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Career Change Poll

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Mtnjam

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 18, 2004
Posts
146
How many of you guys out there have flown for a 121 Carrier and upon working there for awhile realized this isn't what it's cracked up to be and that the industry may not be for you? How many of you left? Did you come back? what did you do when you left? What was it about the 121 Carrier that you didn't like? I thought I would throw this out there and see how many people have responses...........
 
I left after 5 years at the airlines. I work for a friend now who has a growing business. I make more money, I'm home every night, and I'm much happier with my lifestyle now. I don't regret my career decisions. I had a lifelong dream to be an airline pilot and I achieved my goal. I'm proud of my accomplishments but it was time to move on. I still fly on the side and I'll never quit flying, but it will be a hobby for me as opposed to a career. The things that I didn't like about 121: Labor unrest, ALPA and the all of the infighting that it breeds, the schedule, the instablility, greedy management who lines their pockets with millions while thousands are out of work, concessions, hotel vans, dirty hotel beds, low morale. I liked most of the people I work with and I loved the actual flying itself but I grew tired of everything that goes along with it.

C425Driver
 
I 2nd that...

Starting law school next year. I have no regrets about becoming an airline pilot and would encourage others to experience it themselves. In my opinion the money is not there anymore. I know there are some great paying/QOL airline jobs out there but the long term personal and family sacrifice it takes to get to FedEx, UPS, etc. is not worth it...to me at least.

Good luck all!
 
Fantastic Adventure

Worked for two 121 carriers, the second one was going out of business, so I went corporate, lost that job in the depression of 1982. Started my own buiness while moon lighting for Uncle Sams' P-3 flying club, run it for five years, missed being around pilots and airplanes when back flying for a commuter, it went out of business in the depression of 1991, got a corp gig again, they sold their airplane in 1996, went back to a 121 cargo outfit, they went out of business in 1997. Then this fantastic job at USA Jet airlines came along, I am the luckiest SOB in the world. I am living well, doing what I want, and although I missed the really good jobs all in all in has been a real adventure and I would change very little. What is the difference between a recession and a depression, in a depression you loose your job. In a recession other people loose their jobs.
 
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I hear the 'horror' stories about the airlines and the pilots jobs; however, I'm still looking forward to being in the cockpit one day. Let me take some complaints from the jobs I've had:

Schedule sucks, management is unqualified or doesn't care about anything but their pockets, been laid off, business trips resulting in long waits for delayed flights, dirty hotel beds, death-rides in taxis, customers can't seem to stop complaining, etc. etc. almost sounds like all the complaints I hear from the pilots. I figure if I will be miserable at a company, might as well make it doing something I enjoy, instead of sitting in a cubicle all day.
 
VampyreGTX said:
I figure if I will be miserable at a company, might as well make it doing something I enjoy, instead of sitting in a cubicle all day.

I agree with all that has been said. My current "cubicle" moves along at 450kts and takes me away from the people that are important to me. Flying is fun but the nature of the career is tough on families. Why be miserable though? Lots of jobs out there that don't require you to be in one place all the time. Fire and Rescue, Emergency Services, Police Officer, School Teacher, Heating and AC or UPS Delivery etc can all get you out of a cubicle and on your own to a certain degree (what I like about a pilot job) with stability and better money than flying around in circles all day at an airline.
 
WhiteCloud said:
I agree with all that has been said. My current "cubicle" moves along at 450kts and takes me away from the people that are important to me. Flying is fun but the nature of the career is tough on families. Why be miserable though? Lots of jobs out there that don't require you to be in one place all the time. Fire and Rescue, Emergency Services, Police Officer, School Teacher, Heating and AC or UPS Delivery etc can all get you out of a cubicle and on your own to a certain degree (what I like about a pilot job) with stability and better money than flying around in circles all day at an airline.

Still, I have a co-worker and a friend that is married to a fire-fighter/paramedic. The divorce rate there is pretty high as well. Even they complain about aspects of the job. I don't think I have ever met one person that has not complained about something with a job.

Is there anything like a perfect job? Does that even exist?
 
Sometimes, in the dead of eve, when all is still, and the night flows with liquid grace around my bedroom....I wake up screaming from the still sleep fragmented recollections of what I have given for this career in the last 15 years.
I must apply all my willpower, in moments like these, not to tiptoe down to the basement and beat the skin off my face with a bicycle chain.
 
No regrets. I changed careers at 38 and it has been everything I hoped it would be and a few things that I didn't expect (some good, some not so good). My biggest disappointment has been scheduling. I simply don't understand why it's so hard to give a pilot a decent schedule and then leave them alone to go fly it. The money's decent. The time off is better than most jobs. The flying is fun. The benefits are pretty good at my company. All in all, I still like it a lot.
 

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