Majors Pilot Job sat

[Tweaker]

Andy nailed it, as usual.

Do you major airline guys like your job.......
1. Is the flying still fun?

Yes, the maneuvering of the controls is. Axe me after I get A320 type in a few months.

2. Pay decent?

It is horse sh!t. I work at a barely functioning legacy after 2.5 bankrupcies. I have made a larger annual salary at age 37 exactly 1 time than all my college chums did @ their first job. I make my own things and am very frugal except when it comes to firearms purchases and all things automotive. I work overtime and had help from family to weather the not infrequent financial calamities that this industry provides since 2001. I make do, but I dress like a hobo on days off, wearing clothes until I can be seen through them or wife refuses to accompany me out of doors (when I care). I have no retirement savings or any other assets other than ammunition and homebrew stockpiles.

3. Enough time off?

Industry lowest as well. I live in base and don't bish about that. I choose jobs based on pilot bases and have been lucky in that mine were never closed. Most are not that lucky.


Getting sick of all the politics that corporate america requires to make the big bucks.

You will be very dissapoint in this regard. Considering how little direct contact you have with other crewmembers and facetime with management, it is like friggin Melrose Place. Tiny salary, tiny genitalia, gargantuan ego + a career in continuous death throws/turmoil does not make for a Bookface or Google workplace atmosphere. It seems more similar to my readings about POW camps, but with less display of human compassion or spirit of togetherness.

Seems like the good part of flying profession is that as long as you pass your checkrides, you keep your job.

If only! Do you have great big...tracts of land or any personal character at all? Be prepared to share the former and be challenged to retain the latter.

Do I wish I did something else? Not really. I had poor vision so no .mil. My poor vision continued by entering into employment at US Airways since entering Part 121. That I seriously regret.

 

[Tweaker]

Guppy won the lottery. It is ok to dream, but when your mileage varies, if you are unable to be satisfied, you will be a miserable bastige. But hey, you won't be alone!

JOIN US! The Ornsteins of the industry are looking for a few souls to devour!

 

[charlie2]

Andy nailed it, as usual.

Do you major airline guys like your job.......
1. Is the flying still fun?

Yes, the maneuvering of the controls is. Axe me after I get A320 type in a few months.

2. Pay decent?

It is horse sh!t. I work at a barely functioning legacy after 2.5 bankrupcies. I have made a larger annual salary at age 37 exactly 1 time than all my college chums did @ their first job. I make my own things and am very frugal except when it comes to firearms purchases and all things automotive. I work overtime and had help from family to weather the not infrequent financial calamities that this industry provides since 2001. I make do, but I dress like a hobo on days off, wearing clothes until I can be seen through them or wife refuses to accompany me out of doors (when I care). I have no retirement savings or any other assets other than ammunition and homebrew stockpiles.

3. Enough time off?

Industry lowest as well. I live in base and don't bish about that. I choose jobs based on pilot bases and have been lucky in that mine were never closed. Most are not that lucky.


Getting sick of all the politics that corporate america requires to make the big bucks.

You will be very dissapoint in this regard. Considering how little direct contact you have with other crewmembers and facetime with management, it is like friggin Melrose Place. Tiny salary, tiny genitalia, gargantuan ego + a career in continuous death throws/turmoil does not make for a Bookface or Google workplace atmosphere. It seems more similar to my readings about POW camps, but with less display of human compassion or spirit of togetherness.

Seems like the good part of flying profession is that as long as you pass your checkrides, you keep your job.

If only! Do you have great big...tracts of land or any personal character at all? Be prepared to share the former and be challenged to retain the latter.

Do I wish I did something else? Not really. I had poor vision so no .mil. My poor vision continued by entering into employment at US Airways since entering Part 121. That I seriously regret.

Tweaker are you my twin>

 

[grog_sit_reserv]

I worked outside of aviation before getting into 135 and 121. It has its problems. It certainly isn't what it used to be, but I have never once regretted the move.

A lot of guys here forgot what it was like to work in the real world, or maybe they never did, but I guarantee you one thing: If you want to do it, and you don't; you will regret it the rest of your life.

I made the leap that your contemplating, it sucked while I was at the regionals, and through a merger I ended up at US Airways, but even the worst day here far surpasses my old executive level job in tech.

Go for it. Prepare for the financial hit you'll take as best you can and don't settle for a Captain slot at the regionals get yourself to the majors.

To (mis)quote Braveheart:

Aye, fly and you may not have the career your dreams. Stay an MSEE and you'll live and make decent money -- at least a while. And dying in your bed many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell your corporate manager I quit! Keep your lousy job! That they may take our livelihood, but they'll never take our freedom!!!

Good luck.

 

[General Lee]

Check six,

A lot depends on when you get hired, at the beginning or end of a hiring wave. If you are lucky to get hired early, you can get through reserve quicker on a narrowbody, and try to get a better QOL sooner. But, at a Major there is always the lure of a widebody seat flying INTL routes. You can get those fairly quick, but your QOL may suffer for 3-5 years, being at the bottom of the list, doing shortcall stints that can keep you in a crashpad for days at a time in a place like NYC, far from your home possibly. The key at a Major would be "get into a plane your seniority affords (narrowbody FO) and stay there until you can be a decent line holder on a widebody."

