Kids go learn a trade....

[Fugawe]

You suggest training for a job an illegal will do. Only for 40% of fair wage. I would suggest going back to school to become either an Attorney or a Medical Doctor. These two professions have the strongest unions. They control supply / demand. Engineering, etc is best left to the H1B visa types (chinese, indians). Our government has provided an unlimited source of cheap labor. They drone on and on about our "war on terrorism", yet you can walk into this country quite easily and without an $11 / hr TSA "screener" patting you down like a criminal. Amazing what the electorate sheep are willing to accept.

DO NOT plan to work for someone else your whole life. You will if you become an MD or an Atty (most likely). I have MD friends, pharmacist friends, and lawyer friends who are bailing.

Managed care has taken the profits from the Drs. They are simply salaried workers who work whenever the HMO or PPO or hospital tells them. They're respected and get to wear their little white coats, but many hate what the medical profession has become...... a business with mgmt taking the profits, just like other businesses. If, as a Dr, you work your way to mgmt or ownership, it might be different for you -- so, why not just figure out how to be mgmt from the beginning instead of going $200,000 in debt for med school? Pharmacists are in the same predicament.

Lawyers are in a similar boat, but they can still hang a shingle and get business. Bigger firms eat them up though, so now many go with the big firms and become a salaried employee praying they can become a partner -- again, working for someone else.

Get a job that pays well, learn to invest, seek financial independence. Just having this mindset will help keep you from being trapped. Once you develop several income streams, you may no longer need your 'job' -- but keep it if you like it.

I know many dozed off reading the last paragraph. We (pilots) don't seem to be too interested in making the finances work. We'll borrow thousands of dollars to get a $20,000/yr job. We think we're smart, and perhaps we are in an airplane, but not in the biz world -- this is the reason mgmt 'owns' us.

Don't get trapped with a high-priced education that places you in a position where you're tied to a job controlled by mgmt that's profitting off of you. They love that. You be the mgmt -- if not of a company at least of your own portfolio and assets.

Either get a financial education, or someone else is going to teach it to you the hard way.

Fugawe

 

[pilotyip]

Fugawe, Great post, again dealing with the reality of the job market. Fly because you like to and this is a great job.

 

[frog_flyer]

it may not be safe to get into medicine.... what if we get canuckinized?!

pharmacuticals (sp?) is good, i know pharmacists can make 100k straight out of school. the salary is pretty flat after that.
Pharmacutical sales is good money, but they like people with backgrounds in medicine.

 

[LAMESAUCE]

pattern master,

maybe those kids want to get into a career doing what they enjoy, not merely for the big fat paychecks. i'm guessing you could get a job driving the waambulance. along with all those other posters that whine about people's radio procedures.

 

[Carl_Spackler]

True, the aviation industry ahs changed, but that doesn't mean that it's not a good career. I know that I will proobably never make $365/hr as a 747 CA, but put a few years in at a regional and you can make 70-80K. That's more than the average person and you have more days off. If someone cannot accept that, maybe they should leave the industry.

 

[FN FAL]

Optometry is another great field.

Aye! Farming is also an outstanding field.

 

[MFRskyknight]

DO NOT plan to work for someone else your whole life. You will if you become an MD or an Atty (most likely). I have MD friends, pharmacist friends, and lawyer friends who are bailing.

Managed care has taken the profits from the Drs. They are simply salaried workers who work whenever the HMO or PPO or hospital tells them. They're respected and get to wear their little white coats, but many hate what the medical profession has become...... a business with mgmt taking the profits, just like other businesses. If, as a Dr, you work your way to mgmt or ownership, it might be different for you -- so, why not just figure out how to be mgmt from the beginning instead of going $200,000 in debt for med school? Pharmacists are in the same predicament.

Lawyers are in a similar boat, but they can still hang a shingle and get business. Bigger firms eat them up though, so now many go with the big firms and become a salaried employee praying they can become a partner -- again, working for someone else.

Get a job that pays well, learn to invest, seek financial independence. Just having this mindset will help keep you from being trapped. Once you develop several income streams, you may no longer need your 'job' -- but keep it if you like it.

I know many dozed off reading the last paragraph. We (pilots) don't seem to be too interested in making the finances work. We'll borrow thousands of dollars to get a $20,000/yr job. We think we're smart, and perhaps we are in an airplane, but not in the biz world -- this is the reason mgmt 'owns' us.

Don't get trapped with a high-priced education that places you in a position where you're tied to a job controlled by mgmt that's profitting off of you. They love that. You be the mgmt -- if not of a company at least of your own portfolio and assets.

Either get a financial education, or someone else is going to teach it to you the hard way.

Fugawe

This is excellent advice, and I'm happy to say I share your mindset. I'm planning on entrepreneurship at some point, which will (hopefully) give me the means to fly my own plane for leisure, and commercially at my choice.

It's sad that for every post like this, there's a thousand of the "who do I sell my soul to for an airline job?" threads.

MFR

 

[MDAutry]

people have chosen to work for very little in our industry. It is sad but it is also a reality. Either deal with the situation and find your niche in aviation or find a niche somewhere else. Do realize that in every career there are many challenges and good jobs are not given away, they are earned.

 

[SkyBoy1981]

I don't think its going to be a "shortage", but there will be quite a bit of hiring at major airlines between now and 2010. With that being said, the pay, work rules, and benefits are becomming so poor that the profession is going to attract a whole different kind of person.

 

[cezzna]

The simple truth is America is beginning a long slide into second world status. It will take a long time, but it will happen. Post WWII we were the only game and cornered manufacturing, ingenuity, the forefront of most breakthroughs in most industry. The rest of the world is catching up. They do it cheaper because anything is a step up. As long as someone on the global economy will do it cheaper, we're going to lose. Eventually China will take the lead in technology advancement, and we'll be on the sidelines kind of like Europe. America is losing ground but the world is gaining ground.

 

[mcjohn]

What do you think should be done with all the illegal immigrants that work SOOOOO much harder than we do? (note sarcasm.) I think all the illegals make it too easy for the rich to continue getting richer and the poor to get poorer which exacerbates the idea of america being on the long slide into second world status.

 

[cezzna]

Republicans want cheap labor which equals mo money, and Democrats want cheap votes. This means illegals are here to stay.

 

[pilotyip]

America is loosing because we have fewer Math and Science graduates than we did in the 60's when the college population was 1/4 of what is now. The brains used to move to the US from overseas, now we send the work to the brains that stay home in their country. BTW skyboy it will probably attract a different person, someone who just likes to fly, and feels $100K is a decent salary for doing a job your really like.

 

[Fugawe]

What do you think should be done with all the illegal immigrants that work SOOOOO much harder than we do? (note sarcasm.) I think all the illegals make it too easy for the rich to continue getting richer and the poor to get poorer which exacerbates the idea of america being on the long slide into second world status.

First, if they're illegal, treat them as illegals.

Second, those that bitch about the 'rich' (rich is relative), either aren't rich or don't ever plan to be rich. If you want to live in mediocrity, then do nothing. If you want to live like the 'rich', then do what the rich do.

It's easy to be an average citizen and investor, just do what the average Joe does. If you don't want to be 'average', then don't do what the average do.

Fugawe

 

[Flyguy6]

Why would you come on a board wher epeople come toseekadvice and tear their dreams down? If a person has a desire to be a professional pilot why try and tear them down just because you dont like it? Not everyone is getting into it for the 100K pay. I myself am fine with $70-80K. Why berate your own profession?