Career changing
I was 36 when I decided to change careers to aviation in 1987. I had a couple of friends who were my age whom the commuters had hired. I thought that if they could do it I could do it. I only wanted to fly for the regionals. I only wanted enough money to be comfortable and to pay my bills.
I finished my multi ratings and sent resumes to the regionals, freight, anywhere. During this time, there was a hiring boom, so, I thought I would have a chance to sneak in with 50 hours of multi. No such luck. Finally, nine months after I started applying, I landed an instructing job at ERAU in Prescott. A year and a half after that, in the summer of 1990, with about 2800 total, 630 multi, my ATP and my type, I had my first interview. During the preceding weekend, Saddam had invaded Kuwait. The economy had been slowing, though I didn't know it at the time. That, and Saddam's invasion, stopping the hiring boom.
There still was hiring and I had more interviews. I was not hired - but, my Riddle colleagues, with similar qualifications but less time, and who were no less than fifteen years younger than me, were being hired. In all, I tried for six years to get a commuter job.
I submit that my experience is not in the least bit isolated. For one thing, if it happened to me it happened to others. E.g., I have a friend who is very close to my age who interviewed at Trans States about five years ago. He was not hired. He found out that he, flat-out, was not hired at Trans States because of his
age. I have another friend, female, well-qualified, who had 135 and ditch tours experience, but was older, but still younger than me. She was not hired because of age. Run a search of this message board under "age discrimination" and you will see other examples besides the above. There are court cases that support the airlines' age discrimination practices.
Yes, there are pilots in their forties and fifties whom the airlines hire. But these generally are pilots who have been flying for years, are very well-qualified with a great deal of experience, who are finally getting their chances. It is late-life career-changers who face discrimination.
Times aren't too terribly different now from 1991. Airlines were in trouble back then and stopped operating. Pan Am, Eastern and Braniff had stopped, which put a large number of well-qualified pilots on the street and in competition for precious few jobs. These days, United is in bankruptcy, Delta is reputed to be on the verge, and U is in trouble. Your student should keep that in mind as he considers his plans.
Finally, your student should bear in mind that aviation is a conservative and traditional business, with conservative and traditional institutions. Most pilots have clawed their way up, one way or another. They resent those who try to end-run the traditional process of time building by way of P-F-T, pay-for-interview and other means. P-F-Ting at Gulfstream is how some pilots try to end-run the system; be that as it may, your student, pushing forty, very well might face an uncertain future once he flies off his 250 hours. He could look into
MAPD, but it offers no ironclad promises beyond training him for his initial ratings (with no CFI).
Quite bluntly, given the current state of professional aviation, my $0.02 advice is for your student not to consider professional aviation. I would say the same thing now for someone in his/her early 30s. If he is adamant about a career change, he should look at such things as corporate, freight, 135, or career instructing. Airlines are not where it's at for older career-changers.
Good luck to your student with whatever he decides. Urge him to think about it very carefully before deciding. I realize that most people who have been on this board for a while knew right away where this was leading. Thanks for bearing with me, but, for this thread, it bore repeating.
