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fam62c said:Maybe people are finally starting to do some research and figure out what they are getting themselves into. Airline flying is not the high-paying profession that it once was. Bankruptcies, retirement loss, furloughs, pay cuts, cutthroat competition etc. have changed the profession for good. Career progression is slower and flying for "the majors" is not the dream job that it once was. Don't get me wrong, it's a great career for people who really love flying and who don't want to do anything else; but for people who are just picking it from a list of majors at a school it could be a huge disappointment. I know that I made the correct choice for me but I've run into a lot of newer pilots who are very unhappy with their career choice because it's not what they thought it would be.....buyer beware. Some of these people are leaving aviation to be able to make a living. If I were looking at the career today as a young person instead of 15 years ago when I started I don't know if I would make the same choice again. The best thing that could happen to the industry from a pilot viewpoint, in my opinion, would be an honest-to-god pilot shortage at the regional level that would make pilots more valuable to employers. I don't know if we are seeing the beginnings of this or not. My guess is that the airlines will just accept new pilots with lower and lower experience levels rather than trying to make the industry attractive to people through pay, benefits and better schedules. The airlines and training schools will market the career in an overly optimistic manner and find enough young people to believe in "the dream."
Airline flying is wierd; if any other profession required the equivalent educational and training investment and offered similiar low wages nobody would go into it. Can you imagine becoming an engineer or accountant to make 20K a year and be gone from home 12-18 nights a month? Nobody would do it. I guess that people have a romantic vision of airline flying that includes glamour, status and high pay. Hopefully people are starting to figure out that the career has lost a great deal of it's lustre.