Career changing
CUEBOAT said:
I'm not saying your husband is bitching I just don't understand this mid-life crisis career change . . . .
Let me try to explain. I was a career-changer to full-time aviation at age 37. I had loved airplanes and flying since I was a child, and always knew that one day I would learn how to fly. I wasn't ever sure what I wanted to be when I grew up, but an aviation career was out of the question because there were not many viable opportunities when I was 18, and I did not believe my eyesight was good enough. Also, there was no doubt that I would go to college. Although I majored in Accounting, I decided in my second year of college that I would work in broadcasting.
Broadcasting, as Timebuilder and Airpiraterob will also tell you, is not the most stable business. (It's something like aviation.) It wasn't until I was 31 before I was making enough money and felt I had enough stability to start flying. So, I did, in 1982. I just wanted to get my Private, but I found that I enjoyed it so much that I went on to get all my single-engine ratings. I got my CFI as a way to put flying on a paying basis.
As my love for flying grew my dislike for radio also grew. I felt I was young enough to start in something else, so, I figured, I should do something I really like. I had two friends who had gone on to the regionals, so, I thought, why can't I? I had a First Class Medical and a SODA for vision, so vision was not the problem I thought it was when I was younger. Kit's "pilot shortage" helped drive my enthusiasm, so I made the decision. I already had my degree and only needed my multi ratings to be ready.
It took me nearly a year to get a full-time job. After my last day in radio I bolted out the station door and did not look back. When I finally went to work as a pilot, I found myself looking forward to going to work for the first time in many years.
And that's why I changed careers.
Unfortunately, it did not go as planned. My goal was the regionals, but my timing was bad. Hiring virtually stopped. No regional wanted me, probably because they thought that I, at 40+, was too old. I was getting nowhere fast. I felt I had to move on to something else. But, not for a minute do I regret changing careers. I would have had more regrets had I not made the decision.
Sometimes, you must do what you must do.
PS-Our law office investigator brought in a CD of "In-A-Gadda-da-Vida" this week. Our new receptionist-paralegal had never heard of the group that recorded it.
