chart the net income of all pro pilot careers from start to finish and compare with any other line of work. Then interview pilots who made it to the top. You will find that flying is a very low paying job unless someone else paid your way in the beginning, AND you had a hookup into the majors. Poor kids simply never make it to the top airline jobs because the rich kids are always two steps ahead. I you don't get into a good major then you would have made a lot more driving a truck. Your pilot training would have bought a nice house.