If you can live in base too, that would make life a heck of a lot easier. You can ask around where newhires usually go at the different Majors, and then up and move for a few years to that junior base. The MRS may not like that though. If you already live in NYC or LA, that might really help.

Pay has gotten better for the junior guys at some Majors. (DL for example) First year pay is not bad ( a bit over $50 an hour), and within 3 or 4 years you can make close to $100K, but then after that the jumps seem to slow down, only giving a few extra bucks per hour each extra year, unless you do go up to a larger aircraft.

Again, if you can get hired in the beginning of a hiring wave, your life will improve faster, you will avoid reserve, and maybe get to widebody FO as a line holder sooner, and then Captain eventually as retirements increase for all Majors in the next 5 years or so. Good luck.



Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[Taco Rocket]

Too many pilots focus on dollars and cents. I suggest looking at time off relative to other jobs that pay a similar income. Hands down the pilot job wins: if you want to have a career in the "real world" you will have to work much, much harder than the actual pilot. And believe it or not: the pilot has more job security.

 

[Andy]

One of the big things that we haven't really addressed is time away from home. That can be substantial, especially if you have to commute to your job.

Your family has to be prepared for you to be gone every holiday, birthday, and special event. They have to be willing to move birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas by a couple of days to when you're home. Or just celebrate without you. Plan on missing your childrens' graduations. If you make any of those events, it's just gravy.

Can you handle living out of a suitcase, spending more nights in hotels than in your own bed? The cool part of that is free mini-shampoos/soap and pens. You will never have to buy another bar of soap.

The other piece of critical advice here is to save every freaking dime you can. I remember getting hired at United in 2000 and listen to my peers talking about their brand new houses. My only thought was didn't these morons do any historic research into the airline industry? This is a feast and famine job in terms of pay. Before buying a new car or nicer house, make sure you've got six figures in your rainy day savings account.

One last (morbidly) funny story: I went through A320 first officer upgrade in the spring of 2001. The United pilot in the room next to me was yelling in the phone at his wife one night - so loud that I could hear it even with background noise. The gist of the call was that his wife wanted to spend a month or so in Europe with the kids; they were in the process of building a house that cost a bit more than $1 million. At one point, he yelled that he bid the biggest equipment he could to make as much money as possible just to pay for the house and couldn't afford them to take a family trip to Europe. The next evening, I could hear the guy next door give in and let his wife take the trip to Europe.
That was less than 6 months before 9/11. I can only assume that the wife divorced him and he got downgraded multiple seats so that he saw his salary fall in half. And I'd bet that most of his remaining salary went to alimony and child support.
As long as your wife and family are willing to make some sacrifices, you may end up having a career like GuppyWN. I just hope that it doesn't end up as bad as Tweaker's or mine. I don't think that I would've done anything different; I'm just very lucky that I have a great (second) wife and kids. If you don't have a rock solid family support system, things will suck no matter how well your career turns out.

 

[Tweaker]

Perhaps your Mini-me, Sir Charles, but I have a bloated pot belly for now, so that's out. I ain't so mini. If you are commonly accused of intolerance by the intolerant and have a large stash of shall we say "precious metals" then we might should spend the bux on a geneology report. Or just sign up as guests on Maury.

I do agree with most of your posts, so start asking your "mom" about her whereabouts, circa 1973. Crazy times, and LSD, THC, etc. are all a helluva drug.

 

[charlie2]

Check six,

A lot depends on when you get hired, at the beginning or end of a hiring wave. If you are lucky to get hired early, you can get through reserve quicker on a narrowbody, and try to get a better QOL sooner.

Bye Bye---General Lee

He has it right...it's all about luck. If you are luckey you hold that against another professional pilot and if you are unluckey they will hold it against you...do you feel luckey punk? If you are smart you will stay in school and do someting that is more meaningfull to the world than flying someone to Wallyworld for a vacation. Study and find the cure to cancer or jump up and down about what you think you are entitled to in a merger.

 

[Tweaker]

To be clear, I am as happy as one can get, even after the repeated @n@l fistings. I just want to be clear how rough it can be. So many "nice" young boys come up mhea and get thrashed and disillusioned. I ain't nice and grew up getting bashed about by a recent immigrant from a Soviet dominated eastern block country. "I can hack it." Cowboy from Full Metal Jacket

It does bother me when people assume my job is: easy, all fun and fornication, I am an alcoholic, I am rich, and I barely work. I am proud and thankful for my journey, but I will utterly vaporize illusions about the career that this is now.

Let's all watch Pan Am!

ETA: I've had many "real jobs" and they really are as bad as you all remember or at least heard us slobs complain to you prima donnas about. My simple answer when asked if I like being a pilot - "It beats working."