I've never understood how folks in maintenance can believe that it's hard to find work turning wrenches. It isn't. Not too long ago, I found myself unexpectedly out of work, and within a day had an offer to come aboard a growing ag operation as a director of maintenance.
I fly and turn wrenches, and responded to an add for learjet pilots. As soon as they saw my resume, they told me the pilot position was filled, but they needed a DOM right away. I told them I'd rather fly, they said take it or leave it. Lear qualified pilots a dime a dozen, but folks to fill that DOM position...hard to get. And so on.
Even for a small department as DOM, typically a salary of about 50,000 is a starting point...that was my first DOM corporate salary, which also included some flying duties. Another such position was slightly less to start, at 47,500. That's equivilent to about twenty three bucks an hour based on a 40 hour work week, but I didn't see very many weeks that were less than eighty hours...often more. The pay isn't great, never has been.
But then a lot of professions are entered knowing that the cap isn't high. Aviation maintenance is no different. If it makes you feel any better, I've worked at quite a few companies where mechanics made more than the pilots. That only makes you feel better if you're a mechanic, not a pilot. Most places I've worked, I've flown and turned wrenches.
A lot of folks seem to think that the airlines should be the be-all and end-all of the job, and that ain't so. Get into restoration or repair station work, and you may find, especially if it's your own shop, that you're doing much better. How much better is up to you and the type of work you elect to do...but I certainly wouldn't discourage anyone who wants to get into aircraft maintenance. Look at it seriously and consider it in the light of day, but it's an enjoyable, honorable profession.
I do auto maintenance though I'm no auto mechanic...and I don't like doing it. I enjoy working on airplanes. I know a lot of folks that don't enjoy their work, but make more money. It's a personal decision, but I've been working on airplanes and flying them since I was a kid, and it's what I know. Working outside the industry, the money can certainly be better, but I feel as though I'm wasting talent and time, and making a big mistake. I've worked outside the industry many times when downturns left me jobless or I needed outside work to supplement my income...every time I felt strongly that I was in the wrong place, that I belonged in a hangar or a cockpit.
I still do. You must go where you're called.
) to eventually move on to bigger brighter things.